Ask virtually any evangelical Christian, “What is the single
most important question in life?” and the response will likely be, “Do you have
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?”
Most of our ministries are designed in some way to pose that question
and cultivate a personal response from the people we serve. Many Evangelicals have conversion stories
that include strong “before and after” descriptions. Some even expect that such a narrative should
be normative for all Christians.
The Watergate cover-up conspiracy of the early 1970’s may
have brought down an American president but it also formed a backdrop for the
conversion of Chuck Colson, who was one of Evangelicalism’s most respected
leaders in the twentieth century.
Colson, a retired Marine officer, was President Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He was a master of dirty tricks targeting the
administration’s political enemies. His
involvement in Watergate plunged him into a personal crisis which became a
catalyst for his conversion to Christianity.
The press mocked his new-found faith as a ploy for sympathy and leniency
for his misdeeds. But after thirty-five
years of radical personal change and tireless service through Prison
Fellowship, the ministry he founded, Colson’s life demonstrated the
transformational power of the “born-again” experience.[1]
Prior to the Reformation, the Church rarely used the term,
“born again.” For Catholic and Orthodox
theologians, regeneration happens at baptism.
But for the modern Evangelical, being born again is a cognizant
experience that is essential for salvation.
Everyone must personally and willingly respond to the gospel. The necessity of having and nurturing a
personal relationship with Christ drives virtually all that we do. The imperative of personal conversion is the
reason we are so passionate about missions, both locally and around the
world. Evangelicals emphasize holiness,
discipline, and good works as evidence of a personal relationship with
Christ. We affirm the Bible as God’s
Word and as his revelation of the
salvation which can only be found through Jesus Christ. Our commitment to Scripture places a high
value on personal reading and devotion, Bible-centered preaching, and the
establishment of societies for the distribution of God’s Word.
Because we value a personal relationship with Christ so
highly, we tend to be suspicious of the institutional Church with all its
historic worship practices, such as set prayers, liturgies, and creeds. Evangelicals tend to resist words being put
into our mouths. We like to improvise
our own prayers and thoughts as a reflection of the authenticity of our
personal faith. That being the case,
many Evangelicals might be shocked to learn that the roots of our movement can
be traced back to seventeenth and eighteenth century Lutheran Pietism, where
the values we hold today were firmly embraced and institutionalized in Halle,
Germany.
An
Unsung Evangelical Hero
August Hermann Franke (1663-1727) had prepared himself for
vocational ministry. Already educated and
credentialed as a Lutheran pastor, he sensed that he was missing the mark as a
“true Christian.” In 1687, he received a
new opportunity in Luneburg, Germany, where he would spend his time in private
study and fellowship with devout and pious Christians. Shortly after his arrival, he was asked to
preach at the local church. He was instructed that the sermon must be directed
to the heart and conscience of the hearer. His text was John 20:31: “[These
signs]…are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Preparation for the sermon drove him to
despair:
…as I now pondered this with all
seriousness, it came to me that I possessed no such faith as I demanded. I thus came away from meditation on the
sermon and found enough to do within myself because such, namely that I still
had no true faith, came deeper and deeper into my heart. I wanted to rise immediately and drive these
dismal thoughts away, but nothing would suffice. I was until that time, accustomed to relying
on my own reason, with good cause because in my heart I had experienced little
of the new reality of the Spirit.[2]
Over the course of several days, Franke’s despair and
disbelief deepened. In pondering the
text, he discovered that he had no real faith; that indeed, he did not even
believe in God or his Word.
Nevertheless, he persevered in his discipline of prayer and study, not
wishing to disappoint those who had asked him to preach. He was in great distress and sorrow with no
refuge of genuine faith in a Savior.
Like Augustine and Luther before him and countless others who would
follow, he was in deep despair for his soul when God finally intervened:
In such great anxiety I fell again
to my knees on that Sunday eve and cried to God – who I neither knew nor
believed – for salvation from such a sorrowful condition, if there was truly a
God. Then the Lord heard me, the living
God from his holy throne, as I was still on my knees.…Then, as one turns his
hand (in a twinkling), so all my doubts were gone; I was sure in my heart of
the grace of God in Jesus Christ; I knew God not only as God, but rather as one
called my Father. All sadness and unrest
in my heart was taken away in a moment.
On the contrary, I was suddenly so overwhelmed as with a stream of joy
that I praised out of high spirits that God who had shown me such great
grace. I arose again of a completely
different mind than when I had knelt down.
I had bent down with great sorrow and doubt, but arose again with
inexpressible joy and great assurance.
