The Triumphant Church: What Happens when Ordinary People Are Empowered by an Extraordinary God

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The Destiny before Us

Like most church-going kids who grew up in the baby boomer generation and Generation X, I spent most Sunday nights under a church pew. Those nights consisted of racing Hot Wheels cars, coloring, and eventually falling asleep—all while melodic hymns of praise and fiery preaching filled the sanctuary where we were gathered. As engaged as I was with life as I knew it under the pew, the sounds of singing and preaching are my most vivid memories of growing up in a Pentecostal church. Though they should have just been background noise to a young child, they captivated my attention.

One specific service has always stood out in my mind. I couldn’t have been older than six years old. It was our church’s annual Watchnight service, and I was determined to stay awake long enough to witness the custom of foot washing and watch as our church family celebrated communion. As with most evangelicals, especially within the charismatic and Pentecostal circles, Watchnight was always a good service. We’d celebrate all the Lord had done for us in the previous year and worship in anticipation for what he was going to do in the upcoming year. It was always one of our favorite celebrations, and a celebration it was!

I fought sleep and did everything I could to stay awake. I eventually succumbed to sleep, but not before the voice of the speaker for that evening, Pastor Rick Wyser, rang in my ears and stayed in my heart. His Scripture for the evening came from Matthew 16:18, and his voice thundered with passion, The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church! He said this phrase over and over and over again, The gates of hell shall not—they cannot, and they will not—prevail against the church! I fell asleep to those words.

More than three decades have passed since I heard those words for the first time, yet they still ring in my spirit. When I read or hear that passage, my mind goes back to that night service in Addison, Illinois, where as a child I first heard that prophetic and victorious proclamation: The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

I’ve found those words to be precisely true. The church, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone and the foundation, the door and the path, the head and groom, has stood the test of time. Hell has tried to rise against it, and it surely has gone through its vexing and trying times, yet the church still stands as a testament to the everlasting truth that what God promises, God fulfills.

Modern-Day Church

When I was growing up during the eighties, the church placed a tremendous emphasis on teaching and preaching the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The emphasis went beyond teaching and preaching; it was even in our songs and featured on television programs and movies. I think anyone who grew up between the seventies and the early nineties remembers the emphasis I’m talking about. We preached about the Second Coming, we sang about the Second Coming, and we were expectant for the Second Coming. We believed that soon and very soon, at any moment, the trumpet was going to sound, and we would meet those who had already passed away and be caught up to heaven. We were going to see the King!

Movies like Thief in the Night were made and literally scared people into salvation. I say this jokingly of course, but if you couldn’t walk in salvation through the joy of the Lord, we were going to make sure you were saved by the fear of the Lord. It’s true we should always be ready for the coming of the Lord, but there was just an extra emphasis about being ready and an understanding that you didn’t want to be left behind. If you weren’t living for the Lord the way you should, there was that small voice in your mind that would remind you, Jesus is coming! We were living in perpetual expectation that Jesus Christ was going to come back for his church at any given moment.

We were hyper-focused on evangelism lest anyone be left behind. We were intently focused on making disciples and winning the lost. That focus is still at the core of our church, but over the last decade or so a considerable amount of introspection has occurred within the body of Christ as to who we are. While reflection is good, it has also caused us to become very critical of ourselves. I think we saw—or at least we thought we saw, wrinkles and blemishes that maybe weren’t or aren’t as bad as we initially perceived them to be. But when you stare at anything long enough, it seems to grow before your eyes. These perceived blemishes led many leaders in the church to question the strength and health of the church in our day. Many openly spoke against it and cried out over the evil and lethargy that they were convinced were widespread in the church.

Even today some are fearful of the church; they’re unsure and uncomfortable about what’s going to happen in the twenty-first century. While the baton has been passed, it seems to have been more reluctantly handed over than passed. Some have been anxious to let go because of their concern over what the church may become.

I understand those concerns. There are surely things to be concerned about, yet I also ask you, when has an older generation not had concerns about their succeeding generation? There is a perpetual cry within the church body and the secular society for the old days. We become nostalgic for what we had or how things were. While nostalgia in itself isn’t a bad thing, getting caught up over what was surely is a bad thing. God’s Word and truth is everlasting and unchanging, but his methods and plans for carrying out his message have changed with every generation.

