Practical Steps for
Confronting the Greatest Crisis of Our Times
Interview with David Bryant of Christ NOW
Ours is a generation engulfed in crises!
Consider: international terrorism, growing economic disparities,
political gridlock, increasing racial and ethnic tensions,
disintegration of democratic alliances, cultural and moral decomposition,
health care battles, ideological tribalism, menacing environmental disruptions.
The list goes on and on.
But there’s one more, which rises above them all. Ultimately it impacts them all. It is the sobering crisis inside the nation’s churches, found within every stream of the Body of Christ. More than all the others, this crisis demands immediate attention. We must find a way to effectively confront and cure it—before it’s too late.
Otherwise, there’s every reason to believe the Gospel ministry of God’s people in the life of our nation will be overwhelmed and swallowed up by the convergence of the other crises upon us.
To explore the one hope of curing this crisis, David Bryant sat down with the senior editor of the TriStateVoice (TSV), the only Christian newspaper for NJ, CT and Metro New York City. You’ll find their conversation is relevant every single Jesus follower today.
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TSV: David, you say that many serious Christians don’t know how much
their hearts long for more of God’s Son. Why is this so common?
David Bryant: Well, for one reason Christians simply are not talking about Jesus
among ourselves very much inside our churches today.
For the past 35 years, I’ve traveled every stream of the evangelical movement and I can
report to you (and many leaders confirm this with me) that Christians seem ready to talk
about everything except Jesus. Many conversations among us never even mention his
name.
For example, for years at conferences I’ve been challenging leaders to try a three-week
experiment. For three weeks, I suggest, have your board of elders or deacons or other
leadership teams spend Sunday mornings roaming around among the people in your
congregation, listening to what they are talking about—in the parking lot, or fellowship
hall, or Sunday school classes, or before worship in the sanctuary. I call it a “Listening
Tour.”
TSV: What are the findings of such Listening Tours?
DB: It’s pretty shocking, to be honest. I tell pastors to do this with their leaders for three
weeks, then reconvene to debrief what they’ve discovered, using two questions to help
distill their findings.
(1) How often on a Sunday morning did you hear believers even mention the name of
God’s Son in conversations with other believers (except maybe at the end of a prayer)?
You will be amazed to find out that our Lord Jesus hardly ever comes up.
You may hear Bible topics or Bible verses mentioned. You may hear the
word God referenced in a general way. But rarely will you hear Christians talking
specifically about the One who is our whole reason for existing—the One who calls us to
rejoice in him every Sunday, the One on whom rests our entire identity and destiny, the
One without whom we can do nothing and become nothing!
How can that be? So often we give him, at best, only an “honorable mention”. It’s as if
we regard him more like our “mascot” than our reigning “monarch.”
(2) If and when you actually did hear the name of Jesus come up in a Sunday morning
conversation, did you ever witness one believer going to another believer saying
something like (for example): “Bob (or Mary), I have uncovered a wonderful new truth
about the greatness and glory of God’s Son this past week that is so exciting I simply
can’t keep it to myself. Could I have one minute to share with you what I found? I’m sure
it will strengthen you in your walk with Christ, as well.”
And yet, this is precisely what we are told to do in Colossians 3:16 whenever we’re
together.
TSV: What’s the response once leaders uncover such a serious shortfall in
how we talk around, rather than talk about God’s Son?
DB: A majority of leaders who implement this three-week experiment end up stunned
when they discover how rarely Jesus is ever mentioned in their churches and that
virtually never, ever do their people try to build up one another’s vision of Christ and
passion for Christ in terms of the glory of who he is right now.
And yet, Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes by hearing when what is heard is the
message about Christ.” Which is to say: If we don’t hear from one another about the
grandeur of Jesus or about what Ephesians 3 calls the “unsearchable riches” of Christ,
then how can we ever successfully identify how much our hearts actually are longing to
know him better? How will we ever recognize that our heart’s hunger is learn more of
Jesus in his greatness and glory and experience a deeper relationship with our reigning
Lord every day?
TSV: Is this why it’s possible for Christians to have a growing longing to
know more of the wonders of Christ and yet not know that’s the reason they
are so restless?
DB: Precisely. As Steve Jobs put it in terms of marketing Apple products: “People don’t
know what they need until someone shows them.”
In the same way, people don’t know how hungry they really are to see and savor God’s
Son for ALL he is until we start talking with one another about him and expanding our
view of him a whole lot more—until we start showing to one another more of his majesty
and sovereignty and power and love, the vastness and fullness of life we have in him.
