This past Monday evening (September 21) the Wilberforce Forum re-broadcast a program highlighting Celtic Christianity with T.M. Moore (Principal of the Fellowship of Ailbe and author of The Legacy of Patrick). We did this in view of our discussion with Chuck Colson focusing on Kingdom Movement. Why? Simple. It provides a glimpse of past renewals of the church by her faithful saints.
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With the arrival of Patrick in Ireland (~430 AD), the land was uncivilized with few Christians and many pagans with no common language, no cities; only warring tribes ruled by tribal kings. But by the 6th Century and amidst the steady decline of Europe and its churches with clay feet, there came a powerful renewal that was begun by Patrick, where thousands became believers and contended for the Faith by sparking a revival in Scotland, Britain and France that continued to spread through the establishment of monasteries focusing on renewing the culture through prayer, worship, scholarship and social reform. Even in our current day, Centurions should take note of past historical renewals and revivals of the church. Each of us has a responsibility to use our training in biblical worldview and to identify our own personal mission field (as Patrick did) to advance and renew through the power of the Spirit the Kingdom of Christ.
Further we should recognize as Thomas Cahill writes in How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hodder and Stoughton, 1995), “What will be lost, and what saved, of our civilization probably lies beyond our powers to decide. No human group has ever figured out how to design its future. It may be germinating in some antic outpost or other – a kindly British orphanage in the grim foothills of Peru, a house for the dying in the backstreets of Calcutta… or a nursery program to assist convict mothers at a New York prison – in some unheralded corner where a greathearted human being is committed to loving outcasts in an extraordinary way.” Have you found your unheralded corner?
As the Forum attempts to move to a weekly Monday format, we will be inviting Centurions to the Forum on the fourth Monday of each month to discuss teaching project, application of their personal mission fields and discuss their personal reach into the culture by exhibiting a shining light for Christ through living out the Faith. If you would like to be a part of the discussion and speak about your effort for the Kingdom, send us an email.
