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What Do You Mean, "Next Day Church?"

There is a better Christian Faith coming. It will save America.

The Christian Church in the US has gone through a number of “renewals,” from the “Great Awakening” in 1730 to the more recent “Jesus Movement” and the “Charismatic Movement” in the 1960s. These are re-thinks of timeless scripture as they apply to a changing world. They have added much to the Church and done much good for America. Faithful Christians should now look to Heaven for the next renewal to build on what happened before. We may be facing a choice of either losing the culture war and being silenced, or having to win it outright and be the major voice in our culture we once were. We are losing that safe middle ground which lets us be just one voice among many. Some subjects we need to re-think to make our faith better and our voice even stronger include our place in history, the lessons of the Jews, our politics, and our place in American/Western Culture

Our Place In History

A theme central to scripture, but seldom taught in Evangelical circles I know is this; God desires a people for Himself (Genesis 22:17; Deuteronomy 26:17,18;1Samuel 12:22; Isaiah 43:21) so He can one day return and rule His world with them (1Corinthians 6:2; 1Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:10). This process of making a matured people is pictured in a number of ways. One picture is of an abandoned infant girl named Jerusalem. He saves her, raises her, she matures, then He marries her and they share His throne (Ezekiel 16:1-14, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Hebrews 12:22, 23, Revelation 21:2, 3). This process is also pictured as a mountain that grows (Daniel 2: 35,44) as a seed growing into a tree (Matthew 13:31-32), as yeast fermenting the dough (Matthew 13:33), as wheat ripening in a field (Matthew 13:24) as a house being built (Ephesians 2:22) and as a woman laboring to give birth (Galatians 4:19).

Christians believe the process which began with the Jew, now includes Gentiles (Galatians 3:29). We are the wild olive branch grafted into the ancient olive tree of Judaism (Romans 11:4). Like the Jew who came from the twelve sons of Jacob, we also grow in size from twelve Apostles to a world wide movement, but like a child who grows to be an adult, our grasp on what we believe also deepens and matures. When all of the lessons are learned, His bride made up of redeemed Jews (Revelation 7:4-8) and the redeemed from every people, tribe, tongue and nation (Revelations 5:9;7:9,10) ascends the throne with Her Lord, the world ends and a better one begins. God’s Church will one day rule the world with Him. Our most vital step now is to accept the idea we are not done. There are things yet to learn.

The Lessons of the Jew

The Jew has endured painful, long-term, hard-won lessons over a period of two thousand years from Abraham to the Christian Era to give us the Judo-Christian ethic. This means, rather than worship gods of stone, commit depraved acts with temple prostitutes, use drugs and offer up our children, life works better when a people worship a loving, just God and live righteous lives. This includes the idea of self-control before marriage, and a union between a man and a woman after that for life. Theologians call this the principle of “subsidiarity,” where choices made at the lowest common level are the most efficient way to achieve the common good.

By the time of Jesus, learning this ethic had left much of Judaism hard and bitter (Acts 28:25-27). The lessons were tough. Gentile Christians have taken that ethic and applied it to many cultures with great success. This ethic guides much of the thinking of conservative Christians today. It is rugged, time-tested, four thousand years old and it is not going away.

Our Place In the Culture

The Christian Faith often finds itself at odds with modern philosophies. Faith requires one to believe and convert. Philosophy requires that we only hear and consider. We can even accept a part of a philosophy and still be true to the basic idea of what is being offered. 

As long as Americans steal trillions of dollars from their great grandchildren and life is good in America, we can sample many shallow ideas as we see fit. Our ideas about right and wrong may change on a whim. But once the debt comes due or some other event tests our culture to its very core, those shallow ideas will often give way. A tried and true faith and ethics needs to be ready to step in.

Our Politics

In the battle between the political Left and Right, some of the ideas on the Left such as abortion and gay marriage are so bad, the American Right can now use them to hand the Left a major defeat and right wing Christians a major win. We might get prayer and the Bible back in the public schools. The good ideas on the Left, such as the rights of women, and care for poor, may then get tossed out with the bad. For Christians on the Right, the danger is going along with a return to racism or corporate greed or other sins unique to that side. However if Christians stick to scripture it is possible we will be pushed outside both camps and perhaps be the target of both. We would emerge as a third voice in the divide.

One issue deserves some comment. While the Christian faith has been good for women, we have most often not allowed women to be church leaders although some of that has changed. While scripture alone should guide us, a case can be made that we have gotten this idea wrong for a long time and we need to outgrow it. My notes on this subject are on this blog, but a few comments can be made.

When Mary knew she was pregnant with Messiah she was then inspired to see her profound place in history (Luke 1:48), even though she needed a savior like the rest of us (Luke 1:47). Jesus took direction from a woman, His mother (John 2:3-5). The verse “the head of the woman is the man” (1 Corinthians 11:3) is in the context of marriage, the “veil” worn by the woman being a symbol of marriage like a wedding ring is today. It does not mean all women submit to all men. 

Even the command for the wife to submit to her husband is in the context that Christians submit to each other (Ephesians 5:21, 22) as equals. The husband breaks the tie if both can’t agree, in part because he is the first to “give his life” when needed (Ephesians 5:25). The Apostle John wrote to a woman church leader in 2 John and mentioned a second woman leader at the end of his epistle. Man and woman shared rule of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:27, 28). Messiah and His bride will share the throne of Heaven (Revelation 21:9,10). There is ample scripture to support females ruling with males. 

