Revival
Until about a week ago, I had never heard of Asbury University. Someone pointed out that there was something going on there. I had to look up where it was. “Oh, it’s in Kentucky.” That was my response.
I went to the school website. There wasn’t anything on the website pointing to a specific event going on. Then I heard some more about what was going on. And finally the R word got thrown into the mix – “Revival!” Here’s the thing – I’m not a big fan of the word. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t come from an evangelical background. I was raised Roman Catholic and now I’m Lutheran. I do very much appreciate the mystical side of faith though. St. Francis of Assisi is my favorite saint. He experienced the stigmata – you don’t get more mystical than that as far as I’m concerned.
In college, our Newman club (the Catholic club on a Protestant campus) traveled to Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH for some events, including worship. We went to Catholic conferences where which felt almost revival like-ish – well, as close as you can get anyway. But still not the same thing. Liturgically minded traditions just have a different way of encountering God. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just different. As with most things – there are positives and there are negatives. There are things that appeal to people and things that put people off.
So apparently there’s a revival going on at Ashbury University – or someone decided to label it that and the label caught on with other people. And here’s the thing. I don’t really have a thought about it. I haven’t watch it. I’ve read a couple of articles from some folks who have been there. I’ve read a couple of articles about people postulating why the revival stated – all just guesses really.
I think the thing that is most interesting is the work arounds that the students and professors have to make while this, whatever it is, is going on. Apparently it started with the students, but it’s shifted to other folks? I don’t know. Again, I’m not really following.
So why comment at all? That’s the real question. That’s what I’m asking myself. There are histories of revivals – that can’t be denied. I’m curious why this has caught attention of people. I’m curious if it’s something that is really more a desire for people to encounter God for themselves – something that they feel they are missing in their own lives. And so regardless of what is happening in Ashbury, the pull of it is their own desire to encounter the divine. The question then becomes why are so many then feeling such a lack of encounter with God?
The other question I have is just with the word revival. What is the attraction of the word? Especially if revivals only happen every couple of decades? What about the in-between times? Is God asleep in-between revivals? Are we just spiritually dead roaming the streets waiting aimlessly?
And why does revival have to be in response to some kind of supposed crisis? That’s what one of the articles claimed. For that article it had to do with supposedly “redefining” the sexuality of God. It’s always about sex and gender, isn’t it? Oy. Can’t we just grow up?
So in conclusion, if there is such a thing – I haven’t got slightest idea as to what’s happening on the campus of Ashbury University. Is it a revival? I don’t know. Someone decided to label it that way and it stuck. Will it lead to some kind of change? I guess we’ll see.
Here’s my hope – It’s what I usually hope when it comes to most things related to church. That people’s eye’s would be wiped so that they can see the image of God in others – especially those that look different from themselves. That people’s ears would be cleared so that they can hear people’s worth and value. That people’s hearts might be softened so that they might be changed in order to better listen to Jesus and follow his ways in love, grace, and justice. And that God’s vision of shalom might be implemented in the community of the church willingly participating. If that comes through a revival – great. If it comes some other way – great. I don’t really care what you want to call it. That’s what I want to participate in.
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I’m back.
Will try to make this work, but I’ve had such bad computer issues lately that I will only give it one shot.
I get that you are NOT convinced by this “revival.” But I think your post is a bit south of neutral. You sound like a doubter and a downer. Your rhetorical effect on this is about like mine regarding UFO’s. I can’t prove they are real alien visitors. I can’t prove they are not. It takes faith and belief without complete scientific proof. And… well… I ain’t believing.
AND YET… the moment I am abducted, probed, and dropped back off to talk about it, you can bet I will preach it!
But I have my doubts.
I think your post sounds like it lives right around the corner in the same neighborhood.
No???
I come from a faith heritage that traditionally tried to poopoo “revivals,” and yet… yet we had one in our history! Go figure. In fact it was in Kentucky too.
I visited Asbury Theological Seminary about 20 years ago, was accepted as a student, and tried to raise the funding to attend. They have a few quite admirable instructors there. Some you might have read. Pohl, Witherington, Green… and others.
They have a particularly spicy revival history at their school. And I gotta say, as I frequently do, God works in mysterious ways. He can talk through you ass if he so chooses, and you just gotta deal.
