Tag: Revival

The Future of the Local Church – Revival or Revolution?

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Church, Ministry

–April of 2006

The Future of the Local Church – Revival or Revolution?

For over half a century men and women all over America have been praying for revival.  But it looks like we are having a revolution instead.  At least that’s the findings of America’s religious pulse-taker, George Barna, Jr.  You can read all about it in his latest book, Revolution.  The upshot of Barna’s book is that a “quiet revolution” is taking place in America. These revolutionaries are a growing sub-nation of Christians, already over 20 million strong, who are set on doing whatever it takes to get closer to God and help others do the same.  They are committed to a radical, Biblical faith that is transforming and authentic.

The unique part of this revolution is that it is largely taking place outside the local church.  (The revolutionaries  are careful to differentiate between the church and the Church.) They  believe the local church has failed to fulfill its mission.  They see most local churches as irrelevant and ineffective in equipping believers to be Christlike and advancing God’s kingdom in a Biblical way.  They believe the church has become so hidebound by tradition and so focused on its own agenda that true worship, radical commitment, spiritual growth, servanthood and authentic community have become secondary issues. They strongly believe that “we are not called to go to church; we are called to be the Church.”

Many of the revolutionaries are still involved in a local church, but millions of them have left the church and developed a new model of church called alternative faith-based communities.  Barna predicts the alternative groups will continue to see significant growth while the traditional local church will shrink by over 40 percent in the next twenty years.

 Problems with the Revolution

I want to be very careful that I do not curse what God has blessed, but I do have concerns with what I see taking place.  Barna’s research indicates that the revolution is being embraced by the most serious-minded Christians.  Nevertheless, sincerity and zeal alone do not mean that a thing is right or problem free. My first concern grows out of the very nature of the Church itself. The Church is Christ’s Body, the members are inseparably linked one to another, and anytime small segments pull away there is the danger of cultivating a “Lone Ranger” mentality.  The intent may be right and the immediate results seem good, but in the long term there is the danger of becoming exclusive and even cultish.

I’m also concerned that these small groups lack the accountability and discipline that is provided by some form of church authority such as a board of elders.  One of Paul’s first concerns in each of the New Testament churches was to appoint a group of elders and deacons to provide leadership and structure.

The most serious concern I have comes from the fact that separation from a local church can disconnect this small body from a theological and historical framework for interpreting scripture.  Most of these revolutionaries grew up in a postmodern world and are strongly influenced by postmodern thinking.  Couple that fact with their separation from a system of theological thought or the historical continuity of the Church and it can simply lead to every man doing what is right in his own eyes. Heresy can blossom in such settings.

Can we learn from the Revolution?

Yes!  I believe there are a number of things the local church and church leaders can learn from this revolution. Let me share with you four things that I believe we need to learn.

 We should guard against being inflexible and too resistant to change.

Change is not bad.  Change is a natural, positive and irreplaceable part of normal, healthy growth. When change means a compromise of Biblical truth or core values, then change is bad and should be avoided.  But when change serves as the catalyst for positive spiritual growth, it is good, normative and should be welcomed.  The local church, far too often, stiff-arms change simply because the members are comfortable with what they are doing and had rather not be inconvenienced by change.

 We should guard against elevating what is traditional to the plane of what is Biblical.

In the average Christian church, almost everything we do is based on tradition.  The times and places we meet, the ministries we offer, the structure we follow and the music and instruments we use are all largely dictated by tradition.  Traditions are helpful and at times even important, but they must not be confused with God-given commands.  Traditions should never have the same authority as scripture.  Tradition can become such a mechanical part of who we are and what we do that over time the distinction between a tradition and Biblical truth can become blurred.  Worse yet, there may be a tendency to think that faithful obedience to our tradition is well pleasing to God, when in all reality, we may be doing things He neither commands nor cares about, while the things for which He sent His Son we regard as of little or no importance.

 We should guard against the church’s being member driven rather than mission driven.

The local church is not a club, society or an organization that exists for the pleasure of its members.  It is not a democracy where everybody has his or her say.  It is the body of Christ where believers are matured toward Christlikeness and equipped for ministry and where the lost are evangelized.  Far too many local churches exist only for the pleasure and edification of their membership and have totally forgotten and inadvertently abandoned the mission that God has given them to accomplish.  A church that doesn’t exist for redemptive activity has no reason to exist.

 We should guard against becoming denominationally focused

rather than community impacting.

The local church is not just another branch office to collect revenue and promote the company brand for some denomination.   The local church must focus on and be engaged with the community in which it lives.  History has proven that a focus on what the denomination is doing rather than what the local church is doing is a clear sign of death for both.

Barna may be right about the revolution, but I hope he is wrong about the local church. I am aware that God can get His work done with or without the local church, at least as we know it.  But if the local church experiences revival, it can yet be a powerful force for God.  So while the revolution unfolds, I will rejoice in whatever good it is doing and continue to pray for and work toward revival and renewal in the local church.

The Real War

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Culture

–April of 2004

The Real War

A new front has opened up in the ongoing cultural war in America.  For the last 100 years, there has been a deliberate and dedicated battle to totally secularize our nation.  It began with an assault on the Bible and our traditional Judeo Christian values.  These had to be removed as the determining basis for truth, morality, justice, and society’s standards of behavior and decency.  Soon afterwards, God and prayer were evicted from the classroom.  Then under the guise of freedom of speech, pornography, vulgarity, and violence were given complete freedom to corrupt our youth and undermine our values through every possible means.  One of the deadliest blows struck in this war was when the highest court in the land permitted 44 million innocent souls to be sent to graves in the sewers and incinerators of America by the bloody hands of legalized abortion.

Homosexuals won the next skirmish, and have been awarded special rights by the courts and given the freedom to not only practice, but also promote their perversion.  These very ones that God has called abominable and reprobate, an apostate church has blessed, ordained, and elevated to the office of Bishop.  And right now, as I write, the most fundamental building block of civilization, the home, is gasping for breath as the unelected liberal judges of our nation try to bury it alive under the rubbish of same sex marriage.

Americans are confronted daily by the perversity of deviant human behavior in every form imaginable.  Too many of us simply react angrily, lament for a moment, and then return to the discussion of how the economy is doing.  It is not yet clear what the end of these issues will be.  But what is clear is that America is in a downward spiral toward hell (Psalm 9:17).

What should we be doing about this?  The first thing we need to do is start focusing on where the real battle lies and what the real struggle is.  The issues, mentioned above, are only skirmishes.  The real war is a cosmic struggle between good and evil.  Ephesians 6:12 makes it very plain that, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  It is critical that we understand the real dimensions of this war so that we may fight it effectively.

This is no societal tug of war that we can settle in an afternoon contest.  This will not be solved by calling together a focus group to try to understand one another.  This is not a liberal versus conservative issue.  It cannot simply be voted in or out.  As Americans we ought to be doing everything in our power to stop and reverse this deadly assault on our countries moral values.  As Christians, we must see the deeper issue.  We must go to our knees in true humility, praying, “Lord, deliver us from evil.”

We are in a life and death struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.  The soul of America and the souls of her citizens are at stake.  Whether America can turn back the onslaught and survive remains to be seen.  However, as Christians who are a part of God’s advancing kingdom, we have the promise that, “the gates of hell cannot prevail against her.”  So buckle on your armor and get into the fight.  For in the real war, victory is inevitable!

The Face of Revival

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Church, Theology

–Summer of 2002

The Face of Revival

In a recent conversation with a student, I was asked this question.  “What does revival look like?”  The question grew out of the student’s frustration on the fact that she had heard messages on revival, messages that spoke of our need for revival, and the results of revival, but had never really given her something solid so that she could recognize the beginnings of revival.

As I began to think about that question, it dawned on me that many of us might miss the beginning of revival because we are looking for the wrong thing.  Too often we dress revival up in the clothes of supernatural phenomenon or other forms of Divine visitation, when really revival will first come to us dressed in sackcloth and ashes.  When God gave Solomon the process to find personal and national revival, it began with a call to humility.  “If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves…”

What Does Humility Look Like?

Andrew Murray in his classic work on humility, states, “Humility is the place of entire dependence on God and is by its very nature the first duty and the highest virtue of man.  It is simply man’s acknowledging the truth of his position as man in yielding to God His place as God.”  Another church father said it like this, “Humility is the frame of mind a man possesses who is fully aware of his nothingness apart from God and of his sinfulness that would eternally separate him from God were not God willing to rescue him.”  Humility does not imply a slavishness or servility.  Nor is it inconsistent with a right estimation of one’s self, gifts and calling of God.  Nor with a proper self assertion when called for.  True humility is, indeed, the frame of mind that a man possesses whereby he understands his total dependence upon God for all that he is and does.

Are We People of Humility?

Being clothed with humility, as Saint Peter admonishes, is a concept that most of us haven’t considered.  We do not think of humility as a dominant characteristic of today’s successful person.  Most church members and even many church leaders are not known for their humility, but for their self reliance, self sufficiency, and self confidence.  Those seem to be traits that fit well within the sociological and political scheme of things.  So we value them rather than valuing what the Bible calls humility.  It might even be said that many in the church have an aversion to humility.  Some erroneously see it as a weakness.  One of those traits if possessed too much might even hinder a man getting along in life.

Is Humility Important to Revival?

The answer is quite easy.  There can be no revival without first a spirit of humility gripping the church.  It is out of a spirit of humility that all the other attributes of revival flow.

Will God Humble Us?

 When we set our hearts to seeking God for revival, we are actually asking God to humble us.  The evidence that He is answering our prayer for revival can be seen in the way that He chooses to humble His church.

In his book, Changed into His Image, Jim Berg lists four ways that God may choose to humble us.

First, He will send a problem we can’t handle to expose our helplessness.  Do you remember the story of Naaman in II Kings?  A high-ranking Syrian official who needed healing from his leprosy could not accept the humility of meeting only with the second man and then being told to wash in the muddy Jordan River.  But Naaman was confronted with a problem that would not go away until he humbled himself and did what God commanded.

The second way God humbles us is to give us a command we won’t obey so as to expose our self-centeredness.   Do you remember the Prophet named Jonah?  God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, and Jonah simply wouldn’t go.  The end result being, Jonah got a real glimpse of his self-centered and selfish heart.

The third way is for God to arrange an outcome we can’t control to expose our sinfulness.  Do you remember when King David took Bathsheba into his bedchamber for an evening of pleasure, only to send her back home thinking no one would ever know?  When word came back from Bathsheba that she was pregnant, David knew he had a problem on his hands that he couldn’t control.  He tried to desperately corral it and deal with it, but it was beyond his control, and God intended it to be that way.  David needed to see his own sinfulness.

The fourth way is that He will show us a God we can’t comprehend to expose our finiteness.  Job was no doubt a good man.  God Himself testified to such.  But Job needed a lesson in humility so that he could understand that God Himself is beyond our human understanding.

When you and I begin to pray for revival and when we begin to look about for signs of that revival, we should not be shocked if the first face we see is not pleasant but one that humbles all of us.