Revival or Resurrection?

Gather thousands of Christians together. Pack them into a stadium. Crank the amps up to eleven. Jump around. Raise your hands. Empty your pockets.

Bow your heads. Listen to the message.

Drive home.

The world is still the same.

You are still the same.

Is that Revival?

Revival, to me, isn’t about hype.

It’s about a handful of people whose hearts are sincerely burdened for the lost, who are desperate for more of Jesus and who cannot face another second of life-as-usual.

Those people aren’t waiting for a national conference.

They’re not interested in the mega church pastor’s new book.

They couldn’t care less about the worship band whose new album is on sale near the snack table.

They just want Jesus.

They are only interested in Jesus.

They want to know Jesus more.

They want to be like Jesus.

They want a heart like His.

They want to love the people Jesus loves.

They want to serve the people Jesus served.

They want to forgive the way Jesus forgave them.

They are moved by the things that move the heart of Jesus.

People like this open their arms to gay and transgender people.

Those profoundly touched by Jesus step outside and share their food with the poor.

They pray for the sick without stopping to pull out their iPhone so they can post it to YouTube later.

Revival? For me, that’s a word for a person whose heart is broken.

A person whose soul is ripped down the middle at the sight of all the suffering that surrounds them.

Revival is a word that calls attention to the reality that something that is dead needs to come alive again.

Maybe we don’t need another revival meeting. Maybe what we need is more like a resurrection.

Let me ask:

Doesn’t the world deserve a Church that does more than pack stadiums on the weekend?

Isn’t it more powerful and effective to wake up every morning and quietly, yet consistently, live out the commands of Jesus where we live and breathe?

To me, that is what revival really looks like.

It’s not hyped up.

It’s not up on the Jumbo-Tron.

It doesn’t have a soundtrack or an official t-shirt.

Revival is simply a group of people who are hungry for Jesus and moved by Jesus who are willing to go out and act like Jesus in a world that is desperate for Jesus, [even if they don’t know it yet].

I’m not saying it’s a sin to hold a big conference. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to support Christian ministries.

What I am saying is that Christianity in America seems to be hopelessly enamored with spectacle and addicted to events.

Instead of a conference that goes to eleven, I'd rather see a move of the Spirit that sends people out to hang with the zeroes.

I guess I’m just waiting for the big “Let’s Go and Do the Stuff Jesus Did” Conference,

where thousands of Christians spread out over the city

and break into groups of five or ten to visit children’s hospitals

and pray for cancer patients

and give hugs to the homeless

and reconcile with their gay brothers and sisters

and pray a sincere blessing for their President

and repent publicly from seeking to change the culture through political power

and maybe donate ten million dollars to feed the poor and house the mentally ill who sleep on our streets every night.

When I see that, I’ll call it revival.

Until then, I’m really not sure what to call it.

-kg

DANGER: EXPECTATIONS

As someone who has left the traditional model of church in favor of a more organic, new testament style of ekklesia it’s not often that I find myself sitting in a pew somewhere. Unless I’m on vacation and am expected to attend church with my in-laws. That’s when I try to prepare myself for the worst. I pray that the Lord would help me not to be too critical. I work hard to hold my tongue, and to endure the pastor-centric model without embarrassing myself, or my wife and kids.

So, imagine my surprise when the Sunday School class turned out to be a conversational discussion of the book of Job. Everyone was allowed to speak and to share their insights with one another. Plenty of time was given to allow people to share testimonies and prayer concerns, and then they all began to pray.

During the morning service, different people stood up to sing, or to share concerns, or to pray out loud for each other. Plenty of time was spent in fellowship as people got out of their pews and walked around to talk to brothers and sisters they hadn’t seen for a while. Then the sermon began. After reading from 2 Corinthians, the pastor began to talk about the power of weakness and then took us to the book of Judges where he used Gideon as an example of how God loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. I was flabbergasted. Had this guy already read my book, “The Power of Weakness”? Apparently not, but the similarity of our views was astounding to me.

Immediately I felt a strong connection to Joe, their pastor. He wasn’t at all what I expected, nor was this little Baptist church. They seemed to have a genuine sense of community and love for one another. Intrigued, I found myself attending the evening service and a discipleship class that preceded it. Once again I was humbled by what I experienced there. So much so that I attended a Wednesday morning prayer meeting at their Associational office and then again the next Sunday morning and evening.

Certainly, Joe and I are not on the same page on many theological issues, but the one area where we are in complete agreement is that Jesus is Lord and that He is building His church. Before I left we traded email and cell phone numbers. He agreed with me that the Holy Spirit had brought us together during this week and we both felt the need to keep in touch and to encourage one another as brothers in Christ.

