The Church Must First Repent

In evangelical circles today the word “evangelism” is on everyone’s lips. It is the theme of conventions, conferences, symposiums, panel discussions, books, articles, and sermons. Experts and specialists brief us on new and better ways to reach twentieth-century man.

All agree that evangelism is the main business of the Church. It has often been pointed out that to say the Church should major on evangelism is like saying railroads should major on transportation. Thank God for every evangelist, for the crowds that turn out to hear the Gospel, for every soul won. There is always a backwash of blessing to the Church from even a limited evangelism.

But the top item on the agenda today must be renewal within the Church itself. We are trying hard to evangelize with an unawakened and undedicated church. We stretch our tent pegs far out, but the center pole is unsteady. Where is the prophet among the priests who will call the Church to repentance? In the message of Christ to the churches in Revelation, there is the repeated command, “Repent.” That word remains in force, and repentance will be our duty until he presents to himself “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”

To repent means more than merely to change one’s opinion. Repentance means a change of one’s whole inner attitude and involves confession of sin, renunciation and restitution, separation from the world, submission to the Lordship of Christ, and the filling of the Spirit. These in turn produce witnessing, faithfulness in all forms of stewardship, godly living in home and business and society.

For years I have gone up and down the country calling churches to repentance. Sometimes the work is discouraging, and I am tempted to ask, “What’s the use?” Sometimes it seems as if most church members couldn’t care less about getting right with God and men. But I stay with this ministry because as goes the local church, so goes the whole program of God.

Some urge us to bypass the Church and get on with evangelism through other means. The Church is too slow, they say, and out of step with the times.

Outwardly splendid as of old;

Inwardly sparkless, void and cold,

Her force and fire all spent and gone,

Like the dead moon she still lives on.

But our Lord’s last message to the Church was to seven local fellowships, and it sets a pattern for all subsequent time. Although other organizations and movements may supplement the work of the local church, they can never take its place. God uses the irregular, but only to feed back into the regular.

Others are saying that we should not call attention to the faults of the Church but rather should emphasize the righteousness of Christ. Certainly we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; he is our righteousness. But that righteousness should be in us as well as upon us. Our Lord commended the faithful few in Sardis who had not defiled their garments. Certainly we should magnify the grace of God; but grace teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live sober, righteous, and godly lives. Certainly we should rejoice in the promises of God; but, having these promises, we should cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Certainly the Lord knows those who are his; but they are exhorted to depart from iniquity.

Little effort is being made to call the churches to repentance, and the reason is not hard to find. People like to go to great religious gatherings where they can lose themselves in the crowd and take no offense at plain preaching. But let a minister stand in a local church where everyone knows everyone else and call deacons, choir members, and Sunday school teachers to repentance and he will need to remember the words of Joseph Parker: “The man who preaches repentance sets himself against his age and will be mercilessly battered by the age whose moral tone he challenges. There is but one end for such a man, ‘off with his head!’ You had better not preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven.”

To call the Church to repentance might mean disturbing some prominent members and large contributors who use the church as a status symbol and are not even remotely interested in dedicated living. Some excuse their refusal to touch the status quo by saying, “Things could be worse.” But things could also be much better.

Some say that the Church will not repent and so we might as well go ahead and do the best we can with things as they are. It may be that Laodicea will not repent and that our Lord will spew institutional Christianity out of his mouth. But until he does, his word to Laodicea is, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” We must call the Church to repentance. The first three chapters of Revelation set before us a clinic where churches need to go for periodic check-ups.

And we must begin at Jerusalem. A woman who had entered politics and was running for office rushed in one day to say to her husband, “We’re going to sweep the state!” “Good,” he replied, “Why don’t you start in the living room?” We should sweep the world with the Gospel, but we need to start where we live.

Spiritual renewal, like judgment, must begin at the house of God. Why are we so slow to admit this, so reluctant to do anything about it? Repentance and revival within the Church must precede effective evangelism.

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