Kyk ook:
- Hoffie Hofmeyr
- Steeds geen gesprek met Koinonia nie (12 Jun 2024)
- Die ‘gees van Antichris’ vier nou hoogty in kerke (1 Sep 2024)
*******
BRIEF| NG Kerk se tyd loop uit; boeliery kan boemerang | Netwerk24
24 Augustus 2024
Prof. Hoffie Hofmeyr, Pretoria, skryf:
’n Analise van onlangse gebeure toon dat die NG Kerk vinnig besig is om uit pas te raak en moontlik selfs die bus van werklike reformasie en oorlewing kan verpas. Baie parallelle met die kwynende ANC word in die NG Kerk met sy verskillende faksies aangetref. Al wat die kerk in hierdie laat uur uit die doodloopstraat kan red, is as hy dringend sy halsstarrigheid afwerp en met ’n hartgrondige dialoog begin. Die tyd is bitter min.
Hierdie kommerwekkende toestand blyk veral uit die volgende:
• Volgens George Barna, wêreldbekende toekomsdenker oor die wêreldwye kerk, is die kerk van Christus tans by ’n kritieke kruispunt. As hy nie kerklike strukture herbedink en terugkeer tot sy Bybelse wortels gerugsteun deur soliede teologiese opleiding nie, gaan hy die bus verpas. Volgens Barna het baie Woordbedienaars al hoe minder Bybels georiënteerd geraak en baie gemeentes hou hulle soms met die geraas van sekondêre kwessies besig in plaas van om te fokus op sy kernsaak.
• Intussen is daar bepaalde prominente leiersfigure in die NG Kerk wat vroeg en laat bepaalde agendas probeer dryf en scenario’s beplan wat die wese van kerkwees in sy fondamente gaan skud. Die kerk moet hiervolgens ’n maatskaplike instelling of vereniging word om só ’n konglomeraat te skep om Suid-Afrika tot ’n horisontalistiese utopie te omvorm. Van die werklike waardes van Bybelse versoening, geregtigheid en hoop sal daar maar min oorbly.
• Volgens ingeligte waarnemers het die NG Kerk ten tyde van die Algemene Sinode van 2023 een van die laaste historiese geleenthede misgeloop om ’n gesprek met faksies in die kerk van stapel te stuur, te midde van vertragende maatreëls en verkeerde aanwending van die kerkreg. Die bal is nou in die hande van die moderator van die NG Kerk.
• Intussen is lidmate en gemeentes besig om met hul voete te stem en hulself los te maak van kerklike strukture. Berigte word ontvang dat nie net finansiële bydraes al hoe meer onttrek word nie, maar dat al hoe meer gemeentes ook nie meer bereid is om selfs by ring- en streeksinodale vergaderings in te skakel nie. Diegene het hul vertroue in kerklike strukture begin verloor.
• Die NG Kerk lees ook die algemene tydsgees in Suid-Afrika verkeerd, naamlik dat ’n gees van samewerkende dialoog ontwikkel om al die baie kastaiings uit die vuur te krap. Die land se kiesers het pas aangedui dat hulle keelvol is vir magspel, korrupsie en wanpraktyke in die regering en daarom eis hulle nou ’n nuwe benadering van ’n samewerkende pleks van ’n eenpartyregering. As die NG Kerk nie ook met al die hoofgroeperinge binne sy eie geledere gaan begin hartgrondige gesprek voer nie, sal hierdie kerk soos ook die ANC al hoe meer wegkwyn.
• Ook die feit dat die kerk besig is om oneerlike boelietegnieke te gebruik om “andersdenkende” gemeentes en predikante te teiken is uiters sorgwekkend. Dit kan selfs in arbeidsregtelike hofsake eindig waar die NG Kerk-strukture sleg tweede gaan kom.
Mag kerkleiers in hierdie dae die erns van die situasie insien. Mag hulle wegstuur van die vernietiging van ’n kerk wat ten spyte van sy foute, baie en mooi bydraes oor baie eeue heen tot die uitbreiding van die Koninkryk gemaak het.
Die probleem waarom die NG Kerk uit pas is en die bus van werklike reformasie verpas – wat geen moontlikheid is nie, maar reeds ‘n realiteit vir dekades – is voortspruitend uit die sielsiekte van “Lafhartigheid van die groot middelgroep”.
Albert Mohler, President van “The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary” in Amerika, het ‘n insiggewende artikel die lig laat sien, 5 Oktober 2021, “Defying the Downgrade: The Courageous Leadership of Charles Spurgeon.” [https://albertmohler.com/2021/10/05/leadership-briefing-defying-the-downgrade-the-courageous-leadership-of-charles-spurgeon/].
Hy verwys na lesse wat mens kan neem vanuit historiese gebeure, en na een in besonder, waarom die kerk in Spurgeon se tyd in Engeland, en ook in Mohler se tyd in Amerika, en inderdaad, in enige ander tyd of plek, die bus verpas: “COWARDNESS OF THE MIDDLE…IT WAS THE MIDDLE THAT REFUSED TO BRING CORRECTION. DUE TO COWARDNESS OF THE MIDDLE, THE ENTIRETY WAS LOST.”
