The Church and Revival

To watch the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Asbury University in these days is to behold a work of God that is filled with such power that it is beyond the power of logical comprehension.  It is easy for some to say it is all about a contagious emotional reaction full of frenzied activity, but with little substance.  Even as many people are testifying to a changed life, the room is also filled with naysayers who will not accept at face value what is actually happening.  What is even more surprising is the hands off attitude of many who are the ordained and the leaders of the church.   

Of course, none of this should be surprising.  The institutional church has too much at stake to risk the possibility of real revival.  The church will always be resistant to real revival because revival disturbs the status quo, brings about core value changes, and demands actions which reflect repentance.  The sad reality is that the institutional church has too much invested in the status quo and all its accompanying components to allow anything, no matter how spiritual it might be, to threaten its ongoing existence and survival.   

What compounds the sense of sadness is that there is nothing needed more in the life of the church today than the kind of outpouring of God's Holy Spirit that we are currently witnessing at Asbury in the present moment.  Without some fresh awareness of the Spirit, the church so many have served and for which so many have prayed and sacrificied is doomed to a mediocrity that will soon make it a relic of faith rather than a life changing instrument of faith.  Without the kind of radical divine intervention that is a part of the Spirit's work and an accompanying hunger for it, the church will become the centerpiece for a museum instead of the centerpiece for the Kingdom of God.