Revival and Mission
For many years I was a student of revival. It started in the late 1980's when I read a biography of George Whitfield, the great evangelist of the first Great Awakening in the early 1700's. After that, in the early 1990's, my home church experienced a distinct move of God and we called that "revival" and it definitely sent me back to my study to understand and try to experience a real revival. When I was doing a seminary degree approximately 10 years ago, I was privileged to take a class on Revival, and I think it was my favorite class in the whole program. Our text books were the writings of key revival leaders such as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Frank Bartleman (1st Great Awakening, 2nd Great Awakening, Azusa Street Revival).
There is a close relationship between Revival and Mission. Both are concerned with the advance of the Kingdom of God. Both can and do result in people coming to faith in Christ and lives being transformed, and even societal transformation.
The difference, at least logically, is that Revival has to do with people who are already saved, or at least a part of the visible church or Christian community, and Missions is focused on the unreached and unevangelized. In other words, Missions focuses on those who are spiritually dead and need the "resurrection" or the "new birth". Revival focuses on those who are spiritually alive, but asleep to the things of God, and living in some level of disobedience to Him, who need to be "revived" or "awakened".
Today there is a great need for both Revival and Mission. In terms of Mission, our world now has a population that will pass 7 Billion within a few days from this writing, and of those only 2 Billion profess any kind of Christianity.....and of those 2 Billion, less than half would profess a real new birth experience. They are in a kind of religious or cultural Christianity rather than a vital and real relationship with the Living Jesus Christ. Mission must be directed toward the more than 6 Billion lost and unreached people on planet earth who do not have an experience of the new birth. And priority must be given to those people groups and regions, where unless new missional endeavors are launched, the people have little or no hope of ever hearing the gospel. Close to 1.5 Billion have no current possibility of gospel witness!
But for that to happen, there needs to be a Revival among the nearly 1 Billion Christians who claim the new birth. So much of the church is asleep, or perhaps more accurately "hypnotized" by the world and its values. God's people need to be "revived" so that they can be "mobilized" to reach this world with the gospel.
What kind of Revival am I speaking of?
1. A Revival of the Word and the Spirit.
A return to the Bible, the Word of God as the ultimate authority in the lives of believers, and a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to cleanse, change, and empower our lives.
2. A Revival of Prayer.
A return of real concern and burden for a lost world....more than for personal fulfilment and success. More concern for God's glory than for our ministries. A revived prayer movement for World Evangelism is needed.
3. A Revival of Disciple Making.
Multiple movements of people becoming obedient disciples themselves and then making new disciples who are obedient to the Word of God.
Let's pray for ourselves and for other believers. Pray that God will bring a new season of Revival to His people, who will then be launched into the world to reached the peoples still without Christ.
There is a close relationship between Revival and Mission. Both are concerned with the advance of the Kingdom of God. Both can and do result in people coming to faith in Christ and lives being transformed, and even societal transformation.
The difference, at least logically, is that Revival has to do with people who are already saved, or at least a part of the visible church or Christian community, and Missions is focused on the unreached and unevangelized. In other words, Missions focuses on those who are spiritually dead and need the "resurrection" or the "new birth". Revival focuses on those who are spiritually alive, but asleep to the things of God, and living in some level of disobedience to Him, who need to be "revived" or "awakened".
Today there is a great need for both Revival and Mission. In terms of Mission, our world now has a population that will pass 7 Billion within a few days from this writing, and of those only 2 Billion profess any kind of Christianity.....and of those 2 Billion, less than half would profess a real new birth experience. They are in a kind of religious or cultural Christianity rather than a vital and real relationship with the Living Jesus Christ. Mission must be directed toward the more than 6 Billion lost and unreached people on planet earth who do not have an experience of the new birth. And priority must be given to those people groups and regions, where unless new missional endeavors are launched, the people have little or no hope of ever hearing the gospel. Close to 1.5 Billion have no current possibility of gospel witness!
But for that to happen, there needs to be a Revival among the nearly 1 Billion Christians who claim the new birth. So much of the church is asleep, or perhaps more accurately "hypnotized" by the world and its values. God's people need to be "revived" so that they can be "mobilized" to reach this world with the gospel.
What kind of Revival am I speaking of?
1. A Revival of the Word and the Spirit.
A return to the Bible, the Word of God as the ultimate authority in the lives of believers, and a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to cleanse, change, and empower our lives.
2. A Revival of Prayer.
A return of real concern and burden for a lost world....more than for personal fulfilment and success. More concern for God's glory than for our ministries. A revived prayer movement for World Evangelism is needed.
3. A Revival of Disciple Making.
Multiple movements of people becoming obedient disciples themselves and then making new disciples who are obedient to the Word of God.
Let's pray for ourselves and for other believers. Pray that God will bring a new season of Revival to His people, who will then be launched into the world to reached the peoples still without Christ.
Comments