Hiermee ‘n paar uittreksels:
“It’s from them, I think, I draw the most information, the most useful inspiration. Sometimes also great lessons about what not to do. There are negative and positive lessons to be learned from every character in history. And that means that sometimes it’s difficult to talk about certain leaders because to some, they are absolute heroes and to others, they are absolute arch enemies of the good and the right. So, we have heroes and demons throughout history and it’s sometimes difficult to take a person in full measure…..”
“The sum total of his preached words translated into print amount to between 20 and 25 million words. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, the New Park Street Chapel Pulpit, you’re talking about volumes, about 60 volumes of printed sermons. And those sermons were not printed long after they were preached. Spurgeon’s preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle was so popular that a stenographer took down his message on Sunday. By Sunday evening, he had an original draft. By Monday, he was able to work through the typographical sheets. And some of you’ve seen some of those with his own hand correction. And by later that evening, they were on sale on the streets of London where they were among the bestselling printed items in the history of the English language.”
“…Well, the fact is that it’s that middle, that over the course of church history, especially since the Reformation, has been the great vulnerability, because the great mass of people who should defend the truth are often more scared by those who do defend the truth than by those who deny it….”
“I want to suggest some lessons from the life and the leadership of Charles Spurgeon…. He had a remarkable ability to deliver the full wealth of Christian conviction in a sentence or a paragraph in a way that was rarely matched in the history of the …”
“The first thing we learned from Spurgeon is the centrality of conviction. His point was, “If that’s not what’s central, then why are we here? If this isn’t what I’m here for, I don’t need to be here, and you don’t need to come here.”… “
“Secondly, the necessity of courage. He was willing to stand against the tide. Spurgeon represents that courage.”
“Third, I want to point out the prudence of a strategy. I think this was Spurgeon’s great mistake. It’s not to Spurgeon we look for the positive example of a necessity and prudence of a strategy, it’s actually Spurgeon’s failure to have a strategy that comes to mind here. Looking at the Downgrade Controversy, it isn’t clear what Spurgeon thought might happen. It isn’t clear that Spurgeon had any definite consequence of his warnings in view.”
“I think Spurgeon made a great mistake and the mistake was twofold in this sense.
– The lack of a strategy. He needed a strategy for exactly how the British Baptist Union could be recaptured, reformed, and corrected. Without that strategy, just calling the alarm meant that we look back and say Spurgeon was right, but at the time some who could have been Spurgeon’s allies and might have been his allies didn’t know what they were supposed to do. There was no un-derstanding of polity and mechanism in order to affect any real change.
– And then the lack of documentation turns out to be a huge problem. It turns out that people need to see in order to understand the problem. They need to see the evidence–chapter, verse, quotation, book, article….the pattern was clear. It was the middle that refused to bring correction. Due to the cowardness of the middle, the entirety was lost. But you look at that and say, “Well, Spurgeon, certainly wasn’t vindicated there. I mean, he might have been vindicated in terms of the accuracy of his analysis, but he wasn’t vindicated in terms of any action or purpose.”
“Fourth, the inescapable issue of timing. Very quickly. You know, timing isn’t everything, but it has a lot to do with whether a great effort succeeds or fails. By the time Spurgeon sounded the alarm in the late Victorian era, the society had largely liberalized to the point that there was just not enough orthodoxy there to bring about widespread change. And by the way, Orthodox Protestant work in England, in Great Britain has been on the defensive for well over a century.”
“The last issue is just the suicide of drift. The other thing you learn from Spurgeon is what Spurgeon was awakened to, and what he sought to awaken all Christians in England and elsewhere to, and that is the fact that drift is never healthy because nobody drifts home. You only drift out to sea.”
“So much to learn from a figure like Charles Spurgeon.”
Dit is die probleem. En dit geld nie net vir kerklike sfere nie, maar ook vir sekulêre sfere. MOEDSWILLIGE ONGELOOF in wat GOD sê en MOEDSWILLIGE ONGELOOF om Hom te gehoorsaam, al kos dit jou werk, of selfs jou lewe. En die sielsiekte, het sy oorsprong in die kern van die sosiale sfeer: familie. GELOOF behoort demonstreer te word in familie-verband, soos die Bybel die toon aangee. Maar ONGELOOF word gedemonstreer in die moderne familie vir kinders en kleinkinders om te volg, en leraaars is te lamsakkig om dit aan te spreek.
En dit is nie net die NG KERK wat die sielsiekte onder die oog het nie, maar ook die AGS, en ook VEK, en selfs REACHSA, en vele ander. Ek praat van ondervinding.
HOOGMOEDIGE LEIERS in die kerk, lei die groot middelgroep.
Die probleem is nie die brand nie. Die probleem is dat mense probeer God dien uit menslike krag. En dit gaan faal oor tyd. Ook was bv. die NGK en AGS suksesvol vir dekades in Suid-Afrika. Dit het maar net die algemee grasie van mense opgebruik. En mens moet dit nie verwaar nie met spesiale genade nie. Maar dis dikwels wat gebeur. goeie sterwende Adam word verwaar met diegene wat aan die laaste Adam (‘Christus behoort).
Ook het ek ‘n sterk afkeur teen die degressiewe groep in die NGK, ek dink nie mens moet fout alleenlik by hulle soek nie. Hulle is maar net die kinders van ‘n voorheen ‘meer behoudende’ groep. Hulle het dalk ‘n christelike sentiment gehad, maar dit was nog steeds menslik en nie geestlik nie.