I often hear people speak of a desire for revival and reformation. What I don’t often hear people speak of is exactly what they want revived or reformed. So what exactly are we looking for?
My thoughts on this topic are influenced by Mark Noll’s book, The Rise of Evangelicalism, conversation with my friend Denny Burk, and an article on biblical illiteracy.
Here are some things I think we would experience if the Spirit of God were to revive us again:
1. A deep sense of the holiness and majesty of God resulting in godly sorrow for sin and a firm resolve to turn from it. In a word, repentance.
2. A hunger to know God and make him known, resulting in a desperate rush to be fed biblical truth. This would take shape in Christians reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible for themselves. It would also result in people wanting to have the Bible taught to them—at church, in home Bible studies, and maybe even in a seminary.
3. A fervent reliance upon God in all things, giving rise to ceaseless prayer. This would mark our individual lives as we constantly call upon God for help, and it would mark our corporate lives as we gather to beseech the Lord to make his name great in our midst.
4. A marked increase in new conversions. Here is a helpful summary of some research done on evangelism in the Southern Baptist Convention, and here are some suggestions for improvement. It could be that another part of the explanation as to why we are not seeing more conversions and baptisms is that Christians don’t have a deep reverence for God that produces holy living (number 1 above), they don’t nourish their souls on God’s Word (number 2 above), and they don’t pray much because they don’t feel much need for God (number 3 above). Are these things being cultivated in your church? If not, why not? What is being cultivated? Isn’t the point of church knowing and worshiping God?
5. As lives change, lives change. Work takes on a sacred quality as vocational service becomes a living sacrifice of worship to God. Leisure is no longer lazy lounging with worldly entertainment. That waste of life is replaced by an urgency to redeem the time in relationship building and a zest for numbers 2 – 4 above. There is a place for entertainment, but let us insist on entertainment that is edifying. Conversations with friends would be changed as well. What do you talk about with your friends? We talk about what we like to talk about, and what we like to talk about is a reflection of what matters most to us—or should be. In Jonathan Edwards’ descriptions of the first great awakening, he notes that conversations in Northampton were theological—having to do with God. Imagine that!
6. I am by no means trying to make a list of what piety looks like, but I do think that people whose lives are marked by the things described in numbers 1 – 5 above are revived. The sum total of these things is a pursuit of personal holiness in response to being ravished by the living God. If our churches become influenced by Christians who live this way, our churches might experience reformation.
7. All of this results from God revealing himself powerfully to people such that he evokes from us a response that corresponds with who he is. If we do not see him, know him, love him, and long for more of him, none of this will happen.
May the Lord be pleased to revive our lives and reform our churches!
Jim,
A friend just pointed me to your blog. Good words on revival. I have been reading accounts of revival (18th and 19th century) for a few years now and am also hungry to see this happen in our age. Taking all that you have laid out here and the words of others from Edwards to Richard Owen Roberts, I love the idea that when God brings about revival it is by definition a community experience. The church changes, but so does the city. Not like Mayor Giuliani cleaning up the streets of New York, but the community of faith (city of God) expanding outward into the city of man redeeming culture. I know what this looks like in 1842 Boston. But what might it look like in 2005 Chicago Suburbs?! I’m praying we’ll see it. Thanks for writing brother.
Dear Jim:
A brother at church shared your blog with us. Well described “Rivival”. Thank you very much. In deed, we must see him, know him, love him, and long for him to have the revival. What a great point!
On the other hand, God is longing to have a revival in us also. It is evident on some of His people’s heart that desires for a national revival. Yes, it is time to turn away from our own way and to acknowledge his heart for our life and for everything else that he has blessed us to care for and to manage with a rightful mind. He is longing to be our Lord, our Father, and our Friend who wants to instruct us with his wisdom, wants to direct us to his wonderful plan, wants to walk with us day and night, and wants to comfort us all the time. How can we reject a loving Father, a Great Creator, a wonderful Counselor who longs to love, to protect, to fellowship with us? Yes, let’s go back to our Father’s house and tell him that we need him and have sinned against him, and ask him to forgive us and to wash us clean . Jesus told us that our Father will run towards us and to receive each one of us with open arms.
Oh, Father, my heart is pounding for your love. Receive us, forgive us. Rebuild us and walk with us day and night for my days on earth are too short to know you all. Make your salvation known to us so we can be reborn into your own.
On 9/26/07, as our Christian teens come together at “See You At the Pole” event to pray and to repent for themselves, city, nation, may we also join them in our prayer for God’s Spirit move freely among all of us and heal our land with His glory and mercy. So we can be called to be His people again.
Thank you for your service in the Lord.
God Bless,
Tiffany