The Layman – December 2002 Volume 35, Number 6 – Posted December 6, 2002

Going back to the future brings renewal On a rainy weekend in Indianapolis, a corner was turned in the struggle to return the Church to the Rock on which it was built and away from the secular, liberal, progressive zaniness that has distorted the Truth into a New Age sound bite. That corner was turned in two parts: Representatives working for renewal in nearly every mainline Protestant denomination in North America discovered that they were not alone in their efforts and, in fact, had more in common with their counterparts than originally thought. When called upon to embrace a new ecumenism rooted in classic orthodox Christianity, the nearly 700 participants – casting aside their denominational brands – stood in affirmation. World-renowned theologian Thomas C. Oden sent a paper to the Confessing The Faith Conference stating that the old ecumenism has deeply fostered the disunity of the church and that the social witness of the modern ecumenists – those who have forgotten the ancient ecumenical consensus – has been the most divisive element in modern Christianity. “They have been most divisive just at those points at which they have offended against ancient ecumenical boundaries: in permissive sexuality, relativism, political adventurism and permissivism,” he said. As we’ve all seen with the explosive growth of the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA), and with the growth of similar confessing and renewal movements in other denominations, the call to orthodoxy – of openly confessing classic Christian teaching in “good conscience without evasion or dilution” – already is resulting in a rebirth throughout the mainline denominations. Across the Church, that rebirth is being seen in revitalized worship and preaching; in creative mission initiatives; in the growth of individual piety; in active discipleship; in the increased study of Scripture; in deeper and more spiritually fulfilling prayer; in the strengthening of marriages; in healing the sexually broken; in defending the unborn; and in many other tangible ways. As the evidence of this rebirth continues to mount, we agree with a speaker who said, “We don’t need fewer reform groups, fewer renewal strategies, fewer committed leaders, fewer confessing movements. We need more.” More of this rebirth will continue the celebration of what Oden called the “providence of God that works amid the world that must now live amid the wreckage strewn in the pathway of modern ideologies. We live amid the withering form of the old-line fantasy that sold its soul to modernity. The old-line was ashamed of the call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. But the end of the elite modern old-line is the beginning of a new mainline committed to orthodox Christian teaching.”

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