Revive Us Again

Thirty three per cent of clergy and thirty six per cent of laymen
report having visited a sexually explicit web site.
Christianity Today survey, August 2000


The divorce rate of born-again Christians (32%)
is higher than that of atheists and agnostics (30%).
Barna Research Group 2008

Twenty per cent of women who have abortions are born-again or Evangelical Christians.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996

We rarely find substantial differences between
the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians.
George Barna, Founder, Barna Research Group


You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless,

how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out
and trampled under foot by men.
Jesus, Matthew 5:13

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, my parents took my sister and me to visit some of our elder relatives. For the evening meal, the lady of the house set a beautiful, formal table, complete with lovely crystal salt cellars at each place.

Having attended approximately zero formal dinners in my decade-long, paper plate existence, I had never seen a salt cellar. Since it happened to be sitting next to my goblet of unsweetened iced tea, I presumed it was my own personal sugar bowl.

I was puzzled as to why the spoon was so tiny, but forged ahead in an attempt to sweeten my tea with spoonful after spoonful…of salt. After one swig, I realized my mistake, but to maintain decorum, I did my best to eat my meal while taking an occasional small sip of the tea-flavored salt water. It was a long dinner.

I have never been so thirsty for a fresh drink of water before—or since—that moment.

We, the body of Christ, are supposed to be salt. Look around. How are we doing? By and large, instead of the church making the world thirsty for the Living Water, we have become so worldly ourselves that we are in danger of losing our savor altogether.

The Western church, the American church, the local church, maybe even your church—is in desperate need of revival. Not a revival meeting. Revival.

Revival is not a special event to win the lost. It is a time when God’s people, both individually and corporately, humble themselves, cry out to God in repentance and return to a fresh, empowered, obedient love relationship with Him.

Aren’t you tired of seeing statistics like the ones at the beginning of this article? Tired of the church having so little impact on a lost and dying world? Tired of simply going through the motions in your spiritual life and at church? Have you ever, as I have, taken a step back, looked at your walk and your worship, and said, “There’s got to be more to the Christian life than this”?

There is more. Much more. God desires that we have a full, exciting, vibrant, dynamic relationship with Him. But it’s going to cost us. It will cost our pride, our time, our repentance, our obedience, and our priority. It will require that we become dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the status quo of complacency.

I think we’re up for the challenge.

Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways.
Psalm 119:37

Want Revival? Pray for Your Pastor

Pastoring a church is like joining the Peace Corps: It's not just a job, it's an adventure. The natives can be restless and shooting fiery darts at them, the air conditioning unit keeps breaking and the plumbing backs up, sometimes clans are at war with each other, there's a jungle of paperwork to navigate, and meeting after meeting after meeting to attend. And they've got to do it all without offending anyone, somehow squeezing in time to prepare a couple of sermons and Bible studies every week, visit people in the hospital, and still spend time with their wives and children. But they do it because they love our Lord, and wouldn't do anything else.

Our pastors need our prayer and encouragement. But what does praying for our pastors have to do with revival?

Praying for our pastors is one of the most important keys to revival. Most of the time, when churches experience revival, it is because the pastor has experienced revival in his own life and then leads his church to begin repenting, praying, and returning to a right relationship with God. Usually, revival begins with the pastor.

Additionally, when churches experience revival, the pastor's job is made exponentially easier. He is no longer discouraged by preaching to hearts of stone, but exhilarated by preaching to those who seek to worship God in spirit and in truth and who hunger and thirst for righteousness. His congregation witnesses to the lost, reaches out to those in need, beats down his office door wanting to know how they can serve. They allow him to ditch his extraneous busy work in favor of studying God's word and spending time in prayer. Revival makes pastoring a joy.

So pray for your pastor. Get everybody else in your church praying for your pastor. And, hey, throw in the minister of music, youth, education, etc., too. You might just find that the more the sheep pray for the shepherd, the better the flock becomes.

And that's not a baa-aaa-aaa-d thing. :0)