A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Dr. Larry Brice is minister of Knox Church, Jarvis, Ontario.
You can see it almost everywhere. Sunday morning worship. Church meetings. Presbyteries and General Assembly. We are fully at ease with Christian faith.
That wouldn’t happen if the spiritual temperature in this church were red hot; or even ice cold. But there is everywhere a comfortableness with the gospel that borders on malaise.
Pierre Burton saw this coming in the 1960’s when he wrote his book, The Comfortable Pew. In the late 1970’s our denomination tried to rouse herself from what many felt was a comfortable sleep with the challenge to double our church membership in the decade of the 1980’s. But our communicant membership grew in only one year of that decade.
And here we are this year in 1991 rolling over once again with the two new bedfellows of a task force on restructuring our national church office and another one remapping theological and diaconal education for Presbyterians in Canada today. This calls for tough decisions and deep insight to succeed. But these two giants might only challenge an elite leadership in our national church without impacting the widespread status quo everywhere else?
Is there nowhere where we can find new life — in preaching, in church structure and in Christian living? Can’t a weary and beleaguered church find a new excitement in the Almighty? What ever happened to what the church used to know as revival? Revival!: “coming back to life … vigour … reawakening of religious fervour,” is how my pocket Oxford Dictionary defines the word revival. Or consider how the Bible speaks of revival:
Restore us again, O God our Saviour,
and put away your displeasure toward us …
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
(Psalm 85:4,6)
Why is the word revival so foreign to us today? When is the last time you heard a sermon on the revival of the church? Have you ever heard such a sermon? Or have you ever read in a magazine a call for a powerful denominational restoration so the Lord would take pleasure in us once again — a revival of faith and morals which will leave us rejoicing as our Psalm suggests?
It seems that revival is so remote to the average church attender today that we no longer even have an idea of what revival used to mean. It’s just passe. It’s even hard to find good current books in bookstores on revival ministers such as Whitefield, Wesley, Finney, Spurgeon and Moody. They are now just names in some church history courses.
A few Presbyterians may have seen, or may have heard of what some revival meetings used to be like. Sometimes the fear of God and of judgment would sweep through entire communities during revivals so that worshippers would cry out loud for mercy as the preacher spoke, while others would roll on the ground with overwhelming remorse for wrongs they had done and deep conviction of sin. Yet despite these frightening and very un-Presbyterian manifestations of revival, there is documentation that such communities, after having experienced revival, had greater love for one another, a complete reform of criminal behaviour, thrusts forward in social justice, and heightened commitment to attend church and to serve Christ.
Who would argue that we need these benefits in the Presbyterian Church in Canada today? We need a revival that will renew us and not only radically restore our flagging Christian lives but permeate our multicultural communities. And, yes, can’t we also have a revival in the Presbyterian way — done “decently and in order?”
Not only in other times and places of church history, but even here in Canada today there is vibrant wholesome revival in many sister denominations. Some Mennonite, Salvation Army, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Pentecostal, Gospel and community churches are having what could be called “mainline revivals” that are biblical, orderly and powerful in renewing Christians and reaching outsiders. Often one can feel a charged atmosphere of love and worship in their meetings. The congregation can sense the Holy Spirit of God at work to reclaim and restore broken, lonely and hurting lives; and that, like the tabernacle of Israel of the Old Testament, God is not only glorified, but his glory dwells with his people.
How do we begin a revival? Revival often is said to begin with prayer. The Bible says that “the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
The second condition for revival is the rediscovery of the Bible. During the reign of king Josiah of Judah (2 Kings 22:1 ff.) a copy of what was then the Bible was discovered in the Temple and when it was read in public, there was a widespread revival of faith in Israel.
A third pre-requisite for revival is personally sharing one’s Christian faith. It may only be a warm invitation to a friend or relative to attend a meeting where Christ is made known. Such an invitation by a newly committed Christian to his or her old circle of friends can have a powerful effect upon that entire community of people.
And finally, a necessary condition for genuine revival is Christian love and service. There has been much recent talk about lifestyle evangelism that speaks of finding a need in the community and meeting it with loving Christian service. When selfless Christian love is perceived by others, people are drawn to Christ and his church. Love is the very mark of Christian discipleship. Jesus said: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Sincere Christian love and service is not only a condition necessary for revival but also the very best fruit produced by a revival!
What then about revival? Far from being passé — or merely possible — the need for revival is the priority of the church so comfortably and peacefully at ease with her Christian faith.