As I knelt, I did not believe there was a God. As I arose I would have confirmed it without
fear or doubt, even with the shedding of my blood.[3]
Franke was “born again” through the experience which would shape
the rest of his life and ministry. The
deep wrestling of his soul would become known as busskampf or “penitential struggle.” While Franke did not prescribe
his path as a normative means to be born again, the penitential struggle would
become a common theme in conversion narratives for Pietists.[4]
August Hermann Franke should be considered second-generation
among Lutheran Pietists, but the ministry that he established at Halle was the
pinnacle of achievement and influence for the movement. F. Earnest Stoeffler, the father of American
Pietism scholarship, said this of him: "Franke is undoubtedly one of the most massive figures of the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Europe. As a religious genius he fashioned Spenerian
Pietism into one of the most self-assured, theologically compact, as well as
dynamic, religious movements of the day."[5]
The
Ministry at Halle
The ministry at Halle was wide-ranging. Franke was particularly moved by the plight
of the poor while at the same time cultivating relationships with the ruling
elite. He became friends with his
monarch, Frederick Wilhelm I, even though the king was Reformed. He
corresponded with Peter the Great of Russia and the influential English Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He
had friends in Scandinavia as well as in the American colonies. Franke’s political skills enabled him to
build the support that he needed to develop his ministry.
Halle had a very active printing enterprise. Between 1712 and 1719, Franke and his
enterprise printed 100,000 German Bibles and 80,000 New Testaments. By comparison, it took Wittenberg, the
previous leader in publishing the Scriptures, nearly one hundred years to print
and distribute that same number.
Pietists placed a high value on personal Bible reading. The operation in Halle fulfilled a dream of
making the Bible a “book of the people.”
Franke’s business enterprise was not just limited to publishing,
however. The ministry was also supported
by a thriving fur and wine import business – made all the more profitable by
privileges that he had negotiated with the monarch. Halle’s educational system
was comprehensive. In the university,
Franke developed a model for training ministers and teachers that would be
worthy of emulation today. Along with
academic rigor in their studies, his students were expected to apply their
knowledge and skills in Halle ministry institutions: orphanages, biblical training for young
people (catechism), and schools for all ages and social strata.
Franke also had a heart for world evangelization. Foreign leaders looked to him to help supply
missionaries for their colonial interests.
When thirty thousand Protestants were driven from the Salzburg region,
many of them immigrated to the Georgia Colony in America. Halle provided ministerial and financial
support for the refugees. Heinrich Melchior
Muhlenberg, who established the first organized Lutheran church in
Pennsylvania, was sent and financed by Franke.
Halle’s influence was far-reaching and profound. Swedish pastors who had been trained there
promoted spiritual revival among compatriot prisoners in Siberia who, in turn,
would influence their homeland when they were finally released. Franke also had a close and supportive
relationship with Count Nicolas Von Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravians,
who were very active in mission work and would eventually play a vital role in
the conversions of John and Charles Wesley.
The entrepreneurial accomplishments of August Hermann Franke
were extraordinary. But at his core, he
was a pastor who had a heart that burned with passion for God and His
work. Though politically shrewd, he was
uncommonly kind and gentle. His sermons
were unremarkable: hastily prepared,
repetitive, and lacking in illustration.
(Perhaps that is no wonder; he had to prepare and deliver up to five
sermons a week along with all of his other duties.) Still, he was a very popular pastor; his
sermons were attended by large crowds.
He abolished group confession in favor of a private interview with the
pastor. Franke insisted that families
and the church work together in child-raising, so he reestablished catechism
for children and made pastoral visits in homes.
He was charming, transparent, and sincere: a model of authentic
Christian faith. Prior to his
conversion, Franke had sought to become a “true Christian.” By all accounts, he did not miss the mark....
The preceding excerpt was taken from Strategic Portraits: People and Movements That Shaped Evangelical Worship. The remaining portion of the chapter explains how Pietism has deeply shaped Evangelicalism and analyzes its strengths and liabilities in corporate worship. You can order your copy of the book from Amazon in print or Kindle format.
[1] Colson’s testimony is told in his first
published book, Born Again. (Grand
Rapids: Chosen Book, 1976).
[2] As quoted in Gary R. Sattler, God’s Glory, Neighbor’s Good, (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1982) 29.
[3] Ibid.,
31.
[4] Penitential struggle prior to conversion
did become the norm in the American First Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards describes the suffering of
those seeking salvation in New England as did David Brainerd in his ministry
with the Indians. One hundred years
later, under Charles Finney’s influence, the process of conversion would no
longer include the expectation of busskampf.
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