A new exodus?

Major Nigel Gotobed considers the implications of embracing the ‘new thing’ God is doing

STUDY PASSAGE: ISAIAH 43:1–19

WE hear a great deal these days about the urgent call to discover the ‘new thing’ that God is doing in the Church and in the world. I echo that clarion call. God is at work. God still has a future for the Church. I do not believe God has finished with The Salvation Army, nor do I subscribe to the sentiment that our best days are behind us.

What is clearly emerging in the Church is a renewed desire to connect in new ways to a generation that has been lost to it and to God. Far too many people have little or no comprehension of what the Church is or who it exists for.

Many corps are exercising faith and becoming risk-takers for Jesus, reaching out with new initiatives such as café church, Messy Church, cinema church and prayer bunkers. These are just some of the new things being attempted.

Some centres are rediscovering the core principles that enabled their birth and growth, while remaining firmly rooted in today’s generation with all its cultures and subcultures.

This leads me to ponder this week’s study passage and the new thing mentioned there – which some commentators call the new Exodus.

As we consider these verses we need to ask ourselves if our multifaceted God asks how his children found their way home, or does he just open his outstretched arms and say: ‘Welcome’?

Put another way, is The Salvation Army in danger of losing its spiritual DNA by embracing Emerging Church principles, or might we possibly rediscover some of those core principles that enabled our glorious Movement to experience significant growth in its early days? Revival is (still) our present need! (See SASB 760.)

Embracing Emerging Church principles includes taking risks, and implementing changes wherever and whenever they are necessary. As erstwhile Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson once declared: ‘He who rejects change is the architect of decay.’

Israel was a nation facing constant upheaval and change, and yet God had redeemed its people and called them by name to be those who belong to him (43:1). It’s important that we also remember who we are, and who our God is. We too are important to God; he calls us to himself and gives us his name (v7). Therefore, when we pass through stormy waters and face fires of judgment, we will not be burnt nor will the flames set us ablaze (v2).

Isaiah reminds the Israelites that they need not be afraid: Yahweh was with them and would bring about a significant homecoming (vv5–7), such as had not been seen before or since – yet.

All God’s people will be gathered from all parts of the earth when Christ comes to rule in peace.

Not all God’s people are gifted evangelists, but all are called to be witnesses (v10; see also Isaiah 44:8; Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). We share the responsibility of being God’s witnesses. Opportunities presented on Monday mornings when colleagues ask about our weekend are God-given moments when we can speak up for the Church and witness for Christ. Through our words and through our living, others may see, and be attracted to, God. Evangelism in the workplace depends on you and me telling our story, in words and in actions.

How’s your story? Is there a new chapter waiting to be written?

In 43:14–19 Isaiah addresses this issue to the Israelites. ‘I am the Lord, your Holy One,’ he reminds them (v15); the Lord who was and is and always will be.

Theologian John Drane says that the faith of the Old Testament is ‘a dynamic living faith that always expects God to do new things’. In choosing to embrace that reality we have a greater loyalty to the future than to the past. Yes, we need to respect it and learn from it, but we cannot afford to live in it (see v18).

General John Larsson (Retired) once urged cadets not to dwell on history, but to ‘go out and make history’. Where are today’s history-makers?

The Exodus was clearly included in the former things, and the ‘new thing’ (v19) was unfolding before the Israelites’ very eyes, but many did not perceive it. Their redemption – the new Exodus – would surpass the old, for all men would be redeemed.

Perhaps we too are witnesses to a missiological reformation as we seek to embrace the new thing that is emerging among us in these days. Do you perceive it?

• Major Gotobed is Divisional Director for Evangelism, Northern

(Salvationist UK Issue Date: October 2010)