Episode Summary: 

One of the films making its rounds the past two weeks in movie theaters is “A Great Awakening” produced by Sight and Sound. The film tells the story of the First Great Awakening in America through the lens of Benjamin Franklin, the friend of George Whitefield the great preacher who was largely responsible, along with Jonathan Edwards, for the awakening which historians say had a tremendous impact on the founding of America thirty years later. 

One of the primary responsibilities of Christians is to impact their culture, retarding the decay brought about by sin by functioning as salt and shining the light of God's truth into spheres of our own culture where the darkness of sin prevails. In other words, Christ wants us not only to be individual disciples of his but to make disciples of all nations. In this episode we find insight about this process as we look at how God discipled nations in the past by bringing about a great awakening and spiritual renewal in Israel (recounted in Nehemiah 8) and inspiring The Great Awakening in America. 

For Further Prayerful Thought:

1. Why do you think Jesus told us our mission is to “make disciples OF the nations” instead of “make disciples IN the nations”? What is the difference? What does this command say to Christians who want to give up on our culture because “the culture is so evil it is going to hell in a hand basket”?
2. What stood out to you about how God discipled his nation, Israel, through Ezra and the Levites during the month of Tishri? What parts of this process seem applicable to America? Which parts don’t?
3. What stood out to you about God discipling America through The Great Awakening? What lessons, if any, can you draw from it about how God might “disciple” America through us.

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