There’s a good article at worshipleader.com by Robb Redman, that is a review of and response to George Barna’s Revolution. The article is called Revolution or Renewal? and it brings up some good points about the book.
“Revolution” means a clean break with the past and the introduction of something completely new… Historically, Christians have been more comfortable with renewal and revival to describe “radical and pervasive change,” rather than revolution, because they point to the providential hand of God, rather than impersonal forces of history. Those of us who have been around long enough know that the Church in every generation has its “Revolutionaries” who are disillusioned with the local church and yearn for something more… [It's] not a revolution, but a rhythm of renewal and revival in response to the movement of the Holy Spirit among and within ordinary communities of faith.
So what happens to “revolutionaries” who separate from local churches to pursue ministry? They end up starting new ministries. In a sense, Redman is right, that this isn’t about revolution as much as it is renewal. But I think it’s a game of semantics, and I don’t think that Barna would disagree with the heart of what Redman is saying.
Part of renewal, revival, or revolutions is that in order to start something new, the old has to die. Abraham was called out of Ur. New wine and old wineskins. Let the dead bury their own. The New Covenant completely killing the Old. In that sense, I like the term revolution.
But on another level I like renewal because while the wineskin, the vessel, the language, the cultural context might change, that doesn’t change the Truth or the Person who defines it. We might be called out of the old wineskin, but our brothers and sisters in Christ are still in it. There is only one faith and one God and one church. So to that degree, we should be careful how “divided” and “separate” we become as we partake in the revolution. They are still family. So on that level I like renewal.
Most of us wouldn’t know a real revival until it happened … and I guarantee labels and definitions would matter a whole lot less when it did.
Semantics, yeah … definitely semantics …
Peace.