Wasn’t going to do this. Too much hype and hype is what spoils the purity. And that’s part of what folks are finding so refreshing and fascinatingly rare about the Asbury worship event.
Yeah, I’m saying event, because what’s going on is not a revival - YET.
It may be a revival if we see people take that experience and internalize it and bring it back home into their daily lives and THEY CHANGE. So we understand that a revival is a changing of THE HEARTS of a swath of the population towards God. If this happens we should see some manifestation in the metrics.
We may see that in an increase in church attendance or charitable giving or missionary work or whatever peoples hearts are longing and or led to do.
So in a sense the critics who say that the energy is better spent elsewhere have a point, but it’s only half right and based on an assumption that THE EVENT IS THE REVIVAL. It’s not. We won’t know unless SOMETHING HAPPENS
Cause people get motivated for a reason to do things that are good. Damar Hamlin is resuscitated on the football field and people pour millions of dollars into charitable work for children. An event for sure. But have people CHANGED?
But change can happen at events such as this.
You want a revival how about the Jesus Movement of the late 60’s early 70’s. Here were young people who embraced the hippy culture and believed Jesus’ love could transcend all the problems of the world. In doing so they unlocked charismatic worship and idealistic efforts to help others and praise God openly, influencing future generations in what’s become the popular culture of worship and the machinery of missionary work. Not to mention helping to bring many such as myself into the Kingdom by realizing the flaws of the current church and the imagining of the ideal church in Heaven.
We can’t see that yet here at Asbury. So what am I doing?
Basically not holding anything back.