DEEP CHANGE

Thought For Your Day

Deep Change (Part 1)

(A Discipleship Reflection)

In the global church today, we face an urgent crisis and a desperate need.

We face the crisis of rapid spiritual deterioration and the critical need for true spiritual transformation. Yes, I do praise the Lord for the massive people-movements, the many conversions in places like India, Latin America, Africa or China today. Yet, there are many who are but “Christians” in name only.

The way of life has not changed. The moral compass has not changed. The heart has not changed. The core values have not changed. As a result, spiritual zeal may come quickly but spiritual deterioration might come even quicker. Chronic spiritual infancy becomes the norm!

As I have often reminded my friends, there are Five Truths Concerning Change –

1. People SHOULD change.

We don’t grow by chance, we grow by change.

2. People CAN change.

We are possessors of free will and are capable of change.

3. People DON’T change.

That’s the sad reality! (Jer 13:23)

4. People WON’T change.

It’s a battle of the will. People are stubbornly UNWILLING to change!

5. People SHORT-CHANGE change.

We superficially change for a moment but we return to our former state (2 Pet 2:22 ). There is NO DEEP CHANGE!

_Yes, what is needed is DEEP CHANGE!_

In his book ’City Changers’, Alan Platt notes that there is basically three dimensions of change in the Christian life: spiritual, social and cultural change.

We share a similar sentiment here. My take on this is that *Spiritual Change* is from the inside out. It is the work of God in the renewal of the heart – influencing our convictions and impacting our conduct. *Social Change* is from the outside in. It shapes activities and manages outcomes. *Cultural Change* in the Christian eco-system is when the spiritual impacts the social to transform the cultural dimension!

It is when the spiritual change is no longer an isolated event, with an individual; but an ongoing process, with a wider spiritual community.

Deep change consists of ALL three dimensions – spiritual change, social change and cultural change! We sometimes call this deep change a spiritual revival or renewal.

But here’s the thing. True _spiritual_ change is often hard to measure. And deep _cultural_ change is hard to come by. And as such, the Church often conveniently avoids deep change in these two critical dimensions and settles for superficial social changes. It’s easier. Easier to engineer. Easier to measure. Easier to bench-mark. Easier to celebrate.

We then prematurely (or rather, presumptuously) congratulate ourselves that these superficial behavioural modifications constitute deep spiritual and cultural changes!

Of course, I am all for taking baby steps in the discipleship process. We learn to celebrate small wins for encouragement as we move forward. But the problem arises when we celebrate the baby steps and settle there in our self-satisfied triumphalism – thereby truncating true spiritual growth!

One cause of this shortfall is when we reduce discipleship to a programme.

Yes, we can launch a discipleship programme, manage a programme and measure a programme. We can chart an ecclesiastical algorithm for the programme – along with a success matrix to benchmark its performance indicators – and we can even exercise some social engineering, through the instituted programme, to initiate a superficial social change.

_But you can never really change hearts and culture by mere programmes!_

And so, when we seek to move the Church ahead, _more by our programmes than by our prayers_, we might well end up domesticating God’s eternal purpose and micro-managing God’s redemptive vision! And sadly, in that transactional culture, even our prayers often become a mere programme!

We have lost the sense of passion and desperation in our prayers that Jesus calls us to: “PRAY (Gk. déomai, which emphatically means to BEG in desperation!) that the Lord of the harvest would send forth labourers to the harvest” (Luke 10:2).

Okay, enough said.

If deep change is the agenda of God, where do we go from here?

Our problem resides not in the answers we seek but in the questions we ask. For the fundamental question is not _“Where do we GO from here?”_ (a transactional, mechanical question) – but rather, _“How do we GROW from here?”_ (an organic, transformational question).

The biblical answer is coming right up in Part 2!

Have a great week ahead!

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Thought For Your Day

Deep Change (Part 2)

In response to Deep Change (Part 1), an esteemed friend wrote to me:  “That’s why I generally have a problem with merely seeking _*breakthroughs*_ in the spiritual journey, it the *_work-throughs_* that count. It great to experience a breakthrough, but what happens tomorrow? That’s where the hardwork of discipline, discipleship and deliverance (victory) happens.”

Exactly. Deep change doesn’t come merely with the _Breakthroughs_ but the _Work-Throughs!_

I wholeheartedly agree with my friend, Sam Lam. It’s a perennial shortsightedness in many leadership circles today.

At the root of this shortsightedness is a critical leadership fault-line. It centers upon the synchronistic urgencies but ignores the diachronistic contingencies.

In other words, a huge part of the problem is that Christianity has become _event-oriented_, at a point in time; rather than _process-oriented_, through time.

Such shortsighted leadership often suffers a chromatic aberration of perspective, resulting in the failure to focus aright. In our performance-driven,  programme-centered, chest-thumping triumphalism, we tend to sacrifice long-term growth for short term gains! _We ignore Deep Change_. May God help us!

So, how do we GROW from here?

The biblical answer is a fundamental one – BACK TO THE WORD! That’s NOT my thought. I can’t claim credit for it. It’s an old apostolic teaching!

*2 Timothy 3:16-17* (ESV) – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Deep Change comes in the _work-through_ of ”biblical teaching” (that which is true), ”reproof” (that which is wrong), ”correction” (how to steer back on track) and ”training in righteousness” (how to stay on track!) – so that one ”may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

That’s the anatomy of Deep Change!

The starting point for Deep Change is not human wisdom but divine revelation! So, Paul begins by describing the essential nature of the sacred Scriptures: it is divine revelation!

Without God’s revelation, we cannot change our perception and thinking. And if we cannot change our perception and thinking, we cannot change our life!

The Bible IS LIFE-CHANGING! For it’s the profound Word of God that reveals three dimensions of wisdom for our life’s pilgrimage. It unpacks for us what we really need to know about – (1) ULTIMATE REALITY (WHAT Life is all about), (2) ULTIMATE MEANING (WHY we are to live the way we are to live), and (3) ULTIMATE PURPOSE (HOW we are to live out our short earthly existence).

So, in God’s algorithm, Deep Change comes when the redeemed community KNOWS what the Bible actually says, BELIEVES what the Bible actually says and DOES what the actually says!

And for this to happen, we need at least three essentials.

We need the Holy Spirit – to guide, to enlighten and to empower us!

We need a discipleship community – as a spiritual-formation impetus – for Deep Change is NOT a ‘Lone Ranger’ affair.

And we need a personal, spiritual hunger for God’s Word – a surrender of will – in order to move from ’Knowing’ to ’Doing’. Knowing is easy, doing is hard. We too often mistakenly assume that the accumulation of knowledge brings growth.

But Deep Change comes from believing AND doing, not just from “knowing”.

James says in effect: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like” (paraphrase of James 1:22-23 in The Message).

We need to grow a spiritual hunger to know, to believe and to do God’s Word. For THAT’S THE KEY TO DEEP CHANGE!

Indeed, ”knowing God’s Word” is the _breakthrough_; ”believing and doing God’s Word” is the _work-through! _

Have a blessed weekend ahead!