Colson: It is time for Christian leaders
to raise up and defend the faith
By Carmen Fowler and Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, November 16, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – “The call on the church is urgent. The church needs serious pastors more than ever before. We desperately need people who will speak out and give us leadership and direction. The troops in the field are hungry for leadership. It is serious calling,” Charles (Chuck) Colson told those attending the 2009 National Conference on Christian Apologetics.
Charles Colson’s latest book is The Faith. For more information On Colson or the Christian worldview, visit the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
The two-day conference, “Apologetics and the Local Church,” was sponsored by Southern Evangelical Seminary Nov. 13-14 in Charlotte.
Colson is founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims and their families. Himself a convicted felon and former prison inmate, Colson also is a former politico and arguably the most well-known Christian apologist in America today. Colson hosts a national radio show called Breakpoint and is a prolific writer whose newest book is entitled The Faith.
Colson likened the call to pastoral ministry today to that of a sergeant preparing to lead men into battle. When he was a Marine, Colson had 50 men who served under him. He spoke of the extra time he spent studying and preparing to lead them, and of not being able to sleep at night because he knew those 50 lives were in his hands.
“If you do that because you’re going into combat,” he asked the group, “why aren’t we doing that in the Church? We hold the eternal destiny of people in our hands.”
Non-Christians are looking at us, he said, “judging Christianity from what they see in us. That ought to keep us awake at night.”
And it is not just the eternal destiny of people in our hands, according to Colson. “We have in our hands today the impact that Christianity can make in our society, at a time when our society desperately needs it.”
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Colson then quoted Spurgeon, “we tremble lest we should mistake or misunderstand the Word. To preach the whole truth is an awful charge.” Colson then told his audience, “The desperate requirement for a Christian leader is to recognize that awesome charge.”
Shifting to instruction on leadership, Colson said, “Read books on leaders, not leadership. Watch and study leaders, not principles of leadership.” The Bible, he said, has great leaders, and it speaks of the great qualities those leaders possessed.
Colson then shared that in his own life, as he has observed leaders, he has discovered two critical characteristics: Real leaders give people a vision that is bigger than themselves and the confidence to do it, and then, serve their troops
Vision
“The primary job of a leader is to give people a vision bigger than themselves,” Colson said.
“We take big things – even the kingdom of God – and we reduce it down to something we can manage. People won’t follow you if you take a small issue and want them to get involved,” Colson said. “They want to be in something that is worth giving their life for.”
“If we behave the way we are called to behave, we would change the world,” he said. “Think big about big visions for God.”
Colson said that in today’s world the church has retreated into a private version of Christianity: “It’s Jesus and me, and I am OK and I will study hard in my book.” He said that personalized environment has “no sense of the bigness of God’s vision, God’s plan, God’s Word, God’s world.”
Colson continued, “We’re giving our kids nothing but a private view and that’s not Christianity. That is not the kind of Christianity that kept the Roman Christians in the city of Rome during the plague – it is not the kind of faith that built monasteries and sent missionaries in to re-evangelize Europe – it is not the kind of faith that compelled Luther.”
He said that 82 percent of Southern Baptist young people will lose their faith in college, because they have been raised in a totally privatized – Jesus and me – environment. When they hear their professor – a person in authority, who they usually respect – teach against what they have learned in church, they tend to leave the church.
“We must break the reductionist stranglehold. Christianity is not just Jesus and me,” Colson said.
He said that Christianity is far more than Jesus Christ. He read the first several verses of John chapter 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God … ”
Colson said that “word” was a very weak translation of what the Greek translation was trying to teach. The logos was all truth that was known and could be known. In Hebrew, it was the mind of God Himself.
“How can you think about Christianity in any other way than a worldview that informs us on every single aspect of life,” he asked, adding that Christianity affects politics, music, art, science – every single aspect of life. “No worldview gives you a coherent understanding of life except the Christian worldview.”
Colson’s not worried about the atheists or Darwinists, “I am worried about us. We haven’t raised our kids well.” He said that if the children had been raised well, book publishers would not be selling millions of books on atheism and Darwinism.
To combat that reality, Colson designed his newest book, The Faith, to help people understand the basic doctrines of Christianity.
Service
The second characteristic of a leader is to “serve your troops.” Colson said that Jesus spoke of servant leaders who are the ones that put their own interest aside in favor of equipping people to do what they are called to do.
“Apologetics is central to evangelism,” Colson said. “We can’t disciple people if they don’t understand the society in which we live. Apologetics should be front and center in all seminary education.”
“Most Christians don’t understand the doctrine of the faith. Most Christians do not understand that Christianity is a worldview, so living it out is crucial,” he said.
In his final analysis, Colson said “Don’t wring you hands in despair. Despair is a sin because it denies the sovereignty of God. … We must show the world what it means to be Christian and do whatever it takes to defend the faith.”
With his walk-off, “We have a peacetime mentality in the midst of a war. It is time for us to be prepared,” the audience rose in agreement, appreciation and applause.