Posts Tagged ‘church as usual’
Marks of a Revival-Minded Church
Spirit-filled churches are increasingly falling into the trap of becoming a “typical church.”
I've given leadership to revival-style churches and ministries for decades. It's grieving how few Spirit-filled churches are truly taking people unapologetically into the depths of surrender to Jesus. Instead, the preference is to grow wide and shallow in the hopes that the seats stay full, the money keeps coming in and the programs are staffed.
Of course, the majority of churches, Charismatic included, aren't pretending to be concerned about revival at all. The pursuit of a wild-fire, other-worldly, supernatural habitation of the Spirit of God never even comes to mind.
The cost is too high. The chances are too slim.
To most, it's not worth it.
The truth is, revival churches don't see dramatic impact, big crowds and overwhelming wonders in the early stages. The wells of revival must be dug. The hours of prayer must be invested. Repentance, consecration and a radical devotion of time must be constant. Few are willing to buy in at this level, and pastors know it.
The preferred church growth method is to create a “healthy, vibrant” atmosphere that's focused on meeting needs and fulfilling expectations. The shock and awe of God's glory is traded for a more naturally familiar environment that's sprinkled with some worship, teaching and fellowship. Nothing too deep, expensive or disruptive.
Of course, not every church has descended into what I'm calling a typical church. And, not every church will have done so on every point. Some are hanging strong in some areas while slipping on others.
And, it should also be said that legitimate revival churches can fail on some points that typical churches are stronger in. However, I do believe the comparison is generally valid.
Nine key differences between typical churches and revival churches:
- Typical Church: Participation is emphasized
Revival Church: Consecration is emphasized
In a revival church, the focus is a radical surrender to Jesus and an ongoing depth to the lives of all who come. Simple church attendance does little to advance the vision of dramatic, supernatural, regional impact. A revival-style church would be happier with 50 people going deep in the Holy Spirit than 500 attending, giving and serving.
- Typical Church: Prayer is rare
Revival Church: Prayer is constant
Prayer is the primary call of all in a revival church. A powerful, miraculous, supernatural culture of fiery intercession burns nonstop. No authentic revival has been initiated without first developing a foundation of unceasing and effective prayer. Without the intensity of intercession, revival churches cannot exist.
- Typical Church: Church growth is the goal
Revival Church: Regional revival is the goal
Revival church leaders don’t care in the least about the numerical growth of their church or ministry. Their eyes are on the city. They do want the right people in position to contend for revival in the city. They do pray in the laborers. However, they understand the Gideon principle. Fewer devoted people keenly focused on revival is powerfully effective.
- Typical Church: Relationships are a key focus
Revival Church: Relationships are a byproduct
Deep, powerful and biblical relationshps are developed in the foxhole at revival-style churches. The mission is the main thing. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a context of holiness and intercession is the prime goal. Relationships result as hungry, consecrated people put differences aside and contend for revival with military precision.
- Typical Church: Demons remain hidden
Revival Church: Demons are exposed
Playing games with very powerful, wicked demonic spirits is not an option in a revival church. At risk of offending those in attendance, prophetic and apostolic leaders will discern haunting, taunting spirits and expel them. They train the body to do the same and wouldn’t think of hiding the dramatic moments of freedom from others in the service.
- Typical Church: Encouragement driven
Revival Church: Prophetically driven
Churches that are authentically prophetic will at times cut, offend, correct and challenge. Those who respond will ultimately experience extreme encouragement as they blow through limitations and compromise. Revival churches are equipping an army. End-time holy soldiers must go through radical transformation in order to be made truly ready.
- Typical Church: Driven by expectations
Revival Church: Establishes expectations
Revival churches get their vision and strategy from the prayer room. They refuse to buy into the “tried and true” methods of building a church. Many will be turned off by revival churches as their demands go unmet. The rest will come alive and burn hot.
