IF CHRIST IS WAITING FOR A PERFECT CHURCH, HE WILL NEVER RETURN – John Glass

IF CHRIST IS WAITING FOR A PERFECT CHURCH, HE WILL NEVER RETURN – John Glass

John Glass, former head of Elim Pentecostal Church which has 550 churches in England and Ireland, was recently appointed chairman for the Council of the Evangelical Alliance. In this interview with E-life, Glass speaks on his experiences at Elim, the end-times, the Church in Nigeria, America and Europe, the Islamic onslaught and evangelism in Asia.

You were the General Superintendent (GS) of the Elim Pentecostal Churches in the UK, for sixteen years which you defined as ‘giving spiritual leadership to the movement and especially to the National Leadership Team’. What has been your most fulfilling experience in the ministry?
This is not an easy question to answer as sixteen years is a long time. During that period we saw the move of our international offices to a 34-acre site in Malvern that included our administrative centre, theological college, arts centre and conference centre. We also saw the birth of a national youth ministry, men’s ministry and women’s ministry and the formation of ‘Elim Sound’. But if I were to highlight the thing that has been the most fulfilling it would be the recognition, development and deployment of young emerging leaders – men and women with the call of God on their lives.

You wrote that at the end of your tenure, you would be free to put more of your time and energy in the work of Alliance, what does this entail?
 The evangelical alliance represents over two million Christians in the UK. It has been my privilege to be on its Council for 14 years and to be the chair of Council and member of its Board for the last four years. On my retirement from the role of GS two years ago I was able to focus more time on my work with them. However my term of office has now come to a close and my new focus is on speaking, writing, broadcasting and mentoring.

As an ordained minister for over forty years and one who has been involved in serving a number of organisations outside one’s movement, Jesus desires that we may be one. Can that wish come true the way things are today? If no, what are the causative factors of the disunity in the Church?
 I entered training for the ministry in 1968 and so am about to reach fifty years in ministry by God’s grace. I believe passionately in the words of Jesus in John 17:11 ‘That we might be one’. I have sought over recent years to work towards that end. Last year I was awarded the ‘Lambeth Cross’ by the Archbishop of Canterbury for my services to ecumenism which I believe is the highest award that can be given to someone outside the Anglican Communion. In my view, ecumenism does not mean the formation of a structural unity or world Church. The John 17 prayer is a unity of heart and purpose. The practical expression of this is being willing to listen to one another with respect and to learn from one another. It is the recognition that Jesus is the head of the Church and the centre of our focus. The ‘Church’ that God recognises is His Body and made up of all those who are seeking to make Him Lord of their lives and who are trusting in what He has done upon the cross as the basis for their salvation. When Israel camped in the wilderness there were twelve tribes and twelve banners. However God made it clear in Scripture how they should camp in relation to one another and ensured that the tabernacle (the special presence of God) was in the centre. When a denomination, ministry or personality wants to be seen as the centre of the Church, disaster will always ensue. If a person moves the hub of a wheel just one centimetre from its place the whole wheel will buckle – so too the Church. God will not give His glory to another. Disunity occurs when we fail to recognise this. There are traditions in the Church and there are cardinal doctrines. Traditions are temporal but cardinal doctrines are eternal. There is disunity in the Church when people ‘major in minor things’ – secondary issues. When we do this we are like those who chase mice while lions are destroying the land and those who paint the front door when the house is on fire.

As the head of the Elim Movement, you must have related with other national and international leaders of other denominations in different parts of the world. I’d take it that you are familiar with developments as well in different parts of the world. If you are to speak to preachers in America today, on what would you admonish them? What is the major challenge facing the American Christians?
I will answer this and the following question in the same way as my response would be the same. Two thousand years of history since the birth of the Church has witnessed, as we all know, seismic shifts. Even the past forty years have seen unprecedented moves in Church culture – forms of worship would be just one small example. However, there still remains three factors that are unalterable if the Church is to be effective.1. Preaching and teaching the truth of scripture.
2. A hunger for prayer and the presence of God.
3. Witnessing through word and deed – making truth audible and tangible. The Church in the West and in Africa must realise, and here I refer again to a previous point, that it  is not our needs that are the centre of the universe but the purposes of God. The excesses of the prosperity gospel are not erroneous because they teach that Christian should enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. Possessions are not of themselves wrong – they only become wrong when they possess us. The error is that it presents a view that the gospel is there to ‘serve our needs’. It sets truth on its head. We exist to serve the purposes of God and that may entail ‘taking up our cross and following Him’.

