Nathan VanHorn says we “just never know when God is going to do something big to shake up things that are too quiet.”
That’s what happened when Martin Luther took a hammer and nailed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany, almost 500 years ago and sparked the Protestant Reformation.
“It was at a time when the Catholic Church was selling indulgences,” said VanHorn, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fort Payne. Indulgences were letters from the church that, for a price, supposedly granted pardon and took away the punishment for sin.
“And what Luther said in the face of that was, ‘The gospel is enough.’”
That legacy was huge, as was the boldness it took to make it happen, VanHorn said. Luther was willing to face excommunication from the church and whatever other consequences might come from challenging the trappings that weighed down the truth.
Similar boldness
And recapturing those brave Christian roots might just help today’s Church have a similar boldness “to approach our mission in a new and fresh way,” VanHorn said.
That’s why this Reformation Sunday (Nov. 1), VanHorn is entering the sanctuary through a large wooden door and nailing onto it a document, the contents of which he hasn’t revealed yet.
He’s setting the scene to make a big point.
“I’m very big on visual imagery,” VanHorn said, “and to me what Reformation Sunday is about is to corporately look to see how our hearts can get more in tune with God and His Word. Where are we misaligned? Where are we majoring on the minors?”
Luther is part of a long line of “generation after generation after generation who have sought counsel from God’s Word through God’s Spirit to address their unique ministry and missional circumstances,” VanHorn said.
And with the same Spirit-led counsel that Luther had, God could very well do something big again now just like He did then, VanHorn said.
“The Church never gets to go into coast mode — we should always be reforming ourselves with the Word,” he said.
VanHorn’s sermon will be on one of John’s letters in Revelation that was written to a stagnant church.
“The only two churches about which John has nothing negative to say (in Revelation) are the ones who are being persecuted,” VanHorn said. “And today it’s the same — Christianity on the worldwide scene is thriving where it’s being persecuted. It’s in the contexts where it’s comfortable that it’s often stagnant or declining.”
So he said he wonders what Luther or John would have to say to the Church in Alabama today.
“We want to take a personal inventory, evaluate ourselves and have our own personal reformations as believers and as a church,” VanHorn said. “It’s a legacy we want to build on.”
So when he takes a mallet this Sunday and drives a nail into the big prop door built by church member Kendall Shankles, that’s the point he’ll be trying to drive home.
Tim Evans, pastor of North Clay Baptist Church, Pinson, said he feels the same way.
This weekend, for the fifth year in a row, his church is putting on a dramatic walk-through presentation of the day Luther nailed his theses to the door, emphasizing the integrity of the gospel and the need to challenge practices that don’t line up with God’s Word.
The drama — called “1517” and written by children’s minister Josh McDaniel — is family friendly and will be staged Oct. 31, 2–5 p.m., and Nov. 1, 5–8 p.m., in vignettes that take about 45 minutes to walk through.
“Luther was the man God used to recover and restore clarity to the gospel,” Evans said. “If you lose the gospel, you’ve lost it. You have no purpose for existing as a religious entity.”
Timothy George, dean of Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, said 1517 tells a message churches today need to hear.
“The Reformation of the 16th century was an age of spiritual renewal which focused on salvation by grace alone and the clarity and certainty of God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures,” he said. “This is a message we still need to hear today and learning the story of Martin Luther is a good way to do this.”
North Clay’s 1517 presentation is a “one-of-a-kind retelling of these events that changed the world,” George said.
Reservations for groups for 1517 are encouraged but not necessary.
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