The 3 Attributes Of A Pre-Revival Environment
PART 1 - An Apathetic Christianity
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Matthew 24:6-13 NLT
And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come. “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Australia is in pre-revival
If you study revival history you will see that there are some common precursors to localised, national and global revivals.
A decline in Christian church attendance and Christian relevance in the culture (evident in the US and in Australia)
Social, political and economic instability and uncertainty (A rise in minority agenda-driven politics, cost of living challenges, internets rate rises, and even this week 2 major US bank closures)
Remnant of faithful, passionate ALL HEARTED Jesus’ followers repenting for their own half-heartedness and repenting on behalf of their nation… regularly in church, in prayer and faithfully adhering to their spiritual disciples (fasting, sacrificing, abstaining, etc…)
Today I have labelled these pre-revival indicators, An Apathetic Christianity - An Apocalyptic Culture - An Advantaged Church
An Apathetic Christianity
We really can not afford to be unconcerned about the decline in church attendance and should not be accepting it as a new, post-pandemic normal for the community of faith.
I can see 3 main drivers for this decline and it is my very strong conclusion that we need to pray that for revival for these drivers to be arrested and reversed.
An Undisciplined Post-Covid Community | 2. An Ego Theology | 3. The Substitution of Church Community
In the early Church, Jesus’ followers met daily and daily the number of new Jesus followers grew.
When we are undisciplined we add activities into our lives that serve our own self-centred needs, comforts and selfish desires. When we do this church falls much further down our list of priorities.
Daily connection with church, slips to just a few times a week, which becomes weekly, then monthly, then annually if at all.
It is important to note that the apathetic Christian is not making a cognitive rejection of church nor would they say they dislike or disagree with the role of Jesus’ church in the world. They have simply succumbed to the evil temptation of small subtle shifts in prioritisation, value, and love for Jesus’ church.
The unavoidable consequence of living an undisciplined Christianity is that one must deal with their incongruence. A Christian can not love Jesus but not love Jesus’ one true love, His church. So this leads to the need to either accept the error of our undisciplined ways and make the very difficult, but necessary changes to realign our lives with the agenda of heaven and the theological imperative of the centrality of the church in our world (and play our part in that) or we have to write a new ecclesiology. This new theology of the church is what I would call; Ego Ecclesiology.
It is far too common in our Apathetic Christian culture for seasoned, establish Christians and Christian families to come to a pseudo-theological conclusion that Jesus has suddenly decided that regularly gathering together with other believers and those seeking faith, in a faith-filled, Jesus-worshipping, bible-preaching atmosphere is optional.
Many Christians have forgotten the centrality of Jesus’ bride in the mission of saving our world. The new ego ecclesiology deconstructs the nature, function and even mission of the church. The common tenants of this new belief system are things like:
‘Church is not about the building, Jesus never said we need to buy a building to build a church’
‘I can build my Christian community at home, online and still be at church’
‘The modern church isn’t anything like the church in the book of Acts’
‘The church is just an organisation that needs my money and time’
What we know is this, in the economy of the Kingdom of God, there are no self-managed ministry funds. If we want to see The King’s reward for our ministries, our families, our homes, our finances and in our relationships then we must allow the King, Jesus, to ordain our steps. There is no room for an ego ecclesiology, in the Kingdom. Attending our churches regularly and participating in their mission to reach the world is not optional, it is a fundamental Christina tenant, imperative and order from The King.
The only Christians who have any right to speak up about social injustices, economic inequalities or political persecution, are those who are already participants in God’s one and only rescue plan to deal with the brokenness in our world, His Church!
In a pre-revival environment, Christians substitute almost anything for church. They have lost sight of the value, and necessity of allowing King Jesus to rule their lives and to allow His divine hand to place them in His church community.
When we allow God to plant us in a church community we have to do the imperative, essential, and proper work of thriving in an imperfect community. Apathetic Christians have lost the ability to thrive in their families, marriages, businesses and work relationships because they have chosen to exclude themselves from engaging with all the difficult people in their church community and substituted that growth opportunity for the safety security, comfort and predictability of their close friends and family. This decision has crippled their spirituality, halted their growth and development as leaders and robbed their families of the kind of divine favour that only follows faithfulness.
There is no substitution for the gathered body of Jesus Christ. We are called to build His community, not our community, to outwork His mission, not our mission, to build His church not the church of my preferences.
When all the lights go out…you can see the stars…..
The Remnant
For those who are not apathetic toward the mission of the church, for those who are living all-hearted toward a revival of the hearts of Christians toward Jesus’ church; more is asked of you. You are called to remain faithful as a remnant, to seek God for revival through prayer and sacrifice. Your coming challenge will be dealing with self-righteousness and indignation when the apathetic community awakens, and revival breaks out because your faithfulness and sacrifice will go unseen.
