Chapter Six: Wake Up: Sardis

There is an American missiologist visiting England this week. He has 270000 followers on Facebook and his Twitter bio describes himself as a Dean, Editor, Pastor, and Distinguished Visiting School at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford (one of our Anglican Theological Colleges). 

He’s offered his followers to sub in for them this Sunday if they are a pastor in Oxfordshire and preach as part of his writing project. 

I think it is important for all of us to remember that small churches are being used in big ways, just like we’d expect when we reflect on how the Kingdom of God is like yeast mixed into flour. Small things lead to big change, and I take Sundays like this to remind myself of this, but then I love writing up a story about my visit, to tell the story of yet another small church making a kingdom impact! [Ed Stetzer]. 

Two things caught the eye from the responses. One was that Ed defined the small church as up to 100 people, while acknowledging that the median Church of England church was 37 people (in 2022). The other was from a rural vicar who thought that the administrative ‘rigmarole’ with the diocese he would need to go through to invite him would not make the effort worth his while.   

It was a contrast with a zoom call I had on Wednesday evening. A dean, sub-dean, provincial secretary, diocesan missioner and youth coordinator, huddled around a smart phone with limited signal, to talk to our SOMA team from four dioceses in England. We will visit them this January in Uganda. They told us that the youth convention had grown. It was supposed to be a gathering of 2500 but there would now be up to 6500 young people attending. 

Our SOMA Patron, Bishop David Williams, remembers the diocese well. It is how he met SOMA. Many years ago one Easter he visited at the drop of a hat when he heard from a returning missionary about a gruesome attack by the (Islamist) ADF that had led to many believers losing their lives. David told me that the aim of the visit was simply solidarity. To comfort the widows, and encourage the pastors which would mean a lot of (potentially dangerous) travel to meet them all.

But when they arrived they were delighted to find a SOMA USA team already ministering there and the pastors all gathered. David and his missionary friend were given time to share and show their care. They ended up being able to leave a lasting legacy, as someone had pressed money into their hands as they left England and it turned out to be just what was needed to rebuild a roof. The work was begun then and there, as drums started, and the community came together from the village in spontaneous worship.  Much later David found out directly from the ADF that they had raiders encircling the village that day, but when they heard the worship, they sensed a powerful presence and fled. 

The last few years have been a mental shift in Uganda. Like many places in the Communion they knew by reputation that the ‘mother church’ of England was alive and well, with its great cathedrals, buildings and missionary sending heritage. But as the world got smaller they realised the CoE had got smaller still. The ‘median’ CoE church in the survey Ed Stetzer quoted has just 1 or 2 under 18 year olds attending. By contrast each of their 650 (mainly rural) parishes was having to narrow down which 5 young people to send to this convention. 

When I first visited with SOMA, I found myself concluding the conference saying to the 800 delegates:

You are a young church, but a church that has come of age. In England we as a church have reached the age of ‘dotage’ where we have forgotten many of the things we used to know. With your prayer mountain (‘Mt Tabor’) and the thousands of people who ascend it to fast and pray for a day each month, we are looking to you to set the spiritual atmosphere and lead in mission. From everywhere to everywhere we need you. 

A few months later they invited SOMA to join 500 outside missioners and 2500 locals they would train up for a Diocesan mission. One of our trustees, Wayne Massey and the SOMA Ireland ND, Henry Blair, joined the team alongside great characters like former Archbishop Henry Oromobi. The diocese commissioned the 3000 and sent them in teams to preach and to heal the sick and drive out demons. They had 60,000 responses to the gospel in 10 days. The team came back to the UK utterly transformed having seen miracles and conversions in abundance, training up alongside the Ugandan church.

The letter we look at today is a sad one. The letter to Sardis. Ed Stetzer was right that small churches can be a place of real vibrancy. One of my favourite church gatherings at Christ Church W4 began with 3 people, and the Sunday night young adult congregation we planted in Wolverhampton was never more than 70 but multiplied ministry and vocations all over the country. Whether the church in Sardis was big or small we don’t know, but it certainly looked alive. 

 I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 

That is a gruesome epitaph over a church, a movement or a denomination that thinks it is doing ok. 

Jesus continues with a stern warning. 

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

I am writing this in Advent, a time when we prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus ‘to judge the living and the dead’. Earlier in the week I was delivering some training to a successful looking Anglican church and asked them to try and discern what the Lord might be saying to them. One towering young man replied, ‘we do not fear the Lord’. Others had pointed to complacency and consumerism. This was a group of 70 people, turning out on a midweek night to get equipped in prayer and spiritual battles. A living, vibrant and busy church which, when they paused to pray, sensed they might not quite be ready for the ‘thief in the night.’ The prayer time that followed was very moving with everyone whose knees would allow it repenting together on the floor for an extended time. 

Jesus concludes his letter with an encouragement for the few, that leaves you sad about the majority state of Sardis. What will happen to their names? What will happen at the roll call before the Father and angels? 

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Dear Anglican friends around the world,

If we in the West have entered our era of dotage, where we are forgetful of our calling and muddle the truth, please pray that we do not ‘soil our clothes.’ Pray that there will be a revival in our ‘empty palaces to a long-forgotten King.’ 

Please know that there is hope here. We saw that in the prayer and repentance a few nights ago. We see that in the young man I got to pray for yesterday at the invitation of his vicar who was radically saved by the Lord himself, experiencing the personal presence of Jesus filling his body with light and warmth and calling him by name, before then connecting in with this faithful Anglican minister who meets him each week to read Scripture and pray. We see that in the fath-curious who will flock to our buildings this Christmas. We see that in a surgeon, who when a friend of mine told him he was the ‘diocesan exorcist’ (just to shock the bored man into waking up in the routine consultation) suddenly came alive and said that his adult son couldn’t stop talking about God and evil and the spiritual realities and wanted to know so much more. Prayers are being answered for England. 

And to the churches that are emerging as leaders in our Anglican world: Remember too not to put your hope in outward appearances… buildings, fine robes, titles and tithes. May you take what you have received and heard, hold it fast, and have unsoiled clothes. Reputation is nothing. His verdict is everything.

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Read More in this Series

The Lamb Wins Whole Series Catch Up : Introduction: Chp 1: Hope is Here | Chp 2: First, Love: Ephesus | Chp 3: Fear Not: Smyrna | Chp 4: I Know: Pergamum | Chp 5: Tolerate This: Thyatira | Chp 6: Wake Up: Sardis | Chp 7: Hold On: Philadelphia