Is Revival Coming to America?

November 1
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about revival in America. About six years ago I believed God was urging me to get involved in a particular church and be instrumental in helping that church begin a revival in our part of the world. The pastor of that church had other ideas. He was young, felt threatened by anyone who challenged his thinking, and just generally made it pretty clear he didn’t need or want my help for anything. I went to another church and basically got the same reaction from that pastor. I decided to try starting a church from the ground up to avoid having to deal with people whose vision was so limited, but that was a dismal failure. When one gets a reputation in a small community of not getting along with local pastors, the word gets around fast that he is a trouble maker, so people began avoiding me like I had some kind of disease. I tried once more to work with a local pastor. I spent about a year in a local church where I was asked to become an Elder. I should have turned that down as soon as I realized the one who did most of the preaching there was bleeding the church dry of its finances. That became the biggest disaster of all.


I have no interest in attempting to justify my own actions or any of the men with whom I was unable to work. That’s counter-productive. I have examined my own heart and dealt with any known personal sin as instructed in Matthew 5 and 18. While reading Isaiah yesterday, it came to me again why revival is so desperately needed and why it so seldom comes. It is needed because it is the habit of man to lend lip service to God and not be sincere in his worship of Him. Even lost man often wants to appear godly. I’ve lost count of the number of men I’ve known in my life who openly admitted going to church was a good business move. God tells Israel through His prophet Isaiah that He is fed up with their sacrifices. He tells them even an ox knows its owner and a donkey its master’s manger; but Israel does not know or understand (1:3).

This week the preacher where we are currently attending services on Sunday spoke about revival. As he did so, I asked myself if he would really want revival if he knew the cost it would bring to his ego. You see, when God moves in the hearts of his children, his men naturally begin desiring to take leadership roles. They all begin studying His word and realizing He actually speaks to them without the preacher’s preaching. If he’s a good preacher, they’ll also learn from him, but, when they discover, for example, I Corinthians 14 makes it clear each church needs two or three prophets speaking to its members each time they meet, they will want that to begin happening. The idea of an single, “senior pastor” is completely foreign to the biblical instruction for the way the church is supposed to function. The idea of a high priest is an Old Testament concept. Jesus is the High Priest of the church; the pastors are just teachers and caretakers of His flock. Paul describes the way the church is supposed to be functioning in I Corinthian 14:26-40. He declares when the church comes together two or three prophets are supposed to speak and the others decide if their words are accurate. He declares no one is to speak in tongues unless there is an interpreter and that no more than three can speak. He declares women are to keep silent in the church and to ask their husbands at home to clarify anything they did not understand.

When men begin studying God’s word diligently, they learn most churches in the first three hundred years of its existence met in homes. Large group meetings were rare. Usually twenty or thirty got together and sang songs of praise and were taught by multiple pastor/teachers, prophets, evangelists, or apostles. When men begin studying God’s word for themselves, they discover there is no such thing as a “senior pastor” mentioned anywhere in it. They learn the church is supposed to support itinerant preachers and evangelists, and those elders who also work hard at teaching and preaching (I Cor. 9 and I Tim. 5:17), but that many good pastor/teachers are perfectly capable of working a regular job and still preach and/or teach one or two times a week. I did it for years and found it exhilarating.

Scripture demands the church be ruled by a plurality of elders (I Timothy 3; Titus 1) and the idea of a lead or senior pastor is non-existent. And, the biblical evidence indicates elders need to be elders not 27 year old boys. Even the words “senior pastor” seem absurdly comical when a 27 year old boy preaches to a congregation whose mean age is 50. Senior pastors are the product of men spending six years of their lives to go to college and get a master’s of divinity degree, which is an entirely unbiblical concept to begin with. When God begins moving in the hearts of His people, they begin realizing they all have the responsibility to minister in His church. The men begin realizing it is their responsibility to train up their children, so they rely less on the church for teaching them God’s word, and begin studying to show themselves approved unto God. Youth groups are unnecessary because young men are taught by their fathers how to become workers in both the community and the church. Young ladies are taught by their mothers how a woman of God is supposed to act. Often that results in them coming to the realization on their own that the idea of a senior pastor is both unbiblical and unnecessary in the local church.

I’ve studied God’s word fervently and systematically for 38 years and find most men standing behind pulpits today haven’t. Most of them have read dozens if not hundreds of books about the bible. They can tell you what Polycarp believed the bible means, but few of them have read the bible from cover once, much less multiple times, so they can’t tell you what God told them it means. It’s little wonder we need revival in churches across America when the men getting paid good salaries (an unbiblical concept to begin with), spend so little time digging truth out of God’s magnificent book of books. Once again, I believe revival is coming to America, but I am confident it won’t happen until God does indeed move in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls, placing within their bosom the burning desire to know Him intimately and serve him without wavering. Once we see God in all His glory, as did Isaiah, and once He has cleansed our lips with coals from before the altar, we well once again burn with the desire to go and make disciples as He has commanded us to do.

When that happens, His people will echo the words of Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!” And when that happens, there will be so many pastor/teachers, prophets, evangelists, and apostles in the local church the one whom everyone thought once was so important (the senior pastor) will be just another of God’s flock called to minister in His church. And that identifies the problem. John the Baptist put it this way, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The arrogance I’ve witnessed in so many pastors is usually only surpassed by their ignorance. And I don’t mean that in any caddy sense. For so many to be so arrogant who have such blatant ignorance of God’s word is mind boggling. And worse than that is the number of churches whose members follow them without ever questioning anything they teach. Ignorance is no bliss. Ignorance is ignorance. I get the sense that great multitudes think they really don't want to know what God's word says about something because then they would be compelled to decide whether or not they want to obey it. Please believe me when I say, "You will be accountable for what God has revealed, not for what you've decided you wanted to know about what He has revealed." God has spoken. It's not His fault if you have no idea what He has said.

God is as angry with the church in America just as He indicated He was with Israel in Isaiah 1. Until local churches return to the Lord, until they return to their first love, until they realize their utter poverty without Jesus, until they get on their knees and seek His face, confess their sin of apathy and ignorance of His word, revival will be nothing more than a pipe dream. And that’s God’s word for us today.