- Typical Church: One-stop shop
Revival Church: Specialized ministry
As it’s been said, Christians aren’t in gangs. It’s okay to connect in different churches. Revival leaders most often encourage people to draw from other churches and ministries. This allows them to remain focused on their specific part of the city-wide vision. Revival leaders make no apology about being laser-focused and allowing other needs to be met by other leaders in the city.
- Typical Church: A family gathering
Revival Church: A school of fire
Those in revival churches find themselves groaning in intercession, crying out to God, repenting with passion and getting baptized in holy fire most every day. Dreams, visions, encounters, assignments, warnings and preparing for the end-times define the experience. MASH units, instead of hospitals, get people healed and equipped to run to the battle and annihilate the enemy.
Pastors are “Done with Church as Usual” as they Continue Doing Church as Usual.
“I just can't sit through one more church service!” This is the cry of our current remnant generation. Pastors, are you listening?
My wife and I were so excited to reconnect with a couple of friends yesterday. This couple has been invested in the prophetic and in the local church as powerful regional leaders for years. We spent the evening talking about the state of the church, and how the new wine simply must come, yet the church is far from ready.
One of them simply stated, “I just can't sit through one more church service!”
Such a simple statement yet it resonated powerfully in my spirit. I can't either.
Listen to a powerful podcast on this subject…
This afternoon I talked on the phone with another regional leader, a pastor who is more done with church as usual than any I've ever met. He's longing for God to identify like-minded pastors and leaders who are absolutely desperate for reformation and revolution in the church. He's crying out for revival and he is discovering it's challenging to find remnant leadership, fiery, broken and hungry pastors who no longer care about growing their church, adding programs, gaining notoriety, raising funds or seeking after “success.” His passion is to connect with others who are done and undone and longing for a pure, holy move of God.
PEOPLE ARE LEAVING THE CHURCH IN DROVES
Research by Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, reveals:
In the early 1970s, about 38% of Americans attended church nearly every week or more. A third rarely or never attended church, while the rest attended once in a while. That all changed in the early 1990s, when the rarely/never attending category began a slow and unmistakable climb. Today nearly half of all Americans attend church once a year or less, and only about a quarter attend on a regular basis. A similar number attend once in a while.
I believe the bottom line is that a growing number of people see little purpose for the church. To them, the value of participating is greatly diminished. Why even go?
The last thing we need is a natural, logical solution to this problem. I believe it's critical that we function as the church, and gathering together as the ekklesia is commanded in Scripture. However, more programs, minor tweaks, practical adjustments or gimmicky ideas is not what is needed.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
We need a full deconstruction of today's model. Full-blown reform is required.
Today's powerless, predictable, boring church service simply must go.
SO, WHAT IS CHURCH AS USUAL?
When I talk about church in this article, I'm mostly talking about the gathering, the local, regularly scheduled church service that most usually takes place on Sunday mornings. Yes, I know the church isn't a building. That drum has been beat to death. The church must gather, and it's usually nice to do so indoors out of the heat or cold, rain or snow.
Most anybody who has attended church in the last several decades has a good idea of what it looks like. Greeting, worship, announcements, sermon, prayer, dismissal. Repeat next week.
In this context, there are key reasons why so many are leaving the church. It's true that a good number of those are leaving for selfish reasons. They are misguided or simply immature. They are pouting and leaving.
There are also many remnant Believers who, like my friend so clearly articulated, “can't sit through another church service!”
They are yearning for more. They can't handle another perfectly crafted, wonderfully produced, humanly orchestrated mess with just a sprinkle of supernatural flavor for good measure. They are done.
Specifically, I believe the remnant is fed up with a few things that should be fixed, like yesterday.
BORING PREACHING
Pastors, we can learn what you are attempting to teach us from much more gifted preachers and through brilliantly written Bible resources online. I'm not trying to be cruel, I'm trying to make a very important point. People don't want your regurgitated Bible info forced on them over an agonizing 45 minutes. They want to smell the aroma of the Holy Spirit radiating from you!
