FOREWORD

"The local church is the hope of the world."  

Those are the very first words from Bill Hybels' foreword to Reveal. So far, so good. We're on the same page, Pastor Hybels.

Three of our favorite "proof texts" at 9Marks are Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12, and Ephesians 3:10 ("…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places").

The church is the hope of the world because God intends for the church to show the world what he looks like: holy, loving, merciful, united, and, in these things, changed, different, distinct—God like, Son like!

Hybels goes on to express his shock that his church was not growing spiritually like he thought it was. Then he writes,

"As if that weren't bad enough, they said this wasn't just their opinion. It was based on scientific research. Ouch."

Based on scientific research? I confess that sentence makes me nervous. Because I fear science? Of course not. I'm blogging. Science had a little something to do with blogging. Because science and religion are opposed? Of course not. God created science.

I guess I have questions about how much a religion of the heart like Christianity can be measured by the social "sciences." Christians and ministers aren't to look to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen (2 Cor. 4:18). Did Jeremiah's preaching yield repentance and growth? In most cases, no. Did Steven's ministry in Acts 7 show immediate fruit? Hardly. Did Judas look just like all the other disciples? For a while. In fact, they trusted him with the money!

More than all that, who can presume to peer into the mind of God and know what he's doing (Deut. 29:29; Rom. 11:33-34)? In any given church or nation, is he hardening? Softening? Preparing for revival? Preparing for judgment?

Hybels continues:

"What you hold in your hands has revolutionized the way I look at the role of the local church."

A revolution. Think about what that is. It's a complete change. It's a toppling of one regime for another. One worldview for another. From monarchy to democracy. From slavery to freedom. What is the revolution Reveal is going to offer? We get a hint in the last sentence of the same paragraph:

"[Reveal] is causing me to see clearly that the church and its myriad of programs have taken on too much of the responsibility for people's spiritual growth."

It's not clear to me what that sentence means. Is he saying the church isn't the hope of the world—that it just needs to get out of the way? Is he saying that the church simply needs to rejig itself to better serve its members?

These are some of the questions I have going in: How can you quantify the unseen? What's the role of the church? Is Reveal really going to offer us a revolution?