The Church
A new partner in revival : many resources available to you
FIRST- Be sure to listen to a clear message on revival strategy. I believe the fire of God will erupt in you as you listen. If you want to know what Revival Church is all about, you’ll find out as you listen to this message. We’ll use it for leadership training in Revival Church as we call people into position for the coming move of God. It’s titled “Intro to Revival Church- The Joshua 3 Mandate.” Listen now at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching.
SECOND- I want to take loads of people with me as I minister at Revival Nation Church in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada on Sunday morning, November 8th. Let me know if you want to go! (You’ll need your passport.)
Revival Church is deeply focused on impacting your life with the message of legitimate revival. The Lord burned in my spirit recently a call: Hope & Hype- We must move beyond unfulfilled hope and man-made hype.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and God will always out do hype if we let him.
We are seeking new ministry partners locally and around the nation and world to infuse Revival Church financially. The Detroit mission is demanding, yet we know that success here will result in a domino affect through the nation and around the world.
You can give your tithe or special offerings on our new giving system at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate.
Additionally, you can set up RECURRING donations on the same page. A monthly recurring donation would be a wonderful way to plant seed into this fertile soil all year long.
Here are some of the ways you can stay connected to our ministry:
- NEW internet radio show at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio. You can pray with us, listen to prophetic insights and vision casting and, if you would like, call in to the show and participate. Every Monday at 8pm sharp we'll start with focused prayer for an outpouring in Detroit and then we’ll move on to discussion.
- FREE teachings. You can listen to the messages from Revival Church every week, and also enjoy a vast archive of past teachings at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching. Be sure to listen to The Joshua 3 Mandate and Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny from this past weekend.
- Subscribe to our email updates. I regularly share prophetic messages, insights and teachings on a variety of topics. You can also be alerted to new sermons that are uploaded, special events and other news items. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/subscribe.
- Podcasts on the go. I regularly call in from my cell phone and record quick, punchy podcasts. If the Lord is burning in me on a certain topic, I just pick up the phone and share. It’s instantly added to the site at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/podcast.
- Articles. You can read articles on revival, prayer, prophecy and other topics at www.johnburton.net/blog. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed!
- Books. I’ve written five books, and am convinced that the Holy Spirit will impact you powerfully as you read through them. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/resources.
- Facebook. Become a FAN and follow along with everything that’s going on in the church. http://facebook.detroitrevivalchurch.com. Also, send a friend request to my personal profile at www.facebook.com/johnburton.
- Twitter. I update to Twitter several times a day. Follow me at www.twitter.com/johneburton.
- Personal ministry site. Head over to www.praytherevolution.com and see booking info, my bio, video and other info not on the Revival Church site.
Thank you for your support of this ministry. Your donations are very meaningful and will go a long way toward enabling ministry in Detroit and beyond!
www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate.
John
A Regional Revival Center – Mass Deliverance – Prophetic word on Detroit’s finances
I’m sitting in an Alistair Petrie summit in Sarnia, Ontario Canada right now, and I’m stirred! He’s talking about principles of city transformation, which is the 
topic of the hour in Detroit.
I’ve been connecting with Bishop Larry Jackson and others this week in meetings, and it seems that God is suddenly sparking a lot of hearts at the same time. Urgency is increasing quickly.
Revival Church has a mandate to focus on regional revival and transformation. Our heart is to effectively connect the city church, pour into it and do our part in starting fires of revival.
SUNDAY
4pm- If you have any level of interest in the mission of revival at Revival Church, you are invited to a very important meeting tomorrow (Sunday) at 4pm. This is a gathering and vision imparting meeting that will give you a lot of info and will help you connect with other revivalists. We’ll be downstairs in the children’s ministry room. Again, this is for anybody reading this message, whether you have been with us since the beginning, or you’ve never been to an event. (please be prompt and also be respectful of Mercy and Truth Church that will be meeting in the sanctuary until 5:30pm for a special event)
6pm- Join us for a night of passionate prayer, declaration, worship, dance, freedom in the Holy Spirit and vision driven teaching.
MASS DELIVERANCE
There have been some interesting prophetic words on my life regarding ‘mass deliverance’. I function in personal deliverance regularly, and have started to see deliverance on a corporate level ramp up. What I feel is coming next is mass, city-wide deliverance. Alistair Petrie is teaching now on this concept! As vivid and undeniable truth invades a person, that person can easily and suddenly be free. As the secret things come to the surface and as light is shined into a situation, the power that deception has had is instantly dissolved.
This will also come to a city. Strongholds will break on a city level.
PROPHETIC WORD- KINGDOM FINANCES
For example, last night I had a strong prophetic impression. God was saying, “Now! Now! The church must move now in the financial realm. Right this moment the secular world is sitting around board room tables planning on instilling principles and methods to rescue Detroit from financial ruin. This must not happen. The church must not allow the world to run ahead and put into place humanistic strategies that will bring greater harm. The Church must set into place Kingdom principles in the city.”