TSV: So then, the situation in our churches is pretty serious, isn’t it?
DB: It’s nothing less than a genuine crisis, to be frank. In fact, I suggest it is the greatest
crisis we face in the Christian movement today. Call it “a crisis of Christology.” It is a
serious shortfall in how we see and seek and speak about our Redeemer King in terms of
who he is right now and all he is right now.
In Matthew 12, Jesus says that “out of what fills the heart the mouth speaks.” That
means that today, all across the evangelical movement, there are millions of Jesus
followers whose hearts must be filled with everything else except Jesus. We know this
because we are talking with each other about everything else except Jesus.
This is why I keep saying that the great need of the hour is for what many call a
widespread “Christ Awakening” all through the Body of Christ—a reformation of our
vision of Christ and a revival of our passion for Christ, so that as he begins to fill our
hearts, we cannot help but talk about him as a way of life.
TSV: But how can you say it is the absolutely greatest crisis of our times?
DB: Well, think about it like this: The ultimate solution to every crisis the human race
faces—above all the crisis of sin and our separation from God—lies in God’s triumphant,
ruling, supreme Son. Therefore, it is crucial that the Good News about Jesus be heard
and received throughout our nation and among earth’s peoples. The Church has been
tasked by the Holy Spirit to fulfill this grand mission.
So, if the Church is in crisis of any kind that hinders its effectiveness in spreading this
message. And then, on top of that, if the crisis is a crisis of the weakness and smallness
of our vision of the Savior we are called to proclaim—well, then God’s people suffer an
emergency of spiritual paralysis and impotency that renders the whole world with God
and without hope (Ephesians 2: ) in the face of all other crises.
TSV: And the fact of this “crisis of Christology” as you call it why you
created The Christ Institutes Video Series?
DB: Absolutely. The Christ Institutes Video Series is not only designed to help
Christians confront and cure the crisis but also to help feed and fuel “Christ
Awakenings” everywhere, for individual believers as well as their congregations and
ministries.
Its nine components or sessions foster a full-orbed reconstitution of how Christians
encounter God’s Son in light of the full extent of who he is today, especially in terms of
the breadth and depth of the majesty of his supremacy in all things.
In fact, the subtitle for the Institutes is Exploring and Experiencing the Spectacular
Supremacy of God’s Son Today. Because, we need to do both: explore more of who
Christ really is and then experience more of what we discover about him.
This is not complicated, however. I can boil my teaching down to seven little
prepositions to unpack all that Scripture teaches about the glory and greatness of Jesus,
active on heaven’s throne right now.
Incidentally, there are hundreds of verses to fill this in all seven dimensions, passages
that lift Jesus up—foreshadowing him in the Old Testament and fully revealing him in
the New Testament.
TSV: Tell us a little bit about those seven prepositions.
DB: Actually, I dedicate seven of the nine TCIVS sessions them, spending over an hour
on each one of them. Combined, they add up to what I call a “consequential
Christology”—meaning a vision of God’s Son that carries immediate, practical,
transforming consequences for every area of life.
Briefly, here they are:
Who Christ is TO us (his personhood; his deity; as the picture of Scripture; by the
claims of his names; as our identity and destiny; etc.).
Who Christ is FOR us (the four-fold revolution of his incarnation, crucifixion,
resurrection and ascension—with a special emphasis on the ascension, which
may be the most neglected doctrine of the Bible in evangelical churches).
Who Christ is OVER us (as he reigns over creation, world history, global rulers,
earth’s peoples, powers of darkness, and the building of the Church).
Who Christ is BEFORE us (going ahead of us—into the future to bring it back to
us; into the heavens to bring us there with him; into God’s promises to make
them ours as well; and into the world to open up the ways for us to serve him).
Who Christ is WITHIN us (living out his victorious, ascended, reigning life in
each of us individually, and most of all among all of us corporately).
Who Christ is THROUGH us (as he unleashes his power and ministry into the
world through us individually but again, most of all as he works through us
together, without limits, right to the ends of the earth).
Who Christ is UPON us (as he comes upon us in times of renewal and awakening
to accelerate and intensify and expand on all he is already doing among us and
through us; and as one day he comes upon the entire universe at his glorious
return, to transform the entire creation into a new heaven and earth where he will
reign supremely forever, to the glory of God the Father and by the saturation of
God the Spirit).
What is really special about this outline is that anyone can explore this vision in-depth
not only through the video teachings, but also through my recently published
companion book, Christ Is NOW!
