Thoughts on Revival
Thirty years ago I attended an evangelistic crusade in Santa Cruz, California. It was a fun meeting, and we were having a great hand-clapping foot-stomping time. But as usual we were preaching to the choir.
During the meeting the evangelist got up and said that a year from now we would not be able to recognize Santa Cruz as the same city, as REVIVAL had come. A year later the only thing you couldn’t tell was that any excuse for revival had come.
So why is that? Why is it that a year later you couldn’t tell we’d ever met, let alone had any significant impact on our city?
Well, the first problem stems from a faulty definition of revival, which nonetheless has become widely accepted. It seems that any time we experience some excitement we are quick to trot out the word revival. But the fact of the matter is that the excitement tends to be short-lived, and within a matter of weeks everything is back to normal. In fact, I’ve seen the excitement of a group of men coming back from a Promise Keeper’s gathering destroyed in one week. The leader of the men’s prayer breakfast totally ignored any momentum and excitement we might have brought back from the meeting and had a pair of speakers come in to give an essentially meaningless talk about the shofar.
Yeah, I know, that’s a bit of an extreme example. But even without that I doubt the momentum would have lasted more than 4 to 6 weeks anyway.
The other significant efforts I have seen were a series of monthly prayer meetings, where we gathered for nearly 2 hours of singing, and another series of prayer meetings, this time bi-weekly, where we gathered for about 1½ hours of prayer. Of the two I was far more impressed with the bi-weekly meetings, as they actually consisted of prayer, with canned music playing in the background. The meetings were also held at different locations, so they weren’t attached only to one church. Unfortunately, there were 2 shortcomings. First, the meetings only lasted about 2-3 months, and then fizzled. And secondly, nowhere in the meetings was the issue of repentance addressed (more on that later).
The other meetings, held on the last Friday of each month, consisted of little more than a 2-hour praise and worship service, run by someone whose personal preference was for prayer singing, and who didn’t seem to comprehend that not everyone was comfortable with the thought of praying while music that was loud enough to give even a former Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin fan a headache. And again, the subject of repentance was totally absent.
So what was wrong? What was missing?
Based on my research of past revivals I’d say two things were wrong. First, and you undoubtedly saw this one coming, is repentance. Having looked into past revivals the theme of repentance is the one primary constant. Indeed, here is a report from the Hebrides revival of 1949:
As several men were praying and waiting upon God in a barn shortly before the revival began, a young deacon rose and read the following from the 24th Psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart... He shall receive the blessing from the Lord.” This young man then turned to the others and said: “Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” At this point, an awareness of God filled the barn and supernatural power was released in the lives of those attending the meeting.
This need for repentance, and the resulting conviction of sin as people are saved, is a universal feature of true revival.
The second feature of revival is to be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit. The reports I’ve read of revivals showed that people would sometimes gather for hours, repenting of their sins and praying for revival. But the reports both from the Hebrides revival and the earlier Azusa Street revival indicate that once meetings became scheduled and programmed the move of the Holy Spirit began to wane, and the revival began to come to an end.
And finally, I’d like to take a look at what has been called the Toronto Blessing, that is, the meetings at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (formerly known as Toronto Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship, until even the Vineyard churches got tired of their excesses and threw them out). As a local pastor once stated, “I’ve been to Toronto, and I’ve been across the street.” And we need to hear what this pastor was saying.
Historically revival affects the entire community. But in Toronto, as we also saw later in Brownsville, there was no affect outside the church walls. There have been no reports of porno shops closing as a result of this so-called revival. Indeed, UI understand that in Brownsville it was necessary to drive through a rather seedy district with the usual bars and pawn and porno shops to get to the church, and the supposed revival had absolutely no affect on that area. Which is what this local pastor meant when he said; “I’ve been to Toronto, and I’ve been across the street.” If this is revival, where are the results?
So instead of having song-fests and calling them revival, or praying for the results of revival instead of revival itself, we need to pray for repentance. Then, and only then, may we see revival.
James Duncan