Be careful what you wish for. (Revival part II)

With my morning espresso at my side and the kids happily numbing their minds with Dora and her cousin Diego, all I have to do now is try to regain my train of thought to continue what I started earlier in the week.


Here's just a tiny bit of my background that might help to understand my perspective. I spent 5 years after high school and before college on the mission field in numerous different countries. Much of that time I was involved with a branch of our organization that partnered with Billy Graham Crusades in coordinating large evangelistic campaigns. We call them campaigns because the crusade is an event while the campaign is a massive (1+ years) effort to network with local churches to make the fruit of the crusade last. There are many stories that could come out of that subject, but that is for another post. The subject of revival is not only of personal interest to me a Jesus-follower and member of the church universal, but revival was the central mission of my vocation. I have studied the subject in detail and I have seen revival first hand around the world. I don't want to hurt any one's feelings, but I do want to put a crack in your worldview with this simple statement: Americans generally have a different view of what revival is; different from the rest of the word and different from history. Americans seem to view revival in this way:

1. a mostly emotional experience,
2. usually happens in church or a church related venue,
3. involves a drawn out time of worship through song,
4. includes only members of the church
5. usually lasts a few hours.
6. Tragically, they come back to church, or camp, or retreat, or conference with no fundamental difference in their lives.

It is important for me to add the following disclaimer. There isn't necessarily anything wrong or unhealthy or fake about those experiences in and of themselves. The problem is perspective, or Worldview. First, we call those experiences revival. For the most part, they are not. Second, and the American church is notorious for this one: these experiences leave no lasting effects on our lives. Here is where this blog's title comes into play. We do not know what revival really is so we don't know what we're asking for when we pray for it. I dare say, if we understood what revival really means, many would no longer pray for it.

I have always written like this. I used to drive my profs nuts in college. I spend a half or two-thirds of the entire project setting up the subject and very little on the actual subject. In this case, it is appropriate because the obvious question that needs to be answered is quite simple: So what is revival? From the first church in Acts to the Welsh Revivals and the Great Awakenings to the revival that is raging right this moment in China and South Korea, revivals in history have always contained the same basic elements: They are preceded by prayer, marked by repentance, and proven by permanently changes lives. In contrast to the typical American church view of revial, true revival is:

1. a excercise of the will,
2. is not restrained to the traditional church venues
3. involves drawn out periods of anguished confession, repentance, and labored prayer.
4. affects everyone in the community
5. lasts indefinitely because
6. Most involved are marked by permanent change in the course of their lives.

At this point I strongly recommend the book "Revival Fire" by Wesley Duewel. The book is a compliation of short accounts of the great revivals in modern history. There are other good revival books out there, but this one is particularly apropriate because these revivals occurred in the world we are familiar with. There is nothing like reading the stories of real revivals to kindle the passion in your heart for something more. I would be delighted to refer anyone to many excellent resources I have discovered over the years.

My next post will attempt to address the question: So how do we acheive genuine revial in our lives?