Maybe I will go with Gamaliel. If this is not from God, it will pass and nothing much will come of it. If it is from God, take care you didn’t bash it or inhibit it. Nothing wrong with looking, asking, and using that THINKER God gave ya. But be careful. Even if it don’t amount to much, it might still be God’s doing.
That said, I am a bit excited about it. I am hopeful for it. I am willing to risk being a fool even. I want to go and pray with the masses. I want to see what those dumb shepherds are all abuzz about.
It could be that in a few weeks or months some megachurch guru arises from the mist, goes off and starts a movement with music, diet, private jets, trafficking altar boys or who knows? The moment some of that surfaces, I am going to pull out of that whore. But in the meantime, isn’t this people getting excited about Jesus?
What do you expect that to look like? What prefab arrangements do you have in mind so you can feel comfortable with it… or whatever? One thing about OTHER PEOPLE’s worship… it always looks a bit offensive somehow. I have experienced it. It is a real thing, a phenom, and I know it. But when you really think about it, THAT is no good reason to doubt it or take offense.
Ahhh… but I still have my thinker, and I have some thoughts which bother me about it too. I’m not yet sure if they are mere bias and unworthy of further consideration. But they nag at me, and I need to pay attention to them, I reckon.
Is “revival” a Bible word? Where does it really come from, and why are we so eager either to use it or dismiss it? What revivals do we find in Scripture, and are they really LIKE what we find in Kentucky?
My dad, of all people, pointed to Nineveh and Jonah. There was some brash preaching there, and a lot of repentance! The whole city turned to God! But was that a revival? Are the hairs I pick with that notion really so fine?
On the other hand, something happened at that tomb, and it was the women who discovered it. You had to humble yourself and give their testimony a chance or you would miss it. But was THAT a revival?
I am suddenly listening to people, folx supposedly well studied in this stuff, analyzing other revivals and comparing and contrasting them to Kentucky, but I really never hear of any IN THE BIBLE.
And I gotta say, there is a part of me that thinks, so some people got together and had a big shared experience. It was emotional and spiritual and meaningful they thought. It caused some people to behave in ways out of character for them, perhaps even odd. But I could use those same words to describe my experience on September 11, 2001. That was no revival, though. Quite unrevivalish, really, and yet it had all those important features.
There does seem to be a certain “kind” or even an uncertain kind of Christian heritage that tends to prize these “revivals.” It’s not all Christians across the board, and for that matter, not most. But are they the true Christians where the rest aren’t? (Reminds me of When Harry Met Sally, and the orgasm at dinner scene. “I’ll have what they’re having!”
Am I making light of it now?
Let me be careful. I really don’t mean to do that. But I have nagging questions, and so if I handle them gingerly, can I ask them? Can I do my own analysis even if it’s a bit different from the diehard believers?
Here’s a question, a hard one rumbling in my guts: Does any of this “revival” stuff have anything to do with living in the scientific age?
I mean, in Lubbock, Texas, nothing gets the Christians together quite like a football game, okay? WE all claim the same Jesus, but we can’t get together even to pray. We sure won’t baptize each other. Won’t worship together. But if the home team is playing UT, we will all pack the house!
We are divided and don’t even see it. There is strength in our unity, yet we don’t even want it. Instead, we create niche markets for our Christian faiths, not faith, but faiths. And the niches are small and powerless. We keep looking for power, and can’t find it anywhere except in electric lightbulbs and atomic bombs. Maybe in your Chevy big block.
If God were to give your group a bunch of extra special spiritual goosebumps, would that be meaningful to ya?
That sounds like a dangerous question to me.
And these promoters of this “revival” stuff, they often quickly revert to language about how God does the reviving, BUT YOU GOTTA BE OPEN TO IT, YOU GOTTA BE READY.
Well, I don’t know any revival like resurrection from the dead, and if Jesus was really dead, then he really wasn’t OPEN and READY. He was dead. And the point of resurrection from the dead is how dead dead is. So rising from it is all that more powerful.
IF the dead need to get ready and be open, I don’t know what further need we have of any analysis.
But that is getting pretty bleak again, now huh?
