Student: Grant Mitchell

Student ID: C9901028

Subject: Survey of Church History - HCB101

Lecturer: John Rees

Title: Choose TWO periods from church history that, in your estimation, offer useful insights for local church ministry today.

No. Words: 1532

Due Date: Friday 23^rd July 1999 (extension permitted)

Submission Date:

The two periods from church history that this essay will examine are those of the Crusades against Islam, and the western church in the nineteenth century.

The factors leading to the Crusades were much more complicated than just a call to war against Muslims to reclaim Jerusalem. [1] Similarly, the reason that a movement occurs within a church cannot usually be simplified to a single simple explanation. Take for example the Toronto Blessing. The motivations behind this movement were varied, e.g. it would not be sufficient to say that people were simply looking for an unusual experience; it is possible that some people had different motivations, some good and some bad.

The call to the Crusades was an attempt by the papacy to unite the Latin and Greek churches against a common enemy. [2] Often the way to end arguments within the church has been to focus the attention of both sides toward a common enemy. The church should never lose sight of the common enemy of Satan, and his mission to prevent God's plans and destroy the Christian church. As we begin to focus on the real battle in the spiritual realm, some of the arguments in the physical realm will become insignificant.

The piety of the eleventh century placed great value on pilgrimages and relics. [3] The Holy Land was considered to be a relic and so its retrieval from the Muslims stemmed from a belief that Christian Europe possessed the right to defend the faith against the Muslims using military force. [4] However, Christianity's highest satisfactions are not guaranteed by possession of "special" places. [5]

Where a church building is constructed, where a group of Christians meet, is not the point of a church. Possession of places is unimportant in comparison with the formation of relationships and the saving of people's souls. The church is called to be a community of love within and without, not just a mere presence represented by a specific building.

The threat, rather than actual presence, of religious terror was enough to bias the crusaders against Islam. Often a church can feel threatened by other religions or groups, and so speak out verbally against them without concern for learning who they really are, what they need, and taking the opportunity to love them into God's kingdom.

Spiritual rewards were promised to those who participated in the Crusades, particularly the remission of penance, the forgiveness of past sins, and the promise of eternal life. The church needs to know that they are not the dispensers of God's grace - God is, through Christ. The church can be a blessing to the community they are in, but they must not use the promises of God to entice people to actions that are not a part of salvation or true mission, nor try to withhold God's promises from people as a form of punishment.

People believed that the need for a holy war was a divine calling - but the sword is never God's way to extend Christ's church. [6] Christ himself avoided becoming a political and military leader. The way the people of God will win others to the church is not through force - physical or verbal, but showing them their need for God amongst their own rebellion and rebellious world.

The papacy also issued material incentives to participate in the crusades such as immunity from taxes and debt repayment, protection of crusaders' property and families. [7] However, success in the kingdom of God cannot be measured by earthly wealth. We cannot tell people that if they become Christians that they will be blessed materially, nor can we say the same will occur if people are doing good deeds as Christians.

Revivalism swept the American and English churches. A significant revival of the church in England was the Oxford Movement. This movement was concerned with reviving reverence, piety, prayer and commitment. [8] This reflected the realisation that the church had lost some of its original passion and ideals.

The present day church needs to continue to look to the correct passions of the past, from the early New Testament church and through the ages. It is easy to become complacent and forget that the purpose of the church is to grow in maturity and reach the unsaved in the wider community.

There was also a revival of missionary crusades. However, there was a relationship between these missions and the use of missionary zeal to impose imperialistic European ideals. [9] The church today also needs to realise that they should look beyond the normal boundaries to reach the unsaved, but there needs to be care in mission work that the culture of the groups being reached is not destroyed. People need to be challenged with Christ's call in the situations they are in, not to have an external and often inappropriate culture imposed on them. Persons who respond to this challenge can then reach those who are also in their own culture.

The concern of the churches during a comparative time of peace was for justice in the social order, e.g. in a call to abolish slavery and in anti-vivisection. [10] The church can and should participate and even lead in combating social injustice in the community. Discrimination against women in the workplace and reconciliation with Australian Aboriginals are two examples that today's church can participate in. However, this should not be to the detriment of the larger mission of sharing Christ in individual lives.