The real point isn't boring preaching, it's a lack of fire and revelation due to a nonexistent spirit of prayer. When pastors spend most of their time on their knees right in the middle of the furnace of intercession night and day, the flames of anointing and revelation will rage out of them when they stand behind the pulpit. Weeping, groans of intercession, cries of repentance, an uncontrollable tremble and the brooding of the Holy Spirit will mark messages birthed in the prayer room.
FEAR OF MAN
Please pastors, stop with the careful wordsmithing and unoffensive sermon points. It's time for the troublers of Israel to arise! Preach on fire and shake the casual out of their stupor!
Say what needs to be said and let the big givers storm out with their money still in their pockets. Preach! Tear down strongholds, confront wickedness and scare the pretenders out of the holy place God has called you to steward.
It's time self-focused, semi-interested people are no longer given the opportunity to demand what they are looking for in a church. It's time to close up the welcome centers and put away the welcome gifts. When presented with the unmistakable burning only a supernatural church can offer, their decision to stay or leave will be immediate. ~It's Time to Start Scaring Visitors Away From the Church
TIRED ORDER OF SERVICE
Disenchanted remnant Christians are longing for church services that start with choruses of intercession, are filled with prophetic utterances and eventually end with decrees and declarations!
Eliminate the time for handshakes and Christian side-hugs, the painfully irritating announcements that interrupt the flow of the Holy Spirit, the unnecessarily invasive offering sermonettes and the perfect timing that ensures everything fits within a two-hour window.
Pastors, let go of the structure! Open the mic for people to pray with passion! Cancel your lunch reservations! Fill the service with fiery intercession, prophetic decrees and exhortation of powerful truths of Scripture as the Holy Spirit ebbs and flows in perfect violation of human order!
NO REVIVAL EMPHASIS
If there's one thing I can discern it's the spirit of revival. I've heard pastors talk about revival, but it's rare to find one that truly gets it. You'll know they don't get it when their revival talk centers around the hopes for their own church to grow instead of contending for a regional outpouring that has little to do with their local church.
I believe we need to see prayer and revival centers launch in cities all over the world. These are prophetic centers of intercession that burn continually for a move of God. They couldn't care less if the outpouring is centered in their own ministry or not. Their prophetic and apostolic assignment is much greater than that.
Churches and ministries that will draw the disenfranchised remnant are those that are fully devoted to partnering with the Holy Spirit in the region. They have no desire to find a nice local community where they can connect with new friends as they hold hands and sing some songs as they “do life” together. Nope. These are warriors. They aren't in it for the benefits. They are in it to the death, and they are ready to lay it all down for the sake of revival.
THE PROPHETIC IS MINIMIZED
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 (ESV)
I personally believe that churches that don't embrace prophetic ministry are significantly out of line. Without an active, vibrant prophetic culture in the church, it will feel dead, be misguided and it will muzzle those who have a mandate to release critical revelation to the body.
A prophetic culture will result in an electric, urgent and supernatural atmosphere that is fueled by a constant spirit of prayer. The body will watch the leadership function from their knees with a tremble in their spirit and will model that lifestyle. Prophetic unction will flow from all, and the release of revelation will powerfully mark the corporate gathering.
FOCUS ON CHURCH GROWTH
The focus on church growth must cease. The remnant doesn't care about a larger building or a growing population. Of course, they are consumed with passion for souls, but this is the difference between today's typical church strategy and the one today's revival minded people have adopted.
Typical church leaders equate success with a larger crowd. They argue that more people in the church equals more souls in the Kingdom. This is not usually the case. It's an immature and unrealistic strategy.
The remnant church, however, values the presence of God over the presence of people. They would rather gather together with twenty or thirty firebrands who have been marked by the Spirit of God instead of five hundred spiritually curious people. They want the Upper Room 120, not the thousands who were too busy to truly invest.
The strategy is prayer induced revival. When the small group of fully surrendered and sold out remnant revivalists pray on fire together, they are building a foundation for the harvest. They aren't looking for an extra few hundred people in their meeting, they want the millions!
In fact, growing with people who are not raging on fire for Jesus will only result in a watered-down experience where all sorts of compromises are made to ensure the moderates are satiated. Remnant Christians are done with such foolish distractions.
NO SUPERNATURAL ACTIVITY
A church without signs, wonders and miracles, without dreams and visions, without the glory of God, is a church without a strategic, powerful and supernatural prayer culture. A prayerless church is no church at all and remnant Believers refuse to waste their time with such a humanistic endeavor.
I hear about people scrutinizing churches that are functioning in the supernatural. I have often suggested that churches that do not operate in the invisible realm where the wonders of God manifest should be questioned. Why is God not moving in your midst?
As we cultivate a prayer-infused church where everybody prays with tongues of fire and prophesies and contends against the darkness, we'll have a church on fire that is driven by the winds of the Holy Spirit. People are so hungry for this but it is exceptionally rare to find a church that flows this way.
CONTROLLING AND RESTRICTIVE LEADERSHIP
Pastors, we must raise up people to outshine us! Get out of the way and celebrate the callings and gifts in others. Allow God to move mightily through them and step aside when God is ready to use them.
We need revival churches that are raising up sons and daughters and releasing them into the world! We need revival leaders who will drop the reigns and allow the messy, unpredictable and supernatural to happen!
I've known pastors who are completely lost without a perfectly timed order of service. They need to step off the platform and hit the altar and let the Spirit of God rage!
NO LEGITIMATE VISION
Why are we even gathering together? What is the vision? What's the point?
When many pastors are asked about their vision, they often share their ministry goals. The two couldn't be more different. You may have goals to add a certain number of people to the pews or to build a second campus, but that is not vision.
Vision is a supernatural infusion of the impossible. It's the burning purpose of the ministry. It's the very reason the leader is gathering people together. True vision will grip the pastor night and day. It's costly. It's deeply personal yet the body is invited to participate.
Revival-minded people want to run with a leader who has had their hip taken out by God, who has no other reason for living than to fulfill their mandate. The vision is alive, burning, raging, all-encompassing and humanly impossible to fulfill.
MISPLACED EMPHASIS ON WORSHIP
In many churches that consider themselves to be supernaturally motivated, a spirit of prayer has been replaced by a strategy of worship. Emphasis has been placed on an excellent musical experience, believing that it's the highest form of supernatural expression and the quickest route to fulfilling the goal of introducing a spiritual element into the service.
A sixty-second prayer as the worship team members hold hands in a circle on the platform is usually followed by an hour or so of practice.
I'll say this as clearly as I can: a spirit of true worship cannot come without a spirit of fervent prayer leading the way.
Some of my favorite worship experiences have been in churches with a single, ragtag guitar playing leader, sometimes with other musicians and sometimes not, who just bleeds intercession. You can see it. You can feel it. They play spontaneously, in the Spirit, with no song list, no script, no karaoke sing-a-longs. Intermixed are songs in tongues, tears of passion and powerful prayers and declarations. The people are undone, rocking, trembling and deeply hungry as the Holy Spirit whips through them like a mighty wind.
Compare this with highly polished, well-orchestrated worship sets with surface-level, manufactured exuberance that any discerning remnant Believer can pick up on with their eyes closed and their hands tied behind their backs.
Again, no spirit of prayer, no spirit of worship. Period.
UNUSUAL CHURCH
Remnant Christians can't stand one more church as usual service. We are done!
It's time for unusual church. It's an unscripted, spontaneous, risky, messy, open-ended, explosive and often offensive environment where God blows in with might.
My pastor friend's plea is real. He wants to connect with pastors and leaders who are yearning for an unusual church experience. I do too.
My prophetic friends who last night cried out for anything but church as usual are not alone. There are many remnant Christians who are desperate for the new wine. I hear from people all over the world on a very regular basis asking me if I know where they might find such a church, an unusual church on fire. Sadly, I must confess most of the time that I do not. This must change.