There is the feeling that the Church in Europe is in slumber. Do you agree? If you do, can you trace the history of the slumber?
There is no doubt about this. The opening verses of Isa: 52 speak to the people of God (Zion) like this: Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendour, Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned….Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive. This passage says that the people of God had been asleep for so long           that they had gathered dust. They needed to get up, get dressed, get established and live free of the yoke bondage. The phrase you use in your question is a very important one ‘trace the history of slumber’ – the Church has fallen asleep by degrees in the same way that it has in some ways lost vision by degrees. Its eyes have got used to the dark.

Today, there is a major Islamic onslaught on Europe and UK particularly. What opinion do you have on this?
There is no doubt about this. While, in reference to your last point, in many areas the Church has become drowsy, religious and political Islam has become increasingly aggressive. I understand the thinking behind the phrase “Don’t curse the darkness – light a candle’ and there is much truth in that. However, the Church needs to stand for righteousness and truth from whatever corner the challenge comes.

What is your main concern about the world today vis-a-vis the end times?
The Bible says that two things will happen simultaneously in the end times. On the one hand, ‘people will depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons’ and on the other, ‘In the last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh’. In other words, in the end times, the good will get better and the bad will get worse. This will create an inevitable world tension that I believe will bring in the return of Christ.

Is the Church getting it right today? Like Jesus said, would he find a Church without wrinkles when he returned?
There are huge sections of the Church that are getting it right and other parts that frankly are not. I don’t believe that ‘without spot and wrinkle’ refers to a perfect Church because, if it does, Christ will never return as all of us fall short of God’s ideal. Even the apostle Paul said, “I do not consider myself to have arrived but I press forward towards the prize…” Having said that, the Lord will be returning to a Church that is committed to holiness. Some people question why so much emphasis is put on the end time generation as millions of believers are already with the Lord. However we need to realise that ‘there are more people alive today than have ever died’. That’s why the end time generation is significant.

In evangelising the non-Christian belt of the world like the Arab-Asian continent, what would you suggest?
This is a huge question and one which can’t be answered comprehensively even if one had the ability to do so. What I would say, however, is that the Church needs to not only clearly present the challenge of the message of the gospel but, by the way that we live and act, preset the character of Christ. Few people are converted by exchanging doctrinal blows at one another. Also, as it is not we who convert but the Holy Spirit, the Church needs to bathe that area of the world in constant prayer.

Finally, could you tell us about the part of you that is not in the public domain, your personal and ministry profile, how God called you to the ministry and the challenges you faced in your early years.

I was born in Manchester, England in 1948 and in 1968 entered theological college and became an ordained minister of the Elim Churches in 1973. I pioneered three Churches in Scotland and later became the senior minister of the Church of God in Kilsyth before being elected to the leadership of the Elim Churches as General Superintendent in 1999. Married to Marilyn in 1972 and have written six books: i. Building Bigger People: Success is more than Numbers ii. The Best is Yet to Come iii. Open Hearts, Open Hands iv. Released from the Snarev. Saying yes, saying no vi. Amrach and the Paraclete.
I was called to the ministry by a vision of Jesus when I was six. When I told my mother that I had ‘just seen Jesus in my bedroom ‘the first question that she asked was ‘What was he wearing’? I then learned two things. The first was that he had been wearing the robes of the High Priest. The second was that her father, my grandfather, had exactly that same vision when God called him into the ministry. I therefore concluded at that young age that God had called me to the ministry. Ironically, I had given my life to Christ just some months earlier in a crusade that my grandfather had conducted. My father and my great grandfather were also ministers- though not called via that vision.