Manifesto for Revival

So many have become jaded to the word "revival". The church has lost faith that revival is a real thing and can really bring change to society. It is tired of people saying revival is one thing, and revival is another thing, that they have lost faith in this almost mystic goal for the church. However, I believe that revival is possible and requires not following one vision of revival, but letting the visions work together as one.

Unity
Some may look at this and see only the impossibility of unity and revival, which is a very real impossibility. The usual response in this is to shy away in it because it is not humanly possible. That however is apathy, and is not fair to the God that created the church. Revival requires faith, not just because it's a "requirement", but because it is utterly impossible on human terms. Everyone will agree on that. However, will we believe that it is entirely possible on God's terms? If it is truly something that is possible on God's terms, then it is something we must earnestly seek for in faith and hope.

Revival will occur when the strength of the charismatic church in prayer and the evangelistic church's strength in evangelism will be able to work together.

This means the surrender of saying one is above the other. Neither can function without the other. Prayer is simply empty words of hypocrisy if there is no evangelism. Evangelism will simply be vane attempts at doing God's work with the feeble power of man without prayer.

The church must unite together. Unity is another word that has lost its value. People have jaded their hearts to this idea from many misconceptions. Unity is not a loss of identity, but a submission of identity to God. The essential and powerful concept of unity has been neglected by the church in several areas, including revival.

Love
For too long, both sides of the church have had too narrow of a view of the word "revival". The charismatic church has made the emphasis on a restoration of powerful intercession and intimacy with the God. The evangelistic church has made the emphasis on bringing salvation to others and bringing people into community. Both of these in one way or the other focus on where to place the church's love- God or the community. It has seems one side is always neglected.

However, Jesus' command to love was two fold- Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus didn't say "love the lord your god, or love your neighbor as yourself". He specifically said to do both. The church must come to a realization that revival will only occur when we come to balance these two principles. These two principles feed on one another. Intimacy with God enables us to love others, and loving others is a way of loving our God.

Revival requires both social reformation and spiritual reformation- which altogether brings about the fulfillment of Jesus's command to love. When both social and spiritual reformation happen at the same time, they will begin to feed one another, creating a supernatural synergy. This synergy that occurs at the intersection of social and spiritual reformation creates a revolutionary environment in the church, birthed out of love- revival.

(the previous is based on generalizations of the major division in the church today {charismatic/evangelical}- there are definitely exceptions in both the charismatic and evangelistic groups)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-1 Corinthians 13:13

It's bigger than cold religion
It's bigger than life

Love is the movement
Love is the revolution
This is redemption
We don't have to slow back down
-Switchfoot



GOD! MAY IT HAPPEN IN MY DAYS!