The nineteenth century was a time of industrialization, and this brought with it rapid changes in society, through urbanisation and the consequent urban slums, and an increase in unemployment and crime. [11][12] Unfortunately the churches in general took no stance. It became the work of individual members to take up a cause. Consequently the inaction of the church brought internal rebellion, e.g. shown in the departure of church members to form labour unions to bring work reform, which was against the churches will. [13]

Our society is changing rapidly through technology and Americanization. Often the church is being left behind in using the changing culture to reach those people who actually live in this culture. The church needs to open its eyes to avoid becoming irrelevant to the unsaved community. If the church does not adapt to reach these groups, these groups will react against the church, or worse still, people will leave the church in genuine complaint.

Last century was a time when the churches were dominated by the concept of class - different denominations appealed to different classes. [14] This meant that the masses of the working class were unreached in many of the churches. This caused the formation of movements to reach them, such as Sunday School, Bible Society, Pleasant Sunday Afternoon and the Salvation Army. [15]

Different church denominations and groups will reach different groups, and that may be acceptable. However, we need to be careful that all the denominations are not excluding any groups in a particular area. There may be a need to form new groups or outreach programs to reach these people instead of expecting them to join an existing group that is totally foreign to them, e.g. Drug Rehabilitation Arm, English Language Classes, Youth Group, Family Support.

Unfortunately, amongst the revival of mission nationally and internationally, the church idea became confused. It was no longer a community, but an organisation of societies engaged in missionary tasks. The minister became an organisation man rather than the pastor of the local body of Christ. [16] It is vitally important today that an individual church is involved in mission in its local community and the wider world, but it must never lose the call to be a community of believers who love and care for each other as well as the unsaved.

The Crusades were a time where the fears and evils occurring in Christian Europe were projected onto Islam. We need to be careful in today's church not to do the same, (e.g. in some of Pauline Hanson's policies, and some of Fred Niles' motives): the use of unnecessary internal fears to demonise the "enemy" and so motivate people to negative action rather than love.

We must never forget that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers (Ephesians 6). The crusaders were wrong in presuming that they could undertake God's work to reclaim the Holy Land, as some see this is important for the end times. This perception can possibly be used by the misguided to continue support for the Israelite state in an attempt to make Jesus return.

The missions of the nineteenth century equated civilizing societies with bringing the saving gospel. It is true that some humane good occurred through the introduction of medicine and technology, but this "civilizing" often resulted in the destruction of indigenous culture through a spirit of conquering imperialism. We need to be aware of our motives in mission, and learn what parts of another culture are acceptable and which are not.

Differences in wealth and poverty were also accentuated, not removed, through the time of industralisation. Sometimes technological and western advance will not make people more Christ-like. For example these ideals did not prevent the First World War.

1 Robert G. Clouse, et. al., Two Kingdoms (Chicago, USA: Moody Press, 1993), 171.

2 Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 2^nd Ed. (Dallas, Texas, USA: Word, 1995), 176, 191-192.

3 Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church (Edinburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark, 1959), 219.

4 Clouse, et. al., 172.

5 Shelly, 192.

6 Ibid.

7 Tim Dowley, ed., The History of Christianity (Berkhamsted, Herts, England: Lion, 1977), 269.

8 Roland Bainton, The Penguin History of Christianity, Volume 2 (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1964), 242.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., 249.

11 Dowley, 514.

12 Bainton, 254.

13 Ibid., 256.

14 Dowley, 515.

15 Ibid., 516.

16 Ibid., 527.

 

Bibliography

Bainton, Roland.

1964 The Penguin History of Christianity, Volume 1. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.

Bainton, Roland.

1964 The Penguin History of Christianity, Volume 2. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.

Cairns, Earle E.

1981 Christianity Through The Centuries. 2^nd Rev. Ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan.

Clouse, Robert G., Perard, Richard V., Yamauchi, Edwin M.

1993 Two Kingdoms. Chicago, USA: Moody Press.

Dowley, Tim (ed.).

1977 The History of Christianity. Berkhamsted, Herts, England: Lion.

McManners, John (ed.).

1990 The Oxford History of Christianity. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Shelley, Bruce L.

1995 Church History in Plain Language. 2^nd Ed. Dallas, Texas, USA: Word.

Walker, Williston.

1959 A History of the Christian Church. Edinburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark.