(With Pastor Kyle Clayton -Spring Revival at First Baptist Church, Farwell, TX. - 2008.)
A deacon approached me before the first service of a week-long revival and announced, "We're expecting to see a lot of people come to Christ this week?" I responded, "I hope so." But in the back of mind I wondered to myself, "What have you done to encourage lost persons to attend your church? Does your love for Christ extend outside these church walls? Do you understand that revival is for the church?"
I rejoice in witnessing second-birth moments in the midst of church-wide revivals! I love to be a part of introducing a loving Savior to a broken sinner! And yet I have to wonder - are revivals measured solely in persons coming to Christ? Can the harvest be great in spite of an unrenewed fellowship? Absolutely. If revivals were measured in salvations alone, one of the greatest revivals God has allowed me to be a part of ended in a church split less than a year afterwards. I have to question whether the congregation experienced anything close to genuine revival.
How will we know the leaven of revival has permeated our congregation? What are the tell-tale signs that point to the incredible truth that our church is caught in the kingdom-advancing wind of the Holy Spirit? Do the following statements resemble your church?
1. Our daily lives will be characterized by brokenness and surrender. Above everything else, I believe brokenness is the key to revival. Without brokenness on our part, God is limited by what He can do in us and through us. Brokenness reminds us of why we needed to come to Christ in the first place. We were sinners. Brokenness reminds us of who we still are apart from Christ. We are still sinners saved by the grace of God. Brokenness expands our comprehension of grace - and consequently, deepens the personal reservoir of grace we draw from to irrigate the lives of those we touch. Genuine brokenness leads to surrender to the will of Christ for our lives. Surrender exceeds commitment. When we commit, we make a stand! When we surrender, we bury our faces in the dirt at His crucified feet!
2. We will genuinely love people - beginning with "one another." Love begins at home. Many are the lives left in confusion and ruin because love has been absent from their family. The same tragic outcome can occur in a dysfunctional church. Jesus' oft-quoted certificate of authenticity for Christians is as plain as four noses on the face of Mount Rushmore. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this (italics mine) all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If we don't sincerely love those whom God has placed in our fellowship of faith, it is highly unlikely that we will ever love the lost around us no matter how much we may claim to the contrary.
3. We will joyfully help people - beginning with "the least of these." Revivals are like love - they can be measured in actions! According to Jesus, the starting line of Christian service begins among an unlikely group of individuals. (Unlikely according to those who spout "God helps those who help themselves" like it was scripture.) The hungry and thirsty. The stranger and the naked. The sick and the prisoner. In short, the poor - the helpless. To the misquoter of a warped gospel that is no gospel at all, Jesus counters - "Those who follow Me will begin by helping those whom God helps - the helpless."
4. We will passionately go and make disciples - beginning with those around us. It is amazing how many pew-warming Christians shirk this essential calling of every believer. Many will witness with their checkbook before they will ever open up their mouth. They will toss a Lottie Moon life-rope into the uttermost part of the world but ignore a lost culture encroaching upon their church doorstep. Genuine revival corrects this absurd reversal of the great commission so that individuals who live in our own Jerusalems become our number one priority and responsibility. We will not rest until every person living in our sphere of influence has had the opportunity to choose Jesus - and we will not rest until every person who chooses to accept Jesus is discipled in the ways of God.
5. We will unselfishly worship God together with all generations - and stop worshiping worship and self-preference. Three characteristics should be overwhelmingly true of every church family - a Christ-given holiness, a Christ-woven love, and a Christ-driven innovation to reach everyone with the message of Jesus. Churches who slant their worship to suit only one select generation are selfish. They are essentially declaring they have no interest in reaching anyone different from themselves. They are dangerously close to worshipping worship - not God! If one has to have hymns to worship or contemporary music to worship; if one has to have a certain version of the Bible to worship, we are worshipping the means, not The Object! But when genuine revival comes, our worship will resemble the eclectic worship of heaven itself. Music won't matter to us as much as the truth of what we are singing. The old will prefer the music of the young, the young will prefer the music of the old, and our preferring one another over ourselves will mold us into a love and unity that will catch the attention of the world while bringing delight and glory to the Father.