Come on pastors, no more church as usual. For real this time.
Extreme Holy Spirit Activity Is Needed – Today’s Church Is Not Spirit-Filled Enough
Even today's most Spirit-filled churches must embrace radical reformation.
Listen to a short podcast as I describe the 2 Chronicles church model, a revelation-driven, prophetic model, that must come to the church, and fast. Then, read this article. It's time for revolution.TODAY'S SPIRIT-FILLED CHURCH EXPERIENCE
Like most of you, I have quite a memory bank full of church experiences, many of them phenomenal, many of them poor, but most of them quite average, not memorable, good, but honestly disappointing and unsatisfying. There is a collective roar sounding over our nation, a bellowing cry for an end to church as usual. (By the way, here's the definition of bellow: emit a deep loud roar, typically in pain or anger. I think that fits.) People are no longer impressed by a skilled worship team, a perfect flow, professional preaching or big dollar theatrics. They want a mighty move of God. If you listened to the podcast, you'll understand that I'm attempting to bring distinction between today's very good Spirit-filled church experience and the radical reformation that must come. We are all familiar with the Sunday ritual:- Be welcomed by greeters, friends and maybe the pastor.
- Acknowledge the refreshing presence of the Holy Spirit while worshiping for 30-40 minutes or so.
- Shift into a time for the offering and announcements.
- Listen to a decent message.
- Possibly spend some time at the altar as God touches your heart.
- Shake some more hands and then head out to lunch.
- Repeat next Sunday
PAVEMENT PEOPLE
1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 (ESV)I believe a mark of revival just might not be full buildings, but rather empty buildings. Prayer and sacrifice resulted in fire coming down from heaven and the glory of the Lord filling the place! When that dramatic, supernatural event impacted that building, nobody could enter. They all hit the pavement and worshiped and declared God's goodness! This is the church experience the remnant is crying out for! Pastors will have to fully stop their pursuits of numeric church growth and shift their efforts to facilitating a white-hot atmosphere of intercession, groans, tongues of fire and prophetic unction. Understand, the church isn't a house of teaching, a house of friendships, a house of evangelism. It's a house of prayer. If a church isn't praying in the Spirit as the very foundation of their ministry, then all of the rest is compromised. Powerless. Out of order. Every person in the church must be fully devoted to praying in tongues and allowing the groans of the Spirit to burn through them. Instead producing an order of service that expects more people to be drawn in, pastors must raise the bar, turn up the temperature and contend with the remnant in otherworldly prayer—fully expecting most others to be repelled. The pretenders will be identified, but so will the faithful and hungry. You will find your remnant when you start offering what the remnant is longing for. We must have a 180-degree response to the ultra-damaging seeker-sensitive movement of recent decades. We can grieve the Holy Spirit no longer by keeping him on a leash, tied up outside of the sanctuary. For too long, people have been expected to leave the Holy Spirit (and the manifestations he brings with him) outside the church building, though they were certainly free to untie him and take him home with them if they so chose. Ichabod churches are numerous and God is absolutely grieved. We should be too. But, let me bring this back to center. It's easy to identify the spiritually dead or the supernaturally resistant churches. This message certainly can target them, but more specifically, it targets the spiritually vibrant churches that I identified above. There are many such churches that are great places to raise a family, to connect with other Believers and to worship and grow in God. But, again, I'm sounding an urgent alarm—this church experience is insufficient. In fact, such churches can become breeding grounds of mediocrity. It's easy to attend such churches and to be casual in our relationship with Jesus. It's easy to be active in sin. It's easy to hide in the shadows. On the contrary, churches that are marked by fire, with everybody praying in tongues, groaning in the Spirit, crying out for revival and contending for holiness, you cannot hide. When everybody is praying, walking, crying, living and groaning in the Holy Spirit, when the fire of God sears them, when the challenge is intense and the atmosphere intentionally aggressive, impurities, sins and resistance are exposed. I've seen it time and again. Sundays must quickly shift. Now. In fact, we are way behind schedule. Instead of shaking hands and greeting visitors and meeting with friends, people will walk trembling into the sanctuary as a roar of intercession explodes throughout. People will be on their faces with deep supernatural groans erupting out of them. Others will be pacing, repenting, kneeling, crying out or exalting God with great passion. Instead of sing-a-longs and sermons, a revelation-driven church will be filled with prophetic decrees, biblical declarations, groans of intercession and messages that shift atmospheres, all while people are shaking, hungering and crying out for fire to fall and for the Holy Spirit to come. You might be surprised at how many visitors actually are drawn to such a life-changing and legitimate move of God. You might also be surprised at how many elders, Sunday School teachers, staff pastors, worship leaders, ushers and pillars of the church run for the exits with complaints and curses in their mouths. This reformation will shake everything that can be shaken, but we can delay no longer. May the supernatural church arise and the stigma of Ichabod be decimated as the Holy Spirit manifests in supernatural wonder again.
