Past Victories

     "You can't live on past victories," the conference keynote speaker told us emphatically.  "That's yesterday's news.  You need to be striving for new victories.  You can't just cling to what's already happened and expect God to be pleased with you."  He spent the next fifteen minute trying to further convince the audience of this.  We were in Honolulu, Hawaii--the most exciting location possible for this ministry conference.  I wanted to be outside exploring, not listening to this missionary rep tell me how the past was in the past.

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu.  I got this offline, but it was walking distance from our conference.

     Desire to explore Hawaii aside, I found myself inwardly rebelling against this man's speech, even as he said it.  To a point, he was right.  He spoke as a true visionary, someone always looking forward.  We need people like that to keep ministries centered, going in the right direction.  Proverbs 29:18 says, "without vision, the people perish."  I have seen churches and ministries hurting for the lack of vision.  On the other hand, I have seen people become very dismissive of what God has done to get us to where we are right now.  That isn't right either.  Isaiah 46:9-10 tell us, "Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."  Doesn't sound like God wants us to just forget the past.  What becomes of ministries when one extreme or the other is taken?  Can we strike the right balance?

     I once visited a small church in a remote desert town.  The town itself never even had 1000 people at it's height.  When I walked into this little church, I felt something was very strange.  There were all these trophies in glass cases, and plaques on the walls from different ministry events.  Several youth group Bible Bowl awards. Many ribbons and plaques from AWANA ministry over the years.  Pictures of the church's kids and youth at Bible camp.  The problem was, most of these mementos were from the 1970s and 80s (some were much older). The very newest thing I saw among this was from 1992.  I could have been a young person growing up in this church's heyday, having been a child of the 80s and an adolescent of the early 90s.  I could relate to it for that reason.  There was a world map on the wall with photographs of missionaries taped to the country where they served.  The map was very outdated (especially looking at Africa--Zambia was Northern Rhodesia, which hasn't been the case since 1964).  The pictures of the missionaries were all black and white, and clearly taken in a different era.  The Bible story books and visualized songs in the Sunday school rooms appeared to have been illustrated in the 1950's, but were in mint condition.  When I visited the adult Sunday school class, one of the men referred to the Vietnam conflict as a current event.  I had to pinch myself to see if I was in a dream, and I worried I had stepped into a time warp (I think the gentleman was referring to Afghanistan, but slipped and said Vietnam).  My red head stood out among all the white ones in the worship service (several elderly members happily pointed this out).  The praise books in the pews were copyrighted in the 80's.  Most of the songs we sang out of them that morning had been written in the 50s and 60s.  Oddly, there were about five children and even a few teenagers.  The pastor's wife--a sweet older woman who reminded me of Mrs. Claus--took the children to junior church, and had the teens helping her out as a means to disciple them as well.  Going there was something precious to me, if not confusing.  It was as if the past had been preserved.  I felt like I took a break from the present.  And yet it wasn't the same as it had actually been in the past, when those trophies had been won, when those missionaries had faithfully served on the mission field, when those camp photos were taken, when the Vietnam crisis was a current event.  What had happened?

     I believe this church went a long time with no new vision of what God was leading them to do, so they kept hanging onto past victories.  The tangible reminders of what God had done.  God working in the future was the unknown, but the past was something that could be pictured and held onto.  I'm not even criticizing all of this.  They were still being faithful, and still did have ministry going.  The pastor and his wife had a lifetime of Christian service behind them, and were still trying--with their now-limited energy--to follow the Lord's leading for the church.  There were still victories.  I have done Vacation Bible Schools in churches with absolutely no children attending on Sundays, and an older congregation who bucked any effort to step out of their comfort zone.  It is a sad thing.  It makes me think, "The glory has departed," especially when these churches had thrived in the past.

   I have seen the other extreme--the extreme the keynote speaker at the Hawaii conference was encouraging. 

