15
Theses For A Modern Reformation
by Wolfgang Simson 
In 1517
Martin Luther took his now famous 95 Theses, and nailed it to a
church door at Wittenberg, Germany. The list of 95 things that
were desperately wrong in the church of his time was the catalyst
of The Reformation, and the beginning of what we now know as the
Protestant Church. In retrospect, we can see today that The
Reformation, while an important step, was a failed attempt to
completely free the church from twelve centuries of Romanization.
I believe this work by Wolfgang Simson is attuned to a cry being heard all over the World
today.
The Editor.
God is changing the Church, and that, in turn, will change the
world. Millions of Christians around the world are aware of an
imminent reformation of global proportions. They say, in effect:
"Church as we know it is preventing Church as God wants
it." A growing number of them are surprisingly hearing God
say the very same things. There is a collective new awareness of
age-old revelations, a corporate spiritual echo. In the following
"15 Theses" I will summarize a part of this, and I am
convinced that it reflects a part of what the Spirit of God is
saying to the Church today. For some, it might be the proverbial
fist-sized cloud on Elijah's sky. Others already feel the pouring
rain.
1.
Church is a Way of Life, not a series of religious
meetings.
Before they where called Christians, followers of Christ have
been called "The Way". One of the reasons was, that they
have literally found "the way to live." The nature of
Church is not reflected in a constant series of religious meetings
lead by professional clergy in holy rooms specially reserved to
experience Jesus, but in the prophetic way followers of Christ
live their everyday life in spiritually extended families as a
vivid answer to the questions society faces, at the place where it
counts most: in their homes.
2.
Time to change the system.
In aligning itself to the religious patterns of the day, the
historic Orthodox Church after Constantine in the 4th century AD
adopted a religious system which was in essence Old Testament,
complete with priests, altar, a Christian temple (cathedral),
frankincense and a Jewish, synagogue-style worship pattern. The
Roman Catholic Church went on to canonize the system. Luther did
reform the content of the gospel, but left the outer forms of
"church" remarkably untouched; the Free-Churches freed
the system from the State, the Baptists then baptized it, the
Quakers dry-cleaned it, the Salvation Army put it into a uniform,
the Pentecostals anointed it and the Charismatics renewed it, but
until today nobody has really changed the superstructure. It is
about time to do just that.
3. The Third Reformation.
In rediscovering the gospel of salvation by faith and grace
alone, Luther started to reform the Church through a reformation
of theology. In the 18th century through movements like the
Moravians there was a recovery of a new intimacy with God, which
led to a reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation. Now
God is touching the wineskins themselves, initiating a Third
Reformation, a reformation of structure.
4. From Church-Houses to house-churches.
Since New Testament times, there is no such thing as "a
house of God". At the cost of his life, Stephen reminded
unequivocally: God does not live in temples made by human hands.
The Church is the people of God. The Church, therefore, was and is
at home where people are at home: in ordinary houses. There, the
people of God: -Share their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit,
-Have "meatings," that is, they eat when they meet,
-They often do not even hesitate to sell private property and
share material and spiritual blessings, -Teach each other in
real-life situations how to obey God's word, dialogue - and not
professor-style, -Pray and prophesy with each other, baptize,
`lose their face' and their ego by confessing their sins,
-Regaining a new corporate identity by experiencing love,
acceptance and forgiveness.