Revivals Can Open the Back Door

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You know the drill. Your church holds a revival every year or two, and you are hard pressed to see any lasting results. In fact you may even see a decline. At that point it is easy for leaders to begin the blame game and a change of leadership follows soon. For the purposes of this discussion I am including 40 Day emphases as revival events. I have served as a pastor for over sixteen years for three churches and have been a part of many revivals. I have scheduled them in my church and I have preached them for others. I have seen some initial growth and spiritual renewal following a revival experience, but it often did not last. I wanted to explore some of the reasons. Perhaps your experience is different, and we would all benefit if you write a response to this article.

Few of us have ever seen a large spiritual awakening. I think that a genuine revival is not scheduled by man, but is a major movement of God. It is also true that when our hearts turn to God in repentance, he stands ready to act. However, I do think that church leaders should continue to provide the challenge for revival and spiritual growth through scheduled events in traditional ways as well as new ones. It is exciting on the front end of an event, as there is great anticipation. The event is great and many decisions are made for Christ. When the event is over, and the lights are turned off, the church leadership takes a big sigh of satisfaction. They are happy for the experience, but looking forward to the church schedule returning to “normal” which simply means a return to the pre-revival status quo. (Now were getting to it!) Weeks and months after the revival we wonder why there is no growth, and we are perplexed when members inform the pastor they are “looking for another church.”

I am currently writing The Simple Discipleship Implementation Guidewhich integrates the SD principles with a 12-step change management process. I have consulted several change management experts including Gary McIntosh, Jim Herrington, and John Kotter to name a few. Step 2 of the SD implementation process is Establish a Sense of Urgency. As I wrote that section I realized the weakness of our revival events. Church leaders plan revivals and special events to encourage spiritual growth, but when the event is over they expect growing disciples to return to the status quo. In other words, no changes are made to the church organizational structure before the revival to accommodate growing disciples.

Is it any wonder that growing Christians leave their church shortly after a revival? With this approach, revival may open the back door of the church for growing Christians to leave. Their expectations have been raised, but they now have to fit into a low expectation status quo church. It is absurd to expect to raise the standards and expectations of Christians with a revival, and then assume they will return to the pre-revival staus quo. I suggest that leaders consider organizational changes before the revival. Leaders should set clear objectives for the total event- before, during, and after. I realize that project management is not very spiritual but the effort may be the difference in opening the back door of the church and your church continuing the growth experience. I contend that growing churches should revisit their organizational structure often. Natural Church Development and other church health resources may be useful to leaders as they struggle with church organizational development.

By the way, share this blog address with your friends as you seek to challenge them on issues of discipleship, coaching, change management, and church organizational development.

SD Blessings to all,

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

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