In the US, the term "revival" is often used interchangeably with "evangelistic campaign". In Australia and the UK, it is generally reserved for those special visitations of the Holy Spirit on the people of God, reviving the spiritual life which had become dormant in them.

In the old days, Revival preachers spoke of four phases in revival.

Click here for what the revivalists said
Click here for a psychiatrist's insights
Click here for the ethics and motivation of revival
Click here for some scientific insights

REVIVALISTS ON REVIVAL
At the beginning, a church or group of Christians is self-satisfied and closed to change. It's spiritual life is at a low ebb, and the emphasis is on survival or reputation rather than on bringing life and hope to a needy world.
However, they often maintain a friendly facade and an appearance of spirituality or orthodoxy.

Following this comes a period of active resistance to the message of change and transformation. Preachers spoke of an outbreak of Satan or a powerful manifestation of the flesh. In some cases the preachers themselves faced physical threats and occasional violence.

If the Revivalist doesn't persist past that point, the congregation returns to its self-satisfied state. If she/he persists, often the group comes to a sudden change, the point of brokenness. This is a time of weeping, confession, earnest prayer, and often even more unconventional "revival" manifestations.

Finally comes true revival. The old lifestyle is swept away, a new love for the sisters and brothers emerges, and it spills over in all kinds of creative ways into the surrounding society.

Some people say that revival belonged to the past and we can't expect it today.

For an answer...

Psychiatrist M Scott Peck (A Different Drum) identifies four stages in the development of true community.

First comes pseudo-community, when everyone plays at being in community, but there is no sense of belonging to a group with a higher purpose than self-interest.

Next comes chaos, when all the superficiality begins falling away, and the imitation can no longer be sustained.

If the group successfully negotiates this phase, it then comes to brokenness, where individual goals are abandoned.

Finally, the people reintegrate into a community which values group goals highly and is strongly motivated to bring about change.

To read about the value of chaos, click here!

TRUE REVIVAL is volitional, ethical, social, experiential and devotional. When any of these aspects is missing, the whole is distorted.

 Because the experience (experiential aspect) and the devotion associated with revival can be very meaningful and significant, people often focus on them, and fail to see the wider picture. Some kinds of Pentecostalism, for example, have rightly been criticised for exalting experience above everything else.

 Revival is volitional, because it arises in part from our will. We have to want it and be willing to receive it, if it is to have any impact. We must therefore ask ourselves, when revival
is slow coming, whether we are, in fact, hindering it by our lack of desire to have it.

 There is a price to be paid, and we tend to pray for the blessing without being willing to pay the price.

 Revival is ethical, because part of the price is to do what is right. A hallmark of genuine revivals in the past has been a truly repentant attitude, with wrongs being righted and many choosing radically different lifestyles.

 Revival is social. While many people discover personal blessings in their Christian life through private prayer, revival comes only when blessing is shared. True revivals build
community between Christians. As I have previously mentioned, revival can be considered as the creation of genuine community centred on Jesus Christ.

 Revival is certainly experiential. It was customary in the US to claim to have had a revival when all that has happened is a series of meetings. In a revival, people have an experience, variously described as "a meeting with Jesus Christ", "infilling /baptism with the Holy Spirit", "conviction" or various other expressions. It is a sense of meeting someone greater than yourself, of being known, of reaching a crisis point.

 And revival is devotional. Out of that experience of encounter comes a desire to worship. A revival without worship is certainly spurious, because worship is our primary meeting point with God.

 However, the style and expression of worship may be far from conventional, and not even fit "religious" norms at all.

 I heard of one young woman who turned the record player up full blast and danced on a table when she was converted: it was such a joyful experience! And Christian writer, Keith Miller, drank a straight whiskey and went to his car to pray: this was his way of coping with a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.

 Keep praying for revival!

To read more about the conditions for revival, click here

© Peter R. Green 1998, 2002

THE ABC'S COMPASS PROGRAMME recently (May 1998) reported scientific investigations of religious phenomena such as healing. Much of what was being said also applies to the phenomena of revival.

 Many Christians fear scientific investigations of faith, lest God somehow be reduced if we discover a measurable and definable basis for the things we believe in. And it is easy,
once we have a name and a definition for something, to feel we now control it.

 On the other hand, God frequently uses quite well-understood methods to achieve his ends, and we don't baulk at having scientific explanations for these things. We know how
the water cycle works, but still pray for rain to a God who listens. Or, like on the day of our street stall a few years ago, we pray for rain to be withheld. We understand the physical
mechanisms, but why did it rain so heavily in Dulwich Hill, Newtown, Earlwood and even closer, and remain sunny over Marrickville until we began packing up?

 The documentary was largely shot in Italy, focusing on miracles in the Roman Catholic Church. It pitted a very conservative German theologian against a charismatic
African bishop who argued that what Christ did in the first century he still does today among those who have faith.

 It would have been informative had the programme included Protestants as well, because Protestants often attempt more strenuously than Catholics to integrate theology and practice.

 The programme emphasised the importance of people being 'in tune with' each other. Experimenters measured the EEG rhythms of people in prayer, demonstrating that, in the course of their time together, a degree of synchronisation happened.

 They suggested that, when a high degree of synchronisation occurs, the human body is capable of self-healing to an extent not normally possible. They included the testimonies of
several people who had experienced remarkable healings.

 I thought of this in respect of simultaneous prayer, a phenomenon often associated with revival movements. It is awe-inspiring to hear the initial babble transformed into a vast
ocean of prayer and praise as themes are picked up and transmitted like waves through the crowd.

 Simultaneous prayer contrasts significantly with the babble of voices in, say, a call centre or a telephone research office. Obviously there are other factors at work in simultaneous prayer.

 It has been pointed out that revival follows the known patterns of formation of community. That, too, is something which can be described and measured.

 It seems that the phenomena -- the 'getting into synchronisation' with each other -- are human capabilities which occur inside and outside of Christian circles. However, they occur only where people are prepared to make definite and positive efforts to allow it to happen. Whenever this occurs, it releases remarkable abilities for which science has as yet no clear explanation.

 The distinguishing factor in the Christian sphere is that it is in submission to God through Christ, rather than in submission to an idea or to a human leader, that this synchronisation is found.