Forced Spiritual Revivals
One of my earlier memories in life is at the age of 12 when I went to Calvary Baptist Church and the pastor announced that a revival was coming.
I still remember trying to figure out how he could predict such a happening in the lives of the congregation. Was he analyzing the trends, having deep conversations with people, was he given a vision that this was coming or simply noticing that Christians were impacting other Christians and it was beginning to change the community for the better?
Sadly no, what he really meant is that the church administration hired a group of speakers to come jump up and down, speak the living truth with loud yelling and put on a show. Of course, this isn’t how he described it from the pulpit. It was more of a “Invite your friends and those that you’ve always wanted to invite to church, because now is the time. If you want people to see excitement in the church, have them come next Sunday because the word of God is going to come alive.”
Of course, at the time, I didn’t think about this much but I do remember the event pretty clear. Now that I’m older, I question the purpose of such revivals and the lack of organic revivals in churches around America.
A forced revival is really only smoke and mirrors along with manipulating people spiritual emotions. I could be wrong but I’m wondering what else it could be?
I’m thinking about this again because a local church is going to have a revival. Because of this my buddy and I were discussing our thoughts on the whole event and what (we think) it truly means to have a revival within the church, individual lives and the community.
Then, a few days later, I was listening to the Free Beer and Hot Wings Show and the church one of them goes to had The Power Team come in for a revival. The whole thing just sounded ridiculous and even though they didn’t mock the event, they said it wasn’t for them and weren’t sure how anyone could go to one of these and feel closer to God after seeing Rhino Man bust through an ice wall.
For me, this type of evangelism makes about as much sense as Chuck Norris having a dance off with his enemies instead of actually fighting. It just doesn’t work and it doesn’t make devoted followers.
So I’m frustrated with the word revival when church’s refer to it as someone coming in to get the congregation pumped up. I may be looking at this in the wrong way but unless someone helps clarify this for me - I’m not a fan.
rusty Says:
The type of revival you’re writing about won’t be around for much longer. More progressive churches like Mars Hill, for example, understand your feelings on this issue- and you can be sure that they are going out of their way (despite their size) *not* to use smoke and mirrors to draw young people in. The loud, in-your-face charismatic movement in larger evangelical churches is going to be replaced with something quieter; a renewed emphasis on simple spirituality- what many christians consider to be a watered down version of the things that they feel are important (church doctrine, etc.). I remember going to youth group meetings and playing games, listening to contemporary christian music, and watching smoke machines work overtime to create a very specific, hip atmosphere. I really do think that by the time our generation have more of a say in how churches are run, you’ll see less and less of this. It isn’t that it didn’t draw anyone in when we were younger- it’s that young people today are too familiar with it; they see right through it.
the very idea of the word of god “coming alive” is a tired one. refusing to read the Bible as a historical text is difficult for an increasing amount of young people who learn to read crictically. a lot of times churches who use these techniques focus more on the holy spirit than jesus- often they will replace their cross avatar with that of a dove, etc. i think we’ll see less and less of this as well. i’m crossing my fingers.