As a Christian community, we have recently been reminded of the need for reformation within our churches and within our own lives as followers of Jesus.* An appeal for personal and corporate reformation challenges us to ask a vital question: what kind of reformation do we need?
Some would urge us to go back to the way things used to be—old-fashioned dress codes and ancient liturgical styles. Others suggest that we should randomly discard everything from the past, like the young pastor who recently told me, “If it isn’t broken, break it.” Some of us have suffered through nihilistic reformations like that throughout our lives. So when we hear another call for reformation, we do well to ask ourselves what kind of reformation we need.
True reformation always finds its center in God and His Word—that powerful life-changing Word that Marguerite Shuster writes about in this issue. We always need to test our long held traditions and cherished opinions by the Word of God. Nonbiblical teachings and nonfunctional or dysfunctional practices need to be discarded—no matter how old they are. Reformation is not so much about old or new but rather about yielding our lives to the shaping influence of our Creator and Redeemer.
The psalmist David longed for reformation in his own life when he wrote the words to this ancient Scripture song (Ps. 51:10–12, NKJV):
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
The reformation we all need is a continued shaping of our hearts and lives in harmony with the will of God. After you read the article by Carl P. Cosaert, ask yourself this question, Who was in the greatest need of reformation in this story, the girl with pink hair or the couple who wrote the letter? Perhaps we shouldn’t even ask that question. We can easily see the need for reformation in others, but we must first hear the call for reformation ourselves, a call to allow God to shape us, to form us, so that we more fully reflect His beautiful character to all of His children.
After reading Jeremiah 18, hymn writer Adelaide Pollard gave the Lord permission to reform her life with these words that have blessed the lives of countless followers of Jesus since the day this prayer was written in 1902:
Have Thine own way, Lord!
Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter; I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
How will the Potter reform us? What will we look like after this reformation takes place? Changing may have little to do with clothing styles, hair color, or liturgical styles, and much to do with surrendering our hearts and lives to the shaping influence of God. Pollard’s prayer is so timely in a day when we long for personal and corporate reformation. I challenge you not only to listen to her testimony but to live what you hear.
Have Thine own way, Lord!
Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
Who needs that kind of reformation? We all do. Once we have given the Potter permission to commence or continue His work of shaping and reforming our lives, we can speak with credibility to those we lead. True reformation will result in a Christ-centered witness where those around us see Christ only, always, living in us.
Notes:
* See Ted N. C. Wilson, Mark A. Finley, Armando Miranda, and Jerry N. Page, “Reflections on Revival,” Ministry 83, no. 1 (January 2011): 17–19. See also Jerry N. Page, “Sleepwalkers, Awake!” Ministry 83, no.1 (January 2011): 20–22.