TSV: What are some practical implications of this larger vision of Christ for
individual Christians and their churches?
DB: The implications for every dimension of discipleship are profound. One entire
session of The Christ Institutes (and final two chapters of Christ Is NOW!) focuses on
“How to Respond to the Spectacular Supremacy of God’s Son.”
For example, consider what it means for our prayers. Whenever Christians ends a
prayer with the phrase “in Jesus’ name,” what we’re really saying is this: “I’m confident
before the Father that if he answers whatever I’m asking, the primary outcome will be:
the spreading of Jesus’ fame, the extending of Jesus’ reign, the increasing of Jesus’ gain,
the ratifying of Jesus’ claim, and thus, the exalting of Jesus’ name. Therefore, I should
watch expectantly to see how he will respond.”
Remember: I John 5 promises that if we ask anything according to the Father’s will, he
will answer us. Well, these outcomes for Jesus form the apex of the Father’s will: Every
prayer is ultimately all about God working to answer us for the purpose of lifting up the
Son more and more, and for the advancing of his kingship in our generation.
Thus, the larger our vision of Christ, the more potent our praying will become!
TSV: But now The Christ Institutes Video Series has evolved into a credit-
bearing college course, right?
DB: Yes. Although we’ve conducted The Christ Institutes as live events all across the
country, in 48-hour intensives, with profound impact, our goal always has been to
expand the curriculum into a full-fledged, fully accredited, three-hour college and
seminary elective.
Last spring, Pillar College, New Jersey’s only fully accredited Christian college, bought
into that same vision for TCIVS. Amazingly, they offered to do the hard work of
transforming the Institutes into a one-semester course. They call it Christ Alive,
consisting of over 10 hours of these content-rich video lectures, coupled with in-class
discussions, and even corporate prayer, at pre-planned break points in the videos;
supplemented by exciting outside reading, reflective daily journaling and response
papers.
Shortly Christ Alive will become available to Christian institutions all across the
nation—95% of which currently do not offer even one full semester class on the person
of Christ. So, this academic breakthrough is truly revolutionary!
TSV: Finally, David, you talk a lot about your abounding hope for what a
Christ Awakening can do for this nation? Tell us what you are anticipating.
DB: There’s so much I could say about that! But everywhere I go I sense the Holy Spirit
is preparing for what I call a “Christ Awakening.”
Here are two ways I define this biblical phenomenon: (1) “It’s when God’s Spirit uses
God’s Word to reintroduce God’s people to the full extent of the supremacy of God’s
Son.” (2) It’s when the whole Church becomes wholly alive to the whole vision of the
whole Christ.”
Everything else—worship, discipleship, evangelism, social reform—gets transformed by
such fresh, personal encounters with the majesty and reigning glory of Jesus.
TSV: So, is this how we to confront and cure the greatest crisis of our times?
DB: Absolutely! Christ Awakenings are simply a fuller manifestation, individually and
corporately, of what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:6 and prays for at the end of
Ephesians 14-21. Both deserve a reading. They are backed by scores of similar passages.
TSV: Do you see any signs of such a movement emerging where you live in
metro NYC?
DB: I do. Clearly, it’s on the horizon through various regional initiatives like the Christ
Alive course, Concerts of Prayer Greater New York, Movement Day Global Cities.
I’m most encouraged by a recent endeavor, reaching into all the New York boroughs.
It’s called “Saturate NYC.” Its motto: “Saturate the churches with the supremacy of
Christ so as to empower them to saturate the city with the gospel of Christ.” Recently,
300 churches banded together to reach over one million New Yorkers with the gospel
the first week of June (called “Jesus Week”). Currently Saturate is taking root in other
cities across America.
TSV: Thank you for your time, David. Finally, what might our readers do
next?
DB: Confront any crisis of Christology in your own life! Learn more about the what the
supremacy of Christ is all about and what this great hope of Christ Awakenings involves
by surveying all the FREE resources at www.ChristNow.com. When you get there I
suggest you scroll down the home page to view two brief videos—one on the crisis itself
and the other that paints a fresh vision of the supremacy of Christ.
After that, you might begin your own journey into a Christ Awakening by experiencing
for yourself The Christ Institutes Videos Series or the Christ Is NOW! Podcast
Mini-Course. Of course, I hope you will order my latest book, Christ Is
NOW! —either on Amazon or here.
(This interview is an expanded version of a previous blog.)
#RecenterCHRIST
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