Exciting news: Revival Church moving into next phase of the vision
A new globally focused experience awaits you at Revival Church THIS SATURDAY EVENING!
With the new book The Coming Church now available, the time is right for Revival Church to shift gears into its next season.
I continually hear about people’s frustration with “church as usual” and the hunger for a more fiery, passionate atmosphere is increasing around the world.
Over and over I hear from people from other cities and nations who say, “John, I’m craving an experience of fire like you have in Detroit!”
That experience is about to go up about ten levels.
TWO FOLD STRATEGY
ONE.
A brand new flow.
The culture at Revival Church, theLab University and the Detroit Prayer Furnace has always been driven by passionate prayer and encounter with Jesus.
That will remain as our service structure changes fairly radically beginning this Saturday. Church as usual it is not!
After a short (5-10 minute) welcome we will launch into our service. The environment will be intense and engaging as we gather together and being with worship and intercession. It will be interactive and full of fire!
Once or twice we will have rapid fire prayer, and also, once or twice, we will have short 10-15 minute messages.
The entire hour will be intermixed with worship, prayer, decrees, teaching and more.
After the hour is up, the rest of the night will be worship and intercession with occasional exhortations!
TWO:
Media.
Our goal is not to build up a large local body, but rather to impact Detroit and the nations with an anointing that breaks yokes and messages that rock nations. We are continually receiving feedback from other nations about our ministry, and we want to minister to them in a more effective way. Media will help us do that.
The reason for the hour time-frame is so we can create a fast paced, edgy, prophetic and professional broadcast that will be available around the world.
The cameras will role beginning after the welcome until the end of the first phase, one hour later.
The rest of the night the cameras will be off as we continue in intercession and worship.
Understand, our goal is not to have a low quality video of a church service. It’s to create an intimate, personal, vulnerable view into the culture of fire at Revival Church that so many are craving.
Our belief is that potentially millions will be impacted and set free from our “studio of intercession” in Detroit.
THIS WEEK
The cameras and equipment are not here yet, so this week and the weeks to come will be perfect opportunities to get comfortable with the new format and to work out the kinks.
Come expectant and bring as many people as you can find. We are believing for 40+ hungry, prophetic voices to emerge in our local context—voices that will be heard around the world!
Everything else that you know and love about Revival Church remains the same.
- 6pm War Room intercession (some of that will be videoed and archived)
- Children’s ministry
- Life with John and Amy (this Sunday at our house!)
- Prayer watches
- Etc.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
We are pricing equipment now. The cost for studio quality equipment (cameras, boards, computers, etc.) that will allow us to stream live, with full effects, will be significant.
Additionally, we need studio lighting and décor to make our building TV ready.
We will also be producing studio shows (in addition to live services) and hitting the streets to capture prayer throughout Detroit and on the road as we travel.
Contact me directly at [email protected] if you would like to make a financial contribution (tax deductible). We must raise funds for all of the equipment needed, so anything you can do would be great!
Thanks!
See you Saturday for the launch!