WHY THE CHURCH NEEDS REVIVAL!

The Body of Christ is alive and well on planet earth ...

... but the Community of Churches is in DISTRESS!

• Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year.

• • 80% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave the ministry within the FIRST 5 YEARS!

• Over 1,300 pastors were terminated by the local church each month , many without cause

• 4,000 new churches start each year in America.

• • 7,000 churches close each year in America.

• 50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.

• • Nearly 40% of pastors have had an extra-marital
    sexual affair since entering ministry.

• 70% of pastors continually battle depression!

• • 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.

  • 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their
    spouses.

• 80% of pastors spend under 15 minutes a day in prayer.

• 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant
  or mentor.

• 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave
  the ministry if they could, but have no other way to
  make a living.

• 70% of pastors only study God’s Word when preparing a message.

Sources: According to Shiloh Place Ministries (shilohplace.org), which drew its information from Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, and other respected groups: (HT: Historicity)

With the above information, is it any wonder that the following conditions have now developed?

Less than one half of the people most committed to the church say that their church performs its primary duties with excellence!

2 out of 3 adult Americans (67%) say there is no such thing as absolute truth*

Almost no teenagers from any religious background can articulate the most basic beliefs of their faith.**

  *Source: George Barna
**Source:   "Soul Searching," written by Smith and Melinda Lundquist

THE CHURCH NEEDS REVIVAL!

Not a little mini-meeting that is emotionally exciting either!

Then what do we mean by revival? To reinvigorate, refuel, revitalize ... to return to our first love!

To impart new health, vigor, or spirit to the saints in ministry ...  

Interestingly, "vive" is a Spanish word that literally means ... "LIVE" (as in alive)

So then, revival literally means to bring back to a condition of being live!

TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE!
To remove lethargy and be re-invigorated; to re-ignite and re-fuel the spiritual fires of passionate devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ and His purposes for the Church which is to win souls to Jesus Christ as Lord for redemption/salvation/adoption!

Before the Church will be able to make that final sickle thrust for the last days harvest ... THE CHURCH COMMUNITY MUST RETURN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, VITALITY AND BOLDNESS IN THE POWER OF GOD'S SPIRIT!

During the last days of the Church Age and just prior to the unleashing of the Great Tribulation, we are told a very important admonishment which is often overlooked or minimized by Church Leaders is this:

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
1 Peter 4:17-19 (KJV)

Why has God ever judged His own people? Because of sin in the camp!

• To remove the sin and correct the loyalties and behaviors

What is the result of God's judgment on His own peoples? REVIVAL!

• Repentance of evil; Renewed devotion; Restored fellowships; Revitalized ministry!

• What happens when God's people experience revival? EVANGELISM!

• Living to win others to Christ instead of living to win things for self!

SUCCESSFUL EVANGELISM ... Life changing soul winning ... will only come about upon the foundation of genuine righteousness!

FAR TOO MUCH OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH IS NOT RIGHTEOUS! The foundation must be repaired!

That will only come by REVIVAL! God's prescription for revival ... not man's formulation of the so-called post-modern, emergent church in the ecumenical era of embracing all beliefs for the sake of man's unity!!!

Look! God sent Jesus Christ to this earth on a mission of accomplishing the work of making it possible for sinners to become saints ... for the children of sin to be born again to be children of The Most High God!

We need to again become a people who are in truth, the sons and daughters of God Almighty through faith in Christ Jesus as LORD! We need to again become a people who are living life on God's terms rather than trying to live life by wanting God to accept our terms for accepting His love! We need to again become the people of God that exemplifies righteousness and purity from the world's standards of living!

We need to again become people who are in love with and are so filled with the abiding presence of Jesus that when the world sees us the world sees Jesus instead of us!

BEFORE SOUL WINNING, LIFE CHANGING EVANGELISM CAN TAKE PLACE ... REVIVAL MUST OCCUR!

What does the Lord declare?

If MY people, which are called by MY Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek MY face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

The eyes of the Lord are seeking for a people who are willing to repent and be revived through whom He can then work , a people willing to be made clean and set apart for the Master's Work! A people who are willing to humble themselves and acknowledge their wicked ways of the world to which they have befriended themselves in order to be made clean on the inside to be used on the outside!

The Lord is looking for those of His own people who are willing to again be clay in the hands of the Potter!

The Lord is looking for those who do/will accept as Truth what His Word says on every subject, every topic, every situation, every condition found to exist within humanity!

The Lord is looking ...

• For a people who will say "Thus says the Lord and so say we!"
• For a people who will declare sin to be sin ... not to condemn the sinner but to set the sinner free!

The Lord is looking for those who will be His voice & His hands to deliver HIS LOVE and MESSAGE of repentance and redemption to the world around them!

WILL YOUR CONGREGATION BE AMONG THOSE WHOM THE LORD FINDS READY - PREPARED FOR HIS MINISTRY OF HARVEST IN THESE END DAYS OF THE CHURCH AGE?