Revival, 2
May 4, 2008 by joelkurz
Outsiders attracted in remarkable numbers.
It’s interesting that my thoughts have been toward revival. Richard, my pastor, spoke this morning on revival and said in regards to “revival events” that you cannot program a revival. It cannot be planned. The spirit of God begins to move in a radical way and it cannot be stopped. Keller said that he was doing nothing different at Redeemer when they saw a revival happen…it was simply the work of the spirit.
One of Keller’s dynamics of revival, “Outsiders Attracted in Large Numbers” is one that would literally rock the socks off of today’s average church member. This morning Richard said, “If we saw a revival happen and loads of people were accepting Christ and joining us many of you wouldn’t like it.” How true that is. We like to think of this happening but for a church to experience something like this it would mean the church would begin filling up with people who are not like us. A white congregation may find themselves diversifying as non-white people become majority and step into leadership. An older congregation may see an influx of young radicals. It will be impossible to keep track of conversions and pastors will lose the grip of control. Small groups and house churches would spring up daily. Is this really what we want?
I long to see this dynamic experienced. Imagine how this would transform society.
That would be exciting. Do you know of any modern day revivals taking place in western culture? I can’t fathom it. That kind of real revival just seems so unlikely in todays culture, the with reputation of the church and society begining to catogorize Christianity as just another religion equal with all the others. But then again, I guess that could just mean we are ripe for it…
“It will be impossible to keep track of conversions and pastors will lose the grip of control. Small groups and house churches would spring up daily. Is this really what we want?”
Hmmm….this definitely requires some thought.
The “pastor will lose the grip of control” is an interesting statement. Sounds a tad anti-establishment, but on the other hand there are some pastors that this description would fit to a “T”. As long as “the pastor will lose his grip of control” does not imply a change in the pastoral office as given to us in inerrant, inspired scripture, and instead is looking at those pastors who desire the ability to flex their own muscle instead of being humbly used by the Spirit…then I like that phrase.
House churches on the other hand concern me. In a house church..who is the pastor? You can’t get around the N.T. structure of a church and church leadership. Now of course a church doesn’t have to be in a “church building,” nor does it have to consist of a large group of people, but there is always leadership…and from Paul’s urging to Timothy, trained leadership. The danger of any small group is that without proper leadership it simply becomes pooled ignorance from which false doctrines and/or practices can arise doing more to confuse the message of the gospel than to proclaim it. So I guess in short I’d say…as these small groups and house-churches spring up, mature believers need to be “training young men so that they may train others.”
Back to your main point however, I really don’t think we fully comprehend what we’re praying for when we pray for revival. When revival comes may God grant us the grace and wisdom to recognize it, and work with it.
“We like to think of this happening but for a church to experience something like this it would mean the church would begin filling up with people who are not like us.”
If these people are truly converted…they have become like us!! True, they may have different backgrounds…but the blood of Christ brings us together. To have mass revival in our church would (should) not change anything. The Word would be preached every Sunday. We’d love and care for the new believers as brothers and sisters in Christ. We’d encourage holy living. The gospel message and Biblical truths don’t change from generation to generation, culture to culture. They cross the lines of culture and generations. The trick is being able to make sure that what we’re holding on to is God-given doctrine and not man-made tradition.
Here’s a thought provoker - what if revival happened in a church of these young radicals…and a bunch of older people were converted, thus changing the dynamic to an older “church”? What if a black church was influxed (is that a word?) with white people?