Our Place in American/Western Culture

Jesus wants His people to be one (John 17:21). Attempts at getting diverse, Christian groups to work together have not gone well, although the current, hostile culture is pushing conservative groups that way. The best way to unite them is to bring back the term “Apostle.” Each group could find in their midst those who plant churches (Acts 13, 14), set up their leaders (Acts 14:23) and oversee their growth (Acts 15:36; Ephesians 4:16) as did the Apostle Paul. They would also have to be faithful to the scriptures, meet the standard of being an “elder” (1Peter 5:1; Titus 1:6-9) and know “present truth” (2 Peter 1:12 KJV) or what God is saying to His people now. A council of Apostles could then be formed as described in the Book of Acts (Acts 15:6-31). This would allow Christians to remain diverse yet work together as a whole. A nation that divides needs to see a church that unites.

The Proverbs of Solomon are a far greater resource for our times than we know. Solomon’s Proverbs tells us to “love wisdom” (Proverbs 4:5, 6) so they are a “philosophy” (Web Dict, Grk: philo-love; sophos-wisdom) and his “Wisdom” is better than Humanism, Post Modernism, Socialism, Feminism, Liberalism, Conservatism and all the others (1Kings 3:10-12). At the core of his wisdom is the idea we make life good by doing right (Proverbs 1:3). This “Wisdom” changed the basic way people thought. It got into the “DNA” of his kingdom and produced a blessed peace or “Shalom” rising to his board of regents (1Kings 10: 6-8), even though the end of Solomon’s life was marred by his having many wives. A return to the idea of knowing right from wrong is the answer that will save America. It would offer common ground between those who have faith and those who just want a good life.

If a renewed church were to teach this logic and right judgment in Sunday School, post reminders of it in church bulletins and require his wisdom of its leaders, it would:

Build on an ethic we already have.

Train us to think like kings (and queens) and run our churches better (Proverbs 8:15).

Help us to flourish (1Kings 10:8).

Help us unite with other, like-minded Christian groups.

Provide a better, common ethic both Christian and non could agree on.

It could:

Be taught in our public schools.

Supplant the flawed, harmful thinking of our culture.

Help the Christian Church win the culture war.

One way to silence faithful Christians in America would be to wait for a time of chaos and offer Christians a chance to lead American culture like it once did. Go ahead, give it a try. Let’s see who listens. If that fails, it would prove Christian ideas should stay within church walls and should not be applied to a larger, more complex, modern world. They should be seen as relics of a simpler past. Teaching the Church to lead itself better and to lead others would prepare it for the future, what ever that might be.

The idea of “Next Day Church” presents these next steps:

Dropping the idea of the any-minute “Rapture” of the Church. For God to remove His church from the earth now would mean we have reached our apex. We are the best He can do. Not true. We do some things very well, but there are some things we can do better.

The Creation of “Solomonic” Christian Churches. A “Solomonic” church would have at least twenty-five percent of its members and perhaps a third of its ruling body schooled in Solomonic logic. Most Christian churches will study an occasional book in Scripture, such as the book of John, Romans or the Revelation. Adding The Book of Proverbs to the list, and coming back to it every five years, taking maybe three months of weekly one hour classes with eighty percent attending all classes would seed those ideas into the congregation (my own Bible Study are at the bottom of this essay). It would make wisdom its common discourse and norm. Thus we would better deal with the common complaints of needless hurts and conflicts in our congregations, and help us judge rightly how best to correct them. One Barna study among unchurched adults shows that nearly four out of every ten non-churchgoing Americans (37%) said they avoid churches because of hurtful past experiences in churches or with church people. Teaching right judgement would help that. 

A “Solomonic” church would also add the basic ideas of wisdom to the standard grade school lessons on Noah and the Ark, Daniel in the lion’s den, and Jesus feeding the five thousand. It would offer training in Solomonic reason and logic to its teens. Thus we would give our children divine insight into the deceit they must face in school and college.

Solomonic churches would have a more common ground of fellowship and could form a nucleus for a larger, better Evangelical Church. In a culture prone to bitter divides, we could show how best to unite. In the end, we could say to those outside our faith, we are learning to practice our faith better. Come and join us. One could foresee 62 million Evangelical Christians now prepared to act like kings and queens. 

Good ideas like this would not stay within the walls of the Church for long. They would seep into the larger culture and allow us to further fulfill the command to be “salt and light” in the earth.

Pull the term “Apostle” off of the shelf and make use of it again. 

Women should be leaders in the church as well as men. This fulfills the promise of being equals in Christ. Some feel this would then allow "gay christians" to be leaders. This is nonsense. Being gay is a gross sin. Being a woman is not. The line between the two could not be clearer.

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Being gay is a sin with a very, very dark, violent side to it (Genesis 19). Americans are now waking up to that fact. Gay people in an honest quest for truth and freedom should be welcomed. Those who struggle with that sin need our support. Those who want to attend a Christian Church, who see no need to change and who network among the faithful, are a problem. 

None of these ideas take away from basic Christian beliefs such as salvation by faith in Christ, “not of works lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). Rather, they are meant to point us towards our next step and add more tools to our tool box. With these steps, those who would silence the Evangelical voice might then have to face a far more potent foe than before. 

Faithful Christians may soon get an easy win. There is a deeper, broader and more profound win within our reach. America can be drawn back to its Christian roots through a better, more mature Christian faith. If the faithful Christian church unites, rules itself well, helps those both inside and outside the faith to flourish and can show it is still learning, it will invite others to join and learn along with it. 

This is the win we need to think about. 

Jeff Smith

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Feb 2020, Revised May 2023