Recent weeks have been encouraging for Christians in Great Britain. Statistics from the Bible Society and anecdotal evidence over Easter all suggest that increasingly more individuals are coming to church, many for the primary time of their lives. Even our atheist Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, felt the necessity to pay his respects to the nation’s Christians at Easter.
Now a specialist in evangelism and missiology has checked out 4 responses Christians should should this “quiet revival”, and the way we will turn it into something greater.
Phil Knox, writing for the Evangelical Alliance, noted quite a lot of data points, from opinion polls to Bible sales, that every one suggest interest in and practice of Christianity is on the rise.
“If reviewed in isolation considered one of these studies could arguably be labelled as an outlier. But together, they function a useful indicator that there was a change within the spiritual climate,” he said.
“Alongside this, I am hearing from many church leaders reporting significant growth and my social media timeline was recently filled with churches packed out to overflowing on Easter Sunday. “
Knox noted that to start with as Christians we’re called to not lose hope. Our God has no limits, and so we should always not be surprised that he can bring a revival at probably the most surprising of moments.
The resurrection of Jesus is a living proof. No one took the prospect seriously, despite Jesus clearly saying it could occur.
Knox quotes GK Chesterton, “On five occasions in history the church has gone to the dogs, but on each occasion, it was the dogs that died.”
Secondly Knox questioned if we as Christians or as churches are able to receive recent people. While a seeker may go to church once out of curiosity, in the event that they don’t discover a welcoming environment of individuals wanting to walk on the trail of religion together, they might not come a second time.
Knox also noted that if we’re indeed seeing the beginnings of a revival, we must not waste this time: “Since I actually have been aware of the shift that is going on, I actually have intensified my prayers and pushed further in conversations with my friends who usually are not yet believers. In harvest terms, ‘the fruit could also be riper than ever before’.”
Finally, Knox reminded all believers to proceed praying for God’s Kingdom to come back and his shall be done. The work of saving souls is just not one which man does alone, but along with God: “I don’t consider we’re in full scale revival, but we could also be seeing the primary fruits. Let’s commit to praying for more and believing for greater, locally, nationally and globally. Your kingdom come, your shall be done Lord.”
In June the Evangelical Alliance shall be publishing its own research into what lies behind the present “quiet revival”. The research will take a look at the person stories of 300 recent Christians and what led them to faith.
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