My expectations about this church were fantastically wrong, and I remain humbled by the heart of this brother and the quality of faith I observed in this little church.

During my vacation I began to pray for Joe and what God might want to do in this place. The message from the Power of Weakness – about how God loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people – kept coming back to my heart. I began to sense that this little church, in this tiny little town, might be the catalyst for something incredible in the Kingdom of God. What better place for a revival to begin and sweep through the region than a little church like this one? God would receive all the glory and people would be transformed by the consuming fire of His presence. As long as they keep their eyes on Him and trust in His leadership, there’s no force on this earth that can stop them.

At least, that’s what I’m praying God will do as they continue to seek His face.

-kg

THE COMING FLOOD

Every now and then, when I mention to people that we've planted a house church in our community, they will respond by saying something like: "That's good because I believe God's Judgement and persecution is coming soon and the Church needs to be ready to go underground if it's going to survive." (Or something close to that).

Personally, I've never resonated with that response. Mainly because my reasons for starting a house church have nothing to do with fear of persecution or judgment. Actually, we started our house church because God called us to plant a church where all of the offering could go to help the poor in our community. So, I don't participate in house church out of fear, but out of love.

Over the weekend, I had a very interesting conversation over lunch with author Ross Rhode, and a few others who were attending the Momentum conference with me. Ross had been sharing with those at our table about how God's Spirit has fallen throughout history - and most recently in America - in the form of several revivals. Someone asked why they never seem to last very long, and he suggested that it was usually because men tried to control the strange manifestations that often accompanied an outpouring of the Spirit (such as tongues or shaking or laughing). The other cause? When people made it attractional. In other words, when the revival experience could only be appropriated by visiting a certain place and hearing a certain man preach, the revival eventually burned itself out.

That got me to thinking. Actually, what happened was that I saw a picture in my mind of a massive field of dirt. It had been plowed into rows, but nothing was growing there. Slowly, as Ross continued to talk about the ebb and flow of revival, I began to see a series of irrigation ditches being carved out around the field. Ross said, "If the Spirit of God ever does fall again, the house church movement is the perfect vehicle to keep it going." I nodded in agreement. "Yes, because in a house church whenever we get too many people at once we are quick to send them out to start another church. We don't want to get bigger, so we'll always keep sending them out as they get saved to keep spreading the revival."

I believe the house church movement in America is a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. Over the last five years I have spoken to countless people who have felt God's calling to step out of the Church, or down from the pulpit, to start a house church in their community. One by one, story after story, I've listened to people tell me how God compelled them - even as others warned them not to, or mocked them for leaving - they knew that to obey God they had to lay it all down and plant churches in their homes, and neighborhoods.

What if? What if God is inspiring so many people to leave the traditional model of institutional church so that He can build a nationwide network of house churches that will quickly spawn more house churches as the fire of revival spreads across this nation?

As I shared this with Ross and the people at our table, I mentioned that it was like what I was seeing in my mind's eye. That God was creating this network of house churches to operate like irrigation canals that would rapidly disperse the Spirit of God as it fell on this nation - allowing the empty, desolate field to burst into life as the rivers of living water began to fall from the sky and flood the earth with the presence of God.

Ross began to pray spontaneously. As he prayed, all of us around the table joined in. In my heart, as I prayed, I could see the sky growing dark. I heard the crack of thunder in the sky. I heard the steady patter of heavy rainfall drenching the dry and thirsty ground. The canals around the large field began to fill with sweet, living water. The field grew dark with moisture. New life began to spring up as the seeds that had been planted years before were nourished by this living water. Suddenly the field was overtaken by large, green, fruitful plants.

My eyes were filled with tears when we all finally stopped praying.

"Why can't it happen here?" someone asked. "Why can't we pray and ask God to rain down His Spirit on us  again?"

I believe He wants to. I believe that what is coming is not a sword of judgment, but a flood of His Holy Spirit upon a barren land.

Rather than sit back and pray that God would hurry up and return so we can get out of this place, our prayers should be for God to revive this nation. Our prayers should be like those that Paul the Apostle uttered when he yearned for all Israel to be saved and his own soul cursed to hell out of desperate love for his people.

What do we want more? For Jesus to return and bring swift judgment upon this heathen nation? Or do we cry out for Jesus to show mercy and to reveal His love to all men, women and children on this earth?

Pray for God to heal this land. Pray for His Spirit to fall. Pray for the Gospel to go forth and for lives to be transformed by His Word.

This is our calling. This is our destiny. Pray for revival to come. Pray for souls to come to the saving knowledge of Christ. And then, work hard while it is still light enough to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom to all who have yet to hear it.

"Repent! The Kingdom of God is upon you."

Let it rain.
-kg