     My cousin was a longtime member of one of the biggest churches in town.  They had been around for a while, but had recently built a brand-new building in an upper-class part of town.  That wasn't all they built.  They opened a Christian bookstore and a restaurant on their property.  I patronized both (the food was amazing). They started their own church sports teams.  They became their own little city, basically.  Drama (they called it "celebrative arts") became the focal point of their services, and little skits and videos took the focus over the sermon.  By my cousin's own admission, those running the celebrative arts department were spiritually immature and showy.  In the pastor's sermons, he made a lot of all or nothing statements that were quite invalidating for those of us with a different philosophy (IE: "Nobody listens to that anymore." or "Everyone's following such-and-such now."). They sang only the very latest songs.  Vacation Bible School was too traditional of a name for something as modern and cool as they were, so they called their summer program "Summer Splash" instead.  I attended a few times with my cousin (who, in fairness to her, is a very mature Christian, and loved that church, and would still be there if she hadn't moved out of state).  I was deeply offended when their skit for the day was to promote their children's ministry by mocking other ministries in town.  It was very mean-spirited and unprofessional, and used a lot of fighting words in putting others down.  I wasn't the only one offended.  I wrote a letter to the pastor about it.  He didn't reply, but his children's pastor wrote me a letter that kind of made excuses for it.  They felt children were different today than in the past, so they needed their Sunday school classes to be high tech, because kids apparently responded better to a computer than to a teacher who loves them and wants to cultivate a relationship with them.  What was the result of this ultra-contemporary church?  Well, they packed a full house, but not with mature believers.  My cousin was one of the few who really were godly.  The high tech Sunday school program failed (of course it would--kids aren't wowed by computers, they have them at home already) and had to be replaced with a more traditional curriculum (which was much more successful and well-received).  More mature believers left and joined other churches.  The bookstore and restaurant eventually folded. 

     Am I saying this church is 100% bad and wrong?  No.  No more than the little church in the desert.  Neither has compromised the truth of who Jesus is.  God can work through both, but I think both have slightly wrong priorities.  One church had no vision, and one church had only vision.  Neither one was doing what it says in Galatians 5:25, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."  We should neither stay behind nor run ahead of what God is doing.  We need to be seeking Him daily.  When attendance drops off or greatly increases, seek God and ask Him to give a glimpse of what He is doing, and what He wants from us.  Little desert church just kept doing what had worked before, and mega church followed marketing techniques to reach a certain demographic they wanted.  Neither is right.  We can't live on past victories, but we can't manufacture new ones either.  Only God gives victory (First Corinthians 15:57).  God gives the increase (First Corinthians 3:6).  Also, God is at work in times and ways we don't see.  Old doesn't mean something is irrelevant, but it also doesn't mean it's more godly.  New doesn't mean something is compromising, but it also doesn't necessarily make it the best thing.  First Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Test all things; hold fast to what is good."  In my experience, this has led to me keeping some tried and true things in place, but adding new elements as well. 

      How should we view past victories?  We should remember.  God instituted the Passover as a reminder of how the angel of death had "passed over" the houses with the blood on the doorposts, and freed them from Egypt (Exodus 12).  He had the Israelites set up stones at the Jordan River to commemorate how He led them through (Joshua 4).  He instituted Purim as a reminder of how He rescued the Jews from destruction (Eshter 9).  Even the rainbow is a reminder of God's promise (Genesis 9:13).  Our God wants us to remember.  So remember those victories.  They can encourage and strengthen us when we're low.  The impact they made still hangs in the air.  Remember the people who were saved in the past--they're still saved now, and Lord-willing, they're still serving the Lord somewhere, so the ripple effect of those past victories goes on into eternity.  Just because we're not at that same time and place doesn't mean God is done with it.  We were a part of the story.  Now He has a new victory for us.  In Isaiah 43:19, the Lord says, "I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness, and steams in the wasteland."  God is the one who brings it about--not our own planning and scheming.  It often happens in unlikely ways (IE: "streams in the wasteland"). The past victories were won by God, and He will win future victories.  Relying on a method (be it "this worked before" or "this is the new rage, It's gotta work!") won't cut it. 

     At this point, we have to answer the question, what is victory?  What is success?  For our ministries to be successful, we have to know the answer to this question ourselves.  What were those past victories?  Large numbers of people?  Financial excess?  Trophies at a Bible Bowl?  I would like to suggest that victories are won every time God has His way.  This can look differently in different situations.  Some things, we know from scripture.  For example, it is always God's will for the gospel to be given.  It is always God's will when someone receives Christ.  It is always God's will when His word is proclaimed and believed.  It is always God's will when people choose forgiveness.  It is always God's will when people resist temptation to sin.  These things are victories.  If these things are happening, victory is happening. 

    By thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.-First Corinthians 15:57