I was invited to speak at a Church. During my message, I talked about reformation and how the presence of the Church will transform a society. At the time, I had just completed my book, The Sound of Reformation, and spoke about reformation and what happens during a cultural transformation.

After the service, a man came up to speak with me. I found out he had a doctorate from a prestigious seminary. He said, “When you began speaking about reformation, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what you were saying, but when you were done, I thought I could do this.” What I shared that day was another way for the Church to see how God’s Kingdom is supposed to function in a culture and bring about change.

Right now, to a casual passerby, it seems like some in the Church are engaged in a public catfight, sounding like the rest of the social dissenters. One side is pitted against another using the same tactics as the political party of their preference. But there is another way forward.

That other way is being expressed through influence. As the Lord places each of us within one of the spheres of culture to work and live, our presence will begin to influence people by watching how we choose to walk before the Lord in our daily lives. It puts change in the hands of God. 

Reformation is not heavy-handed. Some preach a heavy-handed version of reformation that rightly repels a follower of Jesus. The influence this kind of false reformation brings is empowered by force. True reformation comes from those who have allowed God to use their influence to engage the wills of other people. These reformers can look weak to those who are shouting the loudest from the place of their preferred version of how change should happen. God has another way for us to consider.

In a true reformation, “We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Ephesians 14-15). Reformation is a sound. It is truth spoken in love.

The sound of a reformation in culture will interrupt the current thinking of people by influencing them toward Godly change. This happens because the sound of truth interrupts their current thinking and introduces the mind of Christ into our conversations.

The desired result of this reformed way of thinking takes time. Its results do not appear immediately because the battleground is the individual wills of people, not our party or denominational talking points. The participants in this kind of reformation have put their trust in God to change the hearts of people, not assuming a bully presence wielding the club of their opinion through force. 

Releasing the influence of Jesus Christ happens when we become more and more like Christ speaking His truth in love. That choice is the most dangerous and disruptive weapon in our arsenal of spiritual warfare and the process of societal change.