Being Bypassed by Revival

I understand that, especially, the title of my post: Figuring Out what to do with People Like Me may have seemed conceited and narcissistic.

Certainly, it was audacious. (But, then, it strikes me that audacity is often a characteristic of the prophetic.)

Still, I felt a much stronger impulse to enter that post than I do with almost everything that I put on the blog.

And, as I reflected on Dan Masshardt's comment and, my reply to it, I've had several thoughts worth of posts, some of which I consider to be important.

Here's one:

One aspect of what happens before a revival is that the visible, or organized, church becomes incapable of engaging and satisfying the spiritually passionate people Christ gives to it.

There can be two types of people l lost to the church: One is the unbeliever. The other? The believer who is out of sync with the church.

As you think about my post, understand that it's about what the church does with People Like me, not with me myself.

There is a chasm, a gulf, these days, between what's being done by the influencers and decision makers of American institutional Christianity and the yearnings and desires of many spiritually passionate Jesus-followers. They love Jesus, but not the church.

I  see a significant, and increasing, number of people, these days, who love and who follow Jesus who are not, as Hebrews 10 says, stirred up (ESV) "to love and good works" by today's church, i.e., they are not being fed by the visible, institutional church. They starve, spiritually, when connected to the church.

For the most part, these are people who struggle, in every moment of daily life, to know what it means to seek God's Kingdom and His righteousness...and, actually, to do that.

And, they see today's church trying to save itself first, and not empowering its people to be men and women of the Kingdom, not, as Paul says existing "to prepare the saints for works of service."

Sadly, if and when those people attend a worship service they are not stirred up to love and good works. They feel as if they are being entertained not edified to live the life. And, they are frustrated. And, at least one of those people I know feels sick to the stomach in a so-called worship service.

As far as today's church is concerned, they are, at best, dissatisfied and restless, at worst, they've completely given up hope in the organized church

That second group of people, the completely given up hope people, will not be won back to the church unless the church changes,...

...which is the point of my original post.

Those who've given up on the organized church respond in a variety of ways. Sadly, some have even lost a clear focus on Christ, as Dan Masshardt notes, but most haven't.

Most truly do struggle to follow Jesus. They do, as Paul admonished the Philippians, "work out (their) own salvation with fear and trembling," and, sadly, they do that without reference to organized Christianity.

And, please understand. I'm not one of those people. This blog itself proves my love for the people of the institutional church, if not for the institutional church itself.

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Now, as far as the title of the post is concerned, here's the thing:

A revival is always a radically new and different way.

When a revival takes place, what passes for establishment Christianity i.e., Churchianity, is left behind.

Historically, the organized church is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, scandalized by the new ways of revival, which it deems to be too radical, and, honestly, offensive and unchristian.

It always, ALWAYS, holds on to its traditions.

Blow the dust off of your church history books, if you doubt that...

...and, the spiritually passionate people, yearning for what Churchianity can't and won't provide, will drop the organized church like a hot potato to join in a work of the Spirit.

In the future, history always looks back favorably on the people who dumped the organized church for the new ways.

It always does.

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So, why try to figure out what to do with people like me?

The Lord of all authority and power and blessing isn't blessing today's organized Christianity.

Organized Christianity is declining. Organized Christianity is decaying. It's people talk change but the change it actually puts into action is minor.

I've said many times here and as far back as the days of Brian Miller's Emerging CGGC blog that, when I was in school studying the history of revivalism, one way to understand the history of revivalism is to think of it as the History of Paradigm Change.

The people I know of who are attempting to lead the institutional church out of its decline and decay are people who are committed, first and foremost, to saving the current church paradigm.

In my body, this reality is made vividly clear by a recent and aborted series of teachings from its Director of Transformational Ministries on APEST.

He sees the local church pastor, or parish priest, as a, what?, facilitator? Director? of APEST in the local church.

This is totally old school, old paradigm. This is an attempt to redeem, for the future, the role of the pastor, to gently tweak the pastor dominated leadership culture. This is church, not Kingdom, focus.

This is a stab at being progressive in the old paradigm.

Historically, efforts of even the progressives among old paradigmers, fail.

Historically, all people loyal, first and foremost, to the old ways:

1. Are scandalized by the new ways ways of a revival,
2. Are left in its dust, and,
3. Are understood by history as visionless opposers of the work of the Spirit.

The lesson of history is that if you are not cordial toward people who are restless and yearning for new ways, you will be out of step with the Spirit when He moves and calls people to move with Him in a new way.

And, He has always moved.

And, revival has always been a radical departure from the established ways.

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I, personally, have a history with today's institutional church.

Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that a small part of today's institutional church has a history with me.

I'm writing this post, but, please, forget me.

Don't, however, forget the people like me.

There are gobs of people who love Jesus who are either not connected to the visible church or are distantly connected to it.

As the Builder and Boomer generations fade away, the proportion of people in America with little, or no, connection to institutional Christianity increases, and it increases more and more rapidly.

I can't say prophetically that a new paradigm, a revival, is about to take hold.

What I can say is that, without repentance, most of the people in today's organized, visible, institutional church will miss out on it.