We can’t afford to let the world maintain its level of influence on the economy. The Church and biblical financial principles must be brought into the story!
Alistair Petrie said, “Kingdom finances will be released as integrity and Kingdom culture develops and prevails.”
He also said that the church is a litmus test of the society it is in. The culture of the church is an indicator of the culture of a city. We must see Kingdom financial (and all other!) principles activated in the church and individual local churches of Detroit.
He said, “You can’t pray for transformation in your city unless you go through the same thing yourself that you’re asking for others to experience. We must become ‘changed agents’ before becoming ‘agents of change’.”
John
City strategy : Multiple church commitment
It's time to stop presuming people will only commit to one local church or ministry.
I regularly consider how we are going to see the massive reformation in the church come to pass. The way we see church today will become a distant memory as the entire structure changes.
We’ll need to take intentional steps toward a city church structure, which means the face of the local church is going to morph considerably.
Some preliminary steps:
- Multiple church commitment: We will begin to see people primarily commit to one church and also commit (truly commit, no hopping allowed!) at a lesser, yet still significant level at other churches. When this happens, every church won’t have to be focused broadly on everything, but they will focus intently on the few areas they are called and gifted to facilitate. When the body is expected to connect at only one church, they in turn have no other option but to expect that church to have a broad focus. The current system works against itself. When the reformation comes, a family will connect in one church where they will serve and sit under apostolic leadership that’s running with strength in a streamlined ministry, and on other days and nights of the week they may serve at another church’s youth ministry, Bible study or small group.
An important element here is that instead of limiting themselves to senior leadership at the local level, the various leaders of the churches in the city take on the role of associate leaders of the city church. So instead of thinking of it like people frequenting multiple local churches, they are actually strategically connecting in multiple departments of a single city church. One night they are in the teaching department growing in discipleship and on another night in the prayer department serving in intercession. These departments are actual churches and ministries spread out all over the city.
The five-fold ministry does not have to function in every single church or ministry. It's not realistic for that to happen. One church might be led by someone in a teaching office while another is led by a prophet. Pastors will give leadership to small groups and other ministries. Evangelists will train and lead out in strategic soul winning events. Apostles will govern and serve all of the city's leaders by casting vision, gathering the Ekklesia in the region and instructing at a high level.
Local church pastors will have to surrender their solitary leadership position in people's lives and begin to emphasize the city church more than their own local church. Senior pastors will then lead the way multiple times a month into other events, conferences, prayer meetings, church services and small groups in the region. People under their leadership will truly experience refreshing and renewed passion as they are no longer limited to what a single local church can provide.
- Prayer as a primary ministry: We must start where the first church started in Acts 2- in the prayer room. It’s shocking how absent prayer is in the church, and it’s terrifying how few Christians are intimately connected with Jesus in the place of prayer. I propose we cancel most everything we’re doing in the church and hit our face night and day and pray, and soak, and intercede and declare as a corporate body.
- Connecting with apostolic and prophetic leaders: We need to pray in, invite in and partner with apostolic and prophetic leaders who God is preparing right now. Who is God going to use regionally to help give leadership to a move of God? It probably won't be your local church pastor, but your pastor and everyone in your church should support whoever it is.
Time Magazine : Detroit financial reformation : The church
As I have often shared recently, I have felt since before we moved to Detroit in May that there is a coming two-fold spiritual AND financial revival.
The Church is in the midst of an opportunity unlike any other in our lifetime- to display the power, effectiveness and efficiency of biblical Kingdom financial principles.
Revival Church is in its infancy, yet we are determined to see a business department develop that will do the following:
- Offer deliverance from wrong mindsets, demonic influence and a spirit of poverty
- Train in biblical financial principles
- Equip people to develop new skills
- Actually have business opportunities identified for people to step in to
We don’t only want to offer hand outs- the goal is to see people proactively move from unemployment, welfare or sub-standard employment situations into health, prosperous and biblically sound new realities.
The testimony about Detroit should be: We cannot deny that God, His Church and biblical principles were the direct reason for financial revival in Detroit.
Here’s some snips and a link to an article by the folks in the recently purchased house here in Detroit- Time Magazine. I left a comment on that site.
http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2009/10/12/a-key-to-our-salvation/
A Key To Our Salvation?
Personally, I don't need to read any more "letters" to or from Detroit, but at least in this one Detroit native Ryan Mack offers a reasoned, proactive take on seedy businesses, our economic climate and what more we can do to change our material conditions.
