President's Message

President’s Message

by Harry G. Gardner, ‘77

I’ll Know It When I See it

“May I help you sir?” asked the assistant in the store in which I was shopping. “Are you looking for something in particular?”

“Thanks,” I replied, “I’m not sure yet, but I will know it when I see it.”

I feel that way sometimes as we talk about “Flourishing Churches”. The fact is, we do know ‘it’ when we see ‘it’ but of course ‘it’ does depend on what we are observing when we are looking.

In 2002, we attended the Baptist World Alliance meetings in Seoul, South Korea. As part of the experience we visited various churches. I won’t forget the night we stepped off the bus to attend a prayer meeting and I could hear what sounded like humming. We quickly realized that, while we were still at a distance from the gathering of 25,000, the humming was the sound of voices lifted in prayer. A marker of the flourishing South Korean church has been prayer.

I also recall our visit to a small rural church in Brazil. Poverty did not prevent expressions of generosity and hospitality as they gathered to worship and share with one another. Later, we walked to the home of an elderly woman, the ‘mother’ of the church who was ill. Children sat on the window sills of the crowded house as the Lord’s Supper was shared with her amidst the singing and praying. Here in this poor village the church was flourishing.

Whether in the slums of Kibera, Kenya, or Sao Paulo, Brazil, or the heart of Mexico City, or the Baptist Church

in Jerusalem, I have seen flourishing churches. In a small congregation on the North Mountain of the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, or in the urban heart of Saint John, New Brunswick, I have seen flourishing congregations, and have been caught up in their love of God and their neighbours.

Churches can define “flourishing” in different ways. In the early 1990s, flourishing churches were defined by the controversial church growth movement. With a heart for global evangelization, pragmatism seemed to rule the thinking with the promotion of the homogeneous unit principle - forgetting the biblical picture of gathering of all kinds of people in one church bonded through the Lordship of Christ.

Other helpful movements in this generation have prophesied to the western church about flourishing. Emphases on church health, small group ministry, integral local and international mission and need-focused evangelism as well as renewal focused on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, have all been highlighted as integral to vibrancy in the ministry of churches.

Recently, I heard the heart cry of a young married man who is seeking to follow Christ. He said, “I am looking for a church and people ’to do life with’.”

In His commission, Jesus said that we are to make disciples of all the peoples and to teach them. He commanded that we love God and love our neighbours.

Each church, in its context, is called to worship God, whom we have come to know fully in Jesus Christ, and to have

fellowship with one another, to be taught the Word of God, to evangelize, and to serve. Ah…but how?

I have seen evidence of flourishing churches when these things are done in the context of genuine hospitality - when mission is rooted in loving service and where evangelism emerges from a commitment to justice.

Churches flourish when the Lordship of Jesus Christ is paramount, and we are brave enough ‘to do’ life together. The depth of hospitality and welcome to others inside the church to those we serve in the world will wonderfully demonstrate the love of God.

“I will know it when I see it!”

This edition of ADC Today will help you see it, too.

Dr. Harry Gardner is the President and the Abner J. Langley and Harold L. Mitton Professor of Church Leadership of Acadia Divinity College, and the Dean of Theology of Acadia University.

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