A prophetic church will always be a suffering church, a sacrificial church.” So writes Jesus Fellowship apostolic leader, Mick Haines.
“Mick Haines is dead.” I wrote these words in the back of my Bible many years ago when the Jesus Fellowship was first being formed. There was a call to surrender to Jesus fully. It was a call to “take up our cross” and live wholly for Jesus.
I’ve never been the same since that moment. It was a consecration in the manner that Jesus Himself spoke of: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much fruit” (John 12:24). Death to self has led me into fruitfulness for Jesus.
Any truly prophetic church, called by God, will tread this way of the Cross. A prophetic church will always be a suffering church, a sacrificial church – and because of this, a fruitful church.
Of course, it is not as simple as “die today, be blessed and fruitful tomorrow”. Often “taking up our cross” involves an ongoing embracing of suffering for Jesus’ sake, trusting that such suffering carries enriching power to shape us, deepening our fellowship with Him.
I had to endure scathing criticism from close family members who were highly critical of my commitment to the Jesus Fellowship.
Then there was the article opposing the church (complete with my picture) which appeared in a local newspaper just after I’d started a new teaching job. The head teacher told all the other teachers not to talk to me. One parent wrote to the mayor, who ordered an investigation into my teaching to ensure that the children weren’t getting “damaged”. The school would have loved to get rid of me, though I’d been well on the way to a deputy headship before joining the church.
I had to die to ambitions and endure the scorn. I thought, “I’m going to take up the cross and keep going”. (Three years later, when I’d been offered a job elsewhere, key educational people in the area said to the school, “We can’t lose Michael Haines; you must keep him – give him whatever he wants!” It was a vindication – a resurrection experience.)
Opposition was painful, but not as painful as betrayal. During the same time of persecution as the newspaper article, three elders left the church I was leading in Birmingham. I wept and wept over them – but came out the other side enriched and shaped by God.
Then there are the sufferings that just don’t seem to make any sense at all. In 2001, I felt the Lord telling me to give up my job and go and live in Manchester for a few months with the church there. I intended to take a brother called Adrian with me. It was my last day at the school I worked in. At twenty to nine, I had a phone call. It was Barney, my fellow-leader. “I’ve got some sad news for you – Adrian’s died”. He had had a severe asthma attack. It was a complete shock and I wept (again) – right there on the playground. But I had to carry on, learning the determination to press on through.
In the Cross, even seemingly futile griefs and set-backs can be transformed into something positive. Carrying the cross has nothing to do with being a misery guts! Living crucified means that Jesus and others are first, my heart is receiving grace and I’m thankful. The opposite is living for self, revolving around “my” problems, wallowing in self-pity – and truly being a misery guts!
Certainly, my experiences of suffering have made me more compassionate and understanding, more able to empathise with people. Just this morning, I had a call from a leader in the church – a leading couple in his region have said they’re moving out of community, they may be leaving the church. He knows I understand. I’ve been there. So I’m able to encourage him to stand firm.
As the Jesus Army, crosses feature prominently in our image. In our badges, on our jackets and vehicles, round our necks – crosses (flourescent ones at that!). This is excellent, but it must point to a reality in our lives. It is no use wearing a cross, but refusing to live crucified.
If our church is to be what she is called to be, then she must be a prophetic church which means being “crucified to the world” (Galatians 6:14), seeing the cross practically between us and our relationships with everything and everybody: my family, my work, my colleagues – and the brethren.
Despite our cross-centred image, there are areas in which we are inclined to avoid sacrificial living. Take seeking “sympathy” when we’re going though hard times – this seems innocent, but can be a cover-up for self-pity. Too much “sympathy” has taken people off the cross and away from the place that God put them, in which they would have been fruitful if they’d held on and pressed though.
There’s a lack of accountability. Do we really confess our sins to one another or hide behind vagueness? There are complaints: rather than finding more of God in our difficulties with that brother or sister, we moan about them. There are limits on our sacrifice (refusing to stay up late for a meeting, not wanting to drive people home...) Do we choose every opportunity we can to lay down our lives?
Yet if we are to be God’s prophetic church, prepared “for such a time as this” we must be made of sterner stuff. The tide is turning in the UK and it is turning away from Christianity. Secularism fights with Islam for supremacy. There will be difficult times to come for Christians. Prophetic churches will need to set a clear standard for others to rally to.
Jesus Fellowship is called to pioneer – in Christian community, in sacrifice, in enduring opposition. Bold, courageous, out front – like the early church. My passion is that we shine brightly in the UK, a beacon of light. As our sacrificial heart is strengthened, we will shine brighter and brighter.