Most intriguing to me is the following:
What would happen if churches learned how to combine forces and create economic development corporations? The largest employer in Queens, New York is Floyd Flake of Allen AME Church Cathedral and last I checked he has $30+ million Corporation with over $75 million in real estate assets. Other churches like Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Harlem Congregations of Community Improvement, and the list goes on across the country of how churches have used their leverage for the greater good of the community. We can do the same in Detroit. If done right, an economic movement of the church can create thousands of jobs for the city of Detroit.
Whatever your position on faith and religion, do you think Detroit houses of worship can and should develop a broad-scale cooperative effort to attack the city's worst problems?
From Lakeland: Jeff Garvin THIS SUNDAY at Revival Church
We are preparing for the coming Detroit Outpouring, and we are excited to have Jeff Garvin running the race with us in this region THIS SUNDAY at 6pm.
Visit www.detroitrevivalchurch.com for our address and a map.
Forward this flyer on to everybody you know who has a burning in their spirit for revival in Detroit.
Local church/City church – The coming reformation
When I was leading Revolution House of Prayer in Manitou Springs, Colorado, a common theme was the establishment of the city church. I outlined this concept on the white boards there and we prayed into it fairly regularly.
Here’s a twelve minute podcast on this topic that will help you understand and also pray into the coming shift in Detroit. I write about this in my book 20 Elements of Revival as well.
http://www.cinchcast.com/praytherevolution/1769.mp3
In this City church model we’ll see local churches take on the identity of departments of the larger City church. People will participate at a high level at a primary local church and at lesser yet significant levels at a variety of other ministries.
This will enable one church to focus intently on the few callings in the primary giftings they have been given, while allowing other churches to function in their specific callings and giftings. Churches no longer have to attempt to cover every base. As we work together on a city level we can pool our strengths and giftings.
Someone may primarily be involved in a local church that mainly focuses on evangelism, while also attending other churches on other days and nights of the week that are geared toward teaching, youth, pastoral care, etc.
A great example is the house of prayer movement. They pray as their primary focus. People attend the house of prayer while also attending other churches at different points during the week.
Here’s a simple diagram of this idea from the vantage point of Manitou Springs, Colorado. We’ll see people involved in several different churches and ministries every week. I see this idea coming to Detroit and other cities as well. You can see the larger, easier to read version at http://praytherevolution.com/images/Manitou-Springs-Vision-Map.gif
A trembling and a searing burning is coming to the church of Detroit
First, check out our new website for Revival Church. We may be holding our Sunday evening services at the First United Methodist Church on Greater Mack, so stay tuned for updates. The website is www.detroitrevivalchurch.com.
"The coming moves of God will require nothing short of a revolution of our current structures, models and mindsets. Not an adjustment or an enhancement, but deep reform. The resulting fire and presence of the Holy Spirit will cause us to marvel and wonder why we ever resisted at all."- John Burton
I’m deeply provoked. While I understand the value of due process, something deep within can’t shake the prophetic cry for sudden reformation in our churches.
God zealously loves the church, and I’m convinced he loves it too much to allow it to remain in its current form without some divine pressure.
The church must change. Now. The picture of Amy above is key. She mentioned that revival will only come to Detroit if we go to the place of agony, of groans and visibly shaking screams from our spirit. We must press like Amy did when she was contending for the life of our daughter on stage in Lakeland. Look at her face and never forget it.
I bet I’ve heard similar messages hundreds of times over the last ten years or so, yet we still resort to the familiar.
I simply can’t shake this. Nor do I want to. A burning is coming to Detroit, and we must be contending for it to arrive sooner than later.
This burning will threaten more than most of us are willing to risk. As churches raise the bar, intercede night and day, stimulate the heavy activity of the Holy Spirit and embrace an “I couldn’t care less” John the Baptist style disposition that cries continually for the arrival of Jesus- many will leave. Many will be offended. People we rely on to run our programs, to pay their tithes. Everything is at risk- money, people, reputation, 401ks, mortgage payments- everything.
However, the remnant who aren’t in it for their on security or satisfaction or affirmation will die daily and contend in unity for Jesus to arrive in power.
We, as simple and weak humans, are going to do our best to allow God to form Revival Church with all of this in mind. I believe it’s important for all of us to be in position, fully on fire and ready to burn night and day.
Detroit needs prophetic, cross-bearing churches on fire, night and day, in order for this revival to hit.
Pray for reformation. Pray against the American culture and calendar that has demanded submission. Pray for radical transformation in the church- from the way we pray, to the children’s ministry to the increase of white hot fire in the midst of our events. Pray for an end to Sunday only church. Pray for an end for the need for ‘seeker’ ministry as the flames of God’s fire transform these people in the midst of a shaking, trembling Upper Room style church.
And, in addition to praying for it- let’s just do it. We’re not waiting on God. We don’t have to convince him of the need for revival. He’s waiting on us to just do it.