CHURCH IN EXILE?

by Katrina Yassi

“How does your work day start? In the Victorian Parliament nothing gets done until the reading of the Lord’s Prayer.”

These words are from a recent article in The Age, as the Victorian State Government considered a motion to remove the Lord’s Prayer from their proceedings. The online article included a helpful link entitled: “What is The Lord’s Prayer?”

It wasn’t so long ago that debating the necessity of the Lord’s Prayer in parliament was unimaginable; still less the notion that someone living in Australia would need to google “What is the Lord’s Prayer?”

Yet this is the Australia that we as church leaders find ourselves in. Most likely we will increasingly see the Church’s role in western society shift from the centre of public life to the sidelines. So how should the Church respond to this change?

Understanding Exile

A helpful framework for church leaders is found in the motif of exile. Exile evokes tragic images of displacement from homes, loss, war, and violence. Yet exile can also speak to the spiritual and social reality Christians find themselves in this post-modern world. Edward Saïd defines exile simply as “the perilous territory of not belonging”.

Walter Brueggemann notes, “Christians only need to act and speak out of any serious conviction concerning the public claims of the gospel, and it becomes promptly evident that we are outsiders to the flow of power”.

This sobering evaluation is cause for concern and perhaps, grief. But it isn’t all bad news. In fact, this is the very environment in which the early Church was birthed, grew in, and flourished.

The biblical experience of exile offers us encouragement and inspiration. 1 Peter 2:11 reminds us that the Christian faith calls us to be “foreigners and exiles” in a broken world. In other words, we were never really supposed to belong in this world; our true home is in eternity with Jesus.

Australian pastor Mike Frost asks, “Is there some way of embracing a Christcentred faith and lifestyle that are lived tenaciously and confidently right out in the open where such a faith is not normally valued?”

Understanding Exile

The answer, of course, is yes there is. Jeremiah 29:4-7 paints a vivid picture of authentic faith in exile.

• Build and Plant - In Jeremiah 29:5, the prophet calls the people of God to build and plant in exile, away from their previous home and the life they longed for. They were called to leave behind the old context and adapt to the new. We too, as church leaders, have a calling to build and to plant in this new, strange land. The mandate is upon the church to build where we see brokenness – in families, in schools, in a digital age that sees more relational disconnectedness than we have ever witnessed before. And as we build, we need to plant. Plant seeds of hope, plant churches, send more field workers out and equip our young generation to be the next leaders in our nation.

• Do Not Decrease - We may not be able to turn back the wheels that are already in motion of a post-Christian society, but we do not need to hide our heads in the sand either. Verse 6 says, “Increase in number there; do not decrease”. Our mandate to “increase in number” continues to be urgent. We need to keep evangelism at the forefront of our ministry. We also need to encourage the next generation to engage with their community and not hide from it.

• Seek Peace - In verse 7, God commands the people to seek the peace of Babylon; not Jerusalem where they were comfortable and at home, but Babylon where they were ridiculed and outcasts. It is our mandate to seek the peace and prosperity of our cities and nation, regardless of their stance towards us. Yet the mandate doesn’t change with the popularity of the Church. I’m so often inspired and challenged by our faithful ACCI field workers who continue with their mandate, even in hostile environments.

• Remember God’s Faithfulness - The people of God have seen this before – In Babylon, in Persia and in the Roman Empire, to name a few. Time and time again, God has shown His people that there is no power on earth that can thwart the purposes of God. He has used Daniel, Esther, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Let us pray to see more leaders like them – leaders such as you and I – who will wisely navigate this season and boldly declare that the only hope for our lost world is found in an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Will you choose to be a leader who flourishes in exile?

Katrina Yassi is a Campus Pastor at Faith Christian Church in Melbourne. She is a board member for ACCI Missions and Relief.

1 Ducan Fine, “Parliament’s Paradox: Does your work day begin by reciting the Lord’s Prayer?”, The Age (July 28,2021) 2 Said, Edward, Reflections on Exile: and other Literary and Cultural Essays (London: Granata Books, 2001), 177 3 Walter Brueggemann, Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles (Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 2 4 Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group) Kindle, location 3