Unfinished Business

Un défi pour les croyants de baby-boomers
By Landa Cope
Monde chrétien - Mars 1999

Note de la rédaction: en Octobre 1988 lors du premier Forum de finition à Chicago, Illinois, Landa Cope challenged restless baby boomers to harness the dream of their generation and change the world for Christ during their mid-life and retirement years. This article is adapted from her plenary speech.

En 1965, I was a first-year university student and an atheist. I gave speeches on why not to believe in the Bible. I wanted radical injustice eradicated, la corruption politique exposée, peace rather than war. We wanted materialistic values to be replaced by something meaningful.

Nous avons eu un rêve que d'une génération, and our dream was that we would change our world. Time magazine told us God was dead and we were eager to fill the void. We were the largest genaration in history and we were a force to contend with.

But our dream was shattered as we wept through assassination after assassination. Shattered as we watched resignations. Shattered by idols dying of drugs. Shattered by a thousand inconsistencies between what we hoped and dreamed for and what we were actually able to accomplish.

Despair and disillusionment drove millions of our generation into the kingdom of God during the 1970s and 80s. Et, voilà, Time magazine announced the “Jesus Revolution.“ Megachurches were born. Young people excited about their new found faith were dubbed Jesus freaks. Contemporary Christian music was conceived. The largest missions movement in history was launched.

Sur une mission de Dieu
Je suis venu à Christ dans 1970, not because I wanted to be a Christian but because I met the God who created the universe and had to bow to the reality of him. I have always been a reluctant Christian, but an eager believer. And after nearly 30 années de missions, I still am. I had seen what the radicals of my generation could not produce. I had seen what didn’t work. When I came into the kingdom of God, Je pensais que, «Maintenant, Jésus et moi sommes la majorité et nous allons changer notre monde."

Le rêve de notre génération - un rêve donné naissance dans le cœur de Dieu - était de changer notre monde, pour en faire un meilleur endroit où vivre, to make truth reign. (Même quand nous ne savons pas ce qu'est la vérité était, C'était notre rêve.) God birthed our dream for justice, équité, paix, qualité de vie, vérité et le sens pas si nous pouvions simplement espérer atteindre les, but so we could bring them into existence. It is our destiny to change our world!

And we have changed it. Never has the church been larger. Never has it been more diverse. But our dream has never been to be the largest or the most diverse. If that were our dream, we would enjoy the last part of our lives and relinquish the unfinished task of world evangelism to another generation. Our dream was to change the world, but we’re not satisfied. We’re not satisfied because we have not yet seen our dream fulfilled.

J'ai vu des hommes et des femmes de Dieu en beaucoup plus petit nombre historique des modifications; they evoke change so powerful even non-Christians noticed. The United States calls itself a Christian nation, mais ce pays n'a jamais été aussi immoral, matérialiste, violent and unjust. The church in America has never poured more energy and prayer into any single issue than abortion. And what have we accomplished? Eh bien, we have family values as a political platform. But what I want to know is, dont les valeurs familiales? Statistics show that Christian families are ending in divorce at the same rate as non-Christian families. And we have imparted our “values“ to other nations.

Potentiel non-atteints
We claim a large percentage of Africa has been evangelized. However most African nations – Malawi, Rwanda, Ouganda, La Namibie et le Ghana, to name a few – did not change for the better even with the arrival of Christianity. Each of these nations remains diseased, violent, injuste et dévasté.

Sommes-nous pas conscients que nous avons des mots sans valeur? We’re a big generation, Dieu soit loué, but we’re not deep. We may have the largest church in history, but may also be the weakest and least effective church the world has ever known. Comment cela peut-il être? Does the gospel have no teeth? Où est le tangible, preuve visible que le Christ fait dans nos vies, maisons, communautés, les villes et les nations? How can the fruit of the largest church in the history of the world be so minuscule?

Comment pouvons-nous dire que c'est la façon dont le royaume est? Every Sunday we pray, "Que ton règne vienne, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“ Then most of us go home and say, "Jésus, venez vite parce que c'est salissant ici-bas ".

It is way past time to transform the church. We must see local churches demonstrating the truth that empowers believers to see their lives changed, pour ne pas parler de garder les familles ensemble, but to see the revelation that keeps families together. God wants us to tell a generation of Xers and Busters, qui ont une peur bleue de mariage: “Here is what God’s plan was and here’s how to see it restored. Here’s what we didn’t know before, mais ce que nous savons maintenant. "

Réaliser notre rêve
Our dream was to change our world and we are not satisfied. We are not satisfied because as a generation we have not fully inherited our dream. We are not finished yet, and God is not finished with us. When Joseph was 17, he thought he knew how to inherit the vision. By the time he was 30, he realized he knew nothing and was almost ready. When he was 37, il a vu la vision de Dieu a accompli par lui.

We are just about ready as a generation to inherit some of the promises we made when we were 17. We are just about at the end of our tether and ready to say, «Dieu, nous sommes le plus grand groupe de chrétiens dans l'histoire, et nous n'avons pas la moindre idée!"

We are also a generation that could lose it’s promise. Israel did. God promised them a nation, but they didn’t have a big enouch concept of God or a great enough faith. They said, “No.“ And it took 40 years for the next generation to be prepared. Can you imagine what will happen if we drop the torch now? If we turn our backs on God’s destiny for this generation, il peut être 40 ans jusqu'à ce que la prochaine génération est prête à même de commencer! Where will our world be then? This is not about us; this is about God. It was not Israel’s dream to have a nation; it was God’s dream. It is not our dream to change our world; C'est le rêve de Dieu a planté en nous.

Il nous est commandé non seulement d'atteindre toutes les nations, but to disciple the nations – to turn our world upside down as the apostles did. The Roman Empire, le plus grand royaume de sa journée, was totally transformed by the lives of these early believers. We’re called to get back the dream we had as teenagers, parce que c'était le rêve de Dieu pour nous comme une génération.

Stand and Deliver
You are not too old. You are not too late. You are just right. Moses was 80 ans quand il a commencé! Now is the time for the baby boomer church to begin expressing its creativity and wisdom. Now is the time for a radical church to rise up and say, «Nous allons savoir comment exercer une influence serviteur de nos communautés et les nations."

You are on a misison from God. It is a mission yet unknown in the world that we live in. God is not calling us to join things. He’s calling us to change things. And missions needs to be changed. We are reaching the lost, but we are not discipling them as is evidenced in their lives and communities. God said to proclaim the gospel to all creation and disciple all nations. We need to see mission not only as proclaiming, but also as discipling. And we can begin right where you are. I don’t know if you’ll be led overseas. Jesus wasn’t. But you still have a mission. And your mission is not yet fulfilled.

We’re not finished yet. We’re not even close. But we have to fight to give fire to the dream. We have to let this fire spark into flame what we thought we lost forever. Because it’s not too late, he’s still working and he’s been expecting you. You have unfinished business.

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Landa Cope, Doyen fondateur de notre Ordre des Communications, Université des Nations, un ministère de la Jeunesse en Mission, parle souvent sur des disciples des nations.