Last week’s bulletin asked us to put a repeating note in our digital calendars to pray for revival every Saturday night. It’s the least we can do towards growing our church both upwardly (in godliness) and outwardly (in number). However, revivals have NEVER begun with a minister calling their congregation to pray. Why? Because being told what to do rarely makes a lasting impact.
So how do revivals typically begin? In his book ‘Reappearing Church’, Melbourne pastor Mark Sayers says revivals begin with ‘holy discontent’. What he means is, a small number of Christians, sometimes only 2 or 3, become so unhappy with the current state of the church that they begin to cry out to God for change.
Sayers is at pains to point out that holy discontent is NOT nit-picking all the little things you don’t like about YOUR church (e.g. the preaching, the music, the pastoral care, the programs); it is to do with the overall state of the people of God. It is seeing Christians (i) who think attending church once a fortnight is good enough, (ii) who do little for outreach, (iii) who don’t lift a finger for the needy, (iv) who spend less than 5 minutes a day with their God, or (v) who give God their left-overs, rather than their first-fruits, and saying ‘that’s not good enough’! Holy discontent is wanting to see the church return to normalcy, rather than the spiritual slumber it currently finds itself in.
As such, we need more than a short prayer every Saturday night. We need a groundswell of Christians with holy discontent. Simply hearing the call to revival from the pulpit will not do it. We need a small group of dedicated believers who are so unhappy with the current state of our church that they cannot stop themselves from crying out to God ‘revive us Oh Lord!’.
So, are you happy with the current state of the western church, as it shrinks in size and relevance? Or do you have holy discontent? If so, what are you going to do about it?