In these last several years it seemed like it became very popular to preach messages that did nothing more than criticize the church. Many times, I would attend a conference or a special service, and I’d hear sermons begin with the phrase, The problem with the church is … I heard this phrase often as the church became very inward-focused; all we could see or focus on were problems, faults, and shortcomings. While we brought most of these issues on ourselves, and we in no way condone our mistakes, the burning question that was in my mind at those times—and the question that must be asked today—was and is: When has the church not had problems?

What generation hasn’t had their issues? The first-century church was ravaged with issues, which you’ll read about later. As the centuries wore on, the church endured struggles within itself, fights, wars, persecution, and such. It seems that a portion of the church was involved in European conflicts, politics, and wars throughout much of the Medieval and Renaissance periods of history. As the church grew beyond Jerusalem and into the uttermost parts of the earth (as Jesus had said it would), growth brought conflict and even division. One church that began on the day of Pentecost would begin a pattern of splintering off and lead us to thousands of different denominations, networks, and affiliations—both within Catholicism and Protestantism.

Speaking specifically of the United States, if the 1930s to 1950s were the golden era of American Christianity, as many say it was, how do we reconcile that with our embarrassing history of racism and segregation during the same time period? We cherish and honor the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901, yet we are equally ashamed that the future leader of the Azusa Street revival, William Seymour, was forced to learn from outside the classroom because of the color of his skin. The church has always had serious issues to be concerned about, yet the gates of hell haven’t prevailed.

Cause for Concern?

Respected and credible ministries from the last decade have brought too many warnings for you and me to simply write these concerns off as unfounded criticism. I’m sure we have grieved the heart of God with the overemphasis on prosperity, the disregard for spiritual accountability, the departure from holiness. We asked God to do a supernatural work in us, to make us debt-free, to help us build bigger buildings, and more. And then after he did the work, some churches relegated the Holy Spirit and his manifestations to a back room or corner.

In an attempt to dissociate ourselves from scandals and some of the craziness that we found within our spiritual family, some went to the other extreme and no longer bared a resemblance to a Spirit-empowered or a Spirit-led church. Some within our ranks allowed themselves to go beyond the questioning of methods, and they questioned—or even changed—the message they once preached regarding the Holy Spirit.

A call to repentance, a warning, and a correction are in order. Rather than correct, however, at most we just criticized and complained. It became a fad to knock the church, to prophesy our demise, and to give the appearance that we were waving the proverbial white flag. While the concern bears merit, it must be weighed against Scripture. If we believe God’s Word, the increase of his government shall have no end (Isaiah 9:7), and his church will stand!

The Name of Jesus

I remember hearing Gloria Gaither recite the following words regarding our Savior. She said:

Jesus—the mere mention of his name can calm the storm, heal the broken, and raise the dead. At the name of Jesus, I’ve seen sin-hardened men melted, derelicts transformed, and the light of hope put in the eyes of a hopeless child. At the name of Jesus, hatred and bitterness turn to love and forgiveness, and arguments cease. I’ve heard a mother softly breathe His name at the bedside of a child delirious from fever, and watched as that little body grew quiet, and that fevered brow, cool. I’ve sat at the bedside of a dying saint. Her body wracked with pain, who in those final, fleeting seconds summoned her last ounce of ebbing strength, just to whisper earth’s sweetest name … Jesus. Emperors have tried to destroy it. Philosophies have tried to stamp it out. Tyrants have tried to wash it from the face of the earth with the very blood of those who claimed it. Yet it still stands. And there shall be that final day when every voice that has ever uttered a sound, every voice of Adam’s race shall rise in one mighty chorus to proclaim the name Jesus. For in that day, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is truly Lord. So you see it’s not mere chance that caused an angel one night long ago to say to a virgin maiden, His name shall be called Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).¹

It’s those same words that are used to describe the name of Jesus by Gloria Gaither that can also be used to describe the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Countless attempts have been made to de-legitimize our influence, kill our progress, and stamp out our identity, yet the gates of hell have not prevailed. We march forward, bringing the kingdom of heaven to more of the earth and accelerating the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ by doing so.

I invite you to journey with me over the following chapters as we look at this glorious, triumphant church that, while full of flaws and imperfect people, is beautifully and wonderfully made as the only vehicle that will bring humankind to salvation. We’re a mess, and we’ll admit it. We’re flawed, and we know it. But we’re still here, we’re still triumphant, and we still have a destiny before us because it was said so long ago: The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

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A Book-of-Acts Church

The message of our triumphant church was first born inside of me