What if this is God’s doing? I don’t want my pride to cause me to miss it. I am willing to be a fool, and anyway, we are talking about song and prayer here! Right? I want in on some of that. I want my heart moved along with my booty and my arms and legs! I want my faith stirred up. And this seems to be a catching thing. This is an kind of infection I might want.
I would say that you’re reading more into my comments about the revival than are there actually. I’m actually quite neutral about it. Sometimes the words don’t convey it well. Maybe the questions I’m raising sound poking, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I don’t come from a revivalist tradition. I don’t know. Revival is just not something that has ever really been God’s way of speaking to me. More power to those to who it does.
I think there is something in American Christianity, or a branch of it anyway, that appeals to the experiential aspect of religion. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, I think Western Christianity over emphasizes the head and thinking and what we know about God far too much. Faith is more than knowledge after all. If we aren’t encountering the Triune God, then what are we doing? So in that respect, I understand the appeal of revival. I’m not sure what my hang up is in regards to this honestly. I’m not attacking this revival. I’m also not going to hop on a plan and go there.
Maybe my hesitation with this is because I’ve seen people being manipulated by religion and with emotion and whatnot far too often. I’ve seen it in politics and in religion, and sometimes a combination of the two. I’ve seen it used by businesses. I’ve seen Jesus used. And so I have cautious hesitation.
Maybe that’s what I’m trying to convey through my questions. I don’t know.
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Well… What God has started, man has ended… if I read it right.
see the link
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kentucky-college-abruptly-stops-24-hour-revival-worship-service-which-had-been-going-for-two-weeks/ar-AA17ITeq?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=7c81c2712bd0401ab49509aeaa153e54
Idk what to think. I was excited when I heard of it. I even felt an impulse to drop my nets in the boat and run to Willmore, but instead I sat back and observed.
But the city fathers and school leaders decided enough is enough and put a stop to it. We need to get back to normal.
(Did Keener really use that phrase? Guess I need to go read the story again. Not sure how it was worded.)
People will make of it what they want to make of it. This is the age that we live in. Did God start it? Or was it something human started and playing on emotions and the crowd? Is that a cynical response? Maybe. Who knows. I haven’t read a ton on this, as I’ve said already, but what I have read, has ranged across the board from people convinced that this is a God thing all the way to the most cynical thoughts.
And again, I sit outside of it wondering – what is it about a revival that is so attractive to people. Why does it take a revival – something of such energy that would draw so many people? Do people not encounter God in their own lives in real ways with energy? Are we missing how God shows up in our lives, even without energy? Is this an American thing? I don’t know – that’s the answer that I come to for so many of these answers.
And I find it ironic that all this happens as we just read the Transfiguration story in the lectionary reading for Sunday from the Gospel of Matthew. At the end of the story, guess what happens – it all returns to “normal” and Jesus says – “Don’t tell anyone until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Hmm. So many questions.
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Back to normal?
I confess, it is clear to me I don’t understand the Transfiguration properly. But back to normal?
That’s the implication. It’s a mountaintop experience. However, the question is this – what is normal?
When God encounters us, we are changed. There is no going back to the way we were. that’s just not possible. So it raises questions. How does Peter, James, and John live transformed lives after the Transfiguration? The implication is that we are to live transformed lives too because Jesus encounters us as well.
For me this relates to the core question of the post – where do we encounter God? Does encounter with God only happen in a revival? I don’t think so. I hope not. I’m not opposed to such things, but I’m not going to put all my hope on it waiting for it. That’s not my thing. More power to those that it is. Jesus, and the Trinity shows up every day, encounters us in so many ways, and touches our lives in real ways – through people, through events, through places, through worship, through so many things. Our eyes, our hearts, our ears, our hands, our entire beings are transformed to see Jesus and all three persons of the Trinity around us all the time. We are surrounded by God in so many ways. People literally miss God all the time because they are looking for something else, with certain expectations, and are attached to certain outcomes. And they miss God right in front and beside them, and often right within them. They miss the encounter that happens every day. They miss it because they are expecting the mountaintop experience, the high emotion, the big event, American-style religious experience.
What I preached on Sunday was that Transfiguration is more common than we realize.
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I just published my own post on revival. In case your or your other readers are interested…
KIT