OPINION (Charisma) – Many congregations are working hard to attract the wrong crowd on Sunday—and the result is an Ichabod church. I’ve met countless pastors and others who say they are focused on revival, but who are misguided on exactly what it is. Their focus is on attracting people to the church, on people getting “saved” and on other church growth strategies. The problem? The foundational pursuit of revival has nothing to do with church growth or the lost. It has everything to do with the church awakening,
contending in intercession and attracting the fire of the Holy Spirit. The lost didn’t show up in the upper room. Marginal followers of Jesus were repelled by the upper room. Revival isn’t marked by a full house. Revival starts in a room that reveals the remnant. The revival that erupted in that roomful of remnants resulted in explosive church growth and kingdom advance. Premature church growth will result in a multiplication of lukewarm, dead and dying people who have no idea what it feels like to have tongues of fire igniting over top of them (Acts 2:1-3). READ MORE
