By Randal Dick
Superintendent of missions
U.S. businesses have spent more than $10 billion getting our infrastructure ready to function past 1999.
People are struggling to be sure that they are Y2K compatible. I maintain that the concern about being compatible extends far beyond chips in computers. We should ask ourselves whether we are Y2K compliant.
Many futurists say that the church is rapidly becoming an irrelevant appendage in Western society. It is merely another life-style choice. Is that true? Are we able to effectively fulfill Christ's will in the 21st century world?
Peter Drucker, one of the best management minds of our time, maintains that all nonprofit institutions share one primary reason for existence. That is to somehow improve people's lives.
As the church, our specific contribution to society is that we work to bring people into a relationship with their loving God. However, churches can succumb to the same blindness as any secular or governmental organization.
Many today have lost sight of their reason for existence--even some in the WCG. Many churches in the West are not yet Y2K compatible and are in danger of being discarded like an old computer that was good once, but of insufficient value to justify having it around.
On Jan. 1, we will know which computers are ready for Y2K, and which are not. In one way, it would be good if the doors of all non-Y2K compatible churches automatically locked, and would not reopen until necessary measures have been taken.
Unfortunately, those churches will not suddenly cease to function at 12:01 a.m., Jan. 1. Some churches will think that because they can conduct business as usual after New Year's Day that this means they are OK. A great danger exists in this false sense of security.
Let me give you an illustration of one of the millennium bugs that threatens churches, including the WCG.
Two of the primary values of our Western society are tolerance and pluralism. These pervade all aspects of our lives from the personal all the way to the pursuit of world peace by governments.
As we become more of a global village we either increase in tolerance, or in our intolerance we fragment into war and destruction.
We use force on the Saddam Husseins or the Slobodan Milosevics of this world who would jeopardize the atmosphere of tolerance that enables us to peacefully coexist. If there is a hard and fast absolute in this world, it is that there are no absolutes.
Now consider the dilemma that this presents Christians. We believe in absolutes, and are commissioned to communicate absolutes about an absolutely perfect God. We believe that the Son of God is also absolutely perfect and that his ways are the absolute Way of Truth.
We believe that all flesh should humbly and absolutely submit to Jesus and that there is no other way to receive life. But as soon as a Christian opens his or her mouth with any of this absolute truth, he or she has committed one of the greatest transgressions possible in modern society. This particular millennium bug may not be as tangible as a bug that causes all your financial records to revert to 1900, but it is even more damaging and is real.
How can we overcome this millennium bug and be effective as a church?
First, accept the fact that this generation has an aversion to institutionalism in general and religious institutions in particular. So trying to find continually more ingenious ways of attracting people to our institutions is fighting a losing battle. Eventually we could end up like Iceland (see box, page 15), heralded as the most Christian nation on earth--yet virtually no one goes to church nor sees their Christianity as having much relevance to their daily lives.
Instead of trying to attract and convince people to join us, why don't we join them? I don't mean exchange Jesus' values in favor of society's values, but why don't we spend more of our time walking and talking and playing and working among the lost on their terms?
If they resist coming to where Christ is manifest in our gatherings, then let's take Christ to them in their world. Jesus is perfectly willing to make himself known in this way. We just have to be submitted and show up.
Many Christians would say, "That's what I do but it doesn't work." Unfortunately many well-intentioned Christians make an effort to witness to the lost without first winning the right to be heard.
We have moved into a value system that says my truth is as good as your truth. Therefore, it is a violation of society's code of conduct for one person to try to convince another to believe that they have absolute truth. When we do so, we are written off and avoided as intolerant bigots.
One of the most important fixes that will make us Y2K compliant as a church is to appreciate the fact that our job as a church is to be the church.
What do I mean by this? When we look through the Bible for our job description we find that we are expected to be a community of believers through whom Christ manifests himself to the world.
Consider ancient Israel: They were asked to be the people of God. Over and over God asked Israel to respect and obey him so that through them he might bring blessings to the nations of the earth. Israel couldn't handle such a calling, and they descended into legalism instead.
I'm not so sure the church today understands the simplicity or profundity of its calling to be the vessel through which Jesus carries out his ministry. When we become Y2K compatible Christians, we will appreciate the value of the smallest word or act that can allow Jesus to minister to a person through us.
Perhaps it will happen as God answers your prayers for someone in your neighborhood. They will be so convicted by God's intervention in their lives that they seek Christ and are saved.
Another critical Y2K compatibility requirement is that we maintain, or regain if necessary, a deep commitment to outward thinking when it comes to the gospel of Christ.
Eddie Gibbs, a professor at Fuller Seminary, said that when a church loses sight of the primacy of the Great Commission it invariably ends up in a downward spiral or self-absorption. Even our outreach can become selfish.
Sometimes the church may be deluded by the fact that its self-centered efforts take the form of self improvement. We are not immune from this disease. We become Y2K compatible when we recognize that we are commissioned and empowered to overcome the barriers that prevent God's lost loved ones around us from coming to him.
These barriers take many forms, including fear, hatred, lack of reconciliation, geographic distance or over-familiarity (like Jesus in his home town).
A healthy compatible church will be a force that overcomes barriers with the love and power of Jesus Christ. That commitment never stops as the Holy Spirit drives the church increasingly outward from where it is gathered to the whole world. Let's ensure that this part of the Body is able to be a responsive and effective instrument of Jesus as we proceed into the third millennium A.D.
In October 2000, thousands of Icelanders will gather to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Iceland becoming a Christian nation.
Iceland proclaims itself to be the most Christian nation on earth. You will run across this in books as well as in government sponsored video productions describing Iceland.
This assertion is based on the fact that every Icelander is -in the church.+ Church buildings are all over Iceland, which are supported by the government and which often contain beautiful art. In other words, their churches are national treasures.
The leader of Iceland is also the head of the Icelandic church. Yet, the same official video that called Iceland the most Christian nation on earth went on to say that few Icelanders attend church. Guidebooks point out that the nightlife of Iceland is legendary. The visitor is told that public drunkenness is normal and that he or she should be prepared for erratic and sometimes lewd behavior.
What a contrast. The nation that claims to be the most Christian nation in the world also seems proud of being one of the most amoral nations on earth.
This situation illustrates two principles that should guide us. First, the church is supposed to be a transforming force on society, not the other way around. The church in Iceland has allowed itself to be transformed by society, and has merely redefined what it means to be a Christian.
Second, Jesus, the Head of the church, is the one who determines who is a Christian, and what fruits he wants us to look for to verify his presence within us. It is deceptively easy to call upon the name of Jesus but not to worship him in spirit and truth. After all, a whole nation and a millennium of strong Christian tradition can+t be wrong + can it?
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000