Revival is often pretty confusing for many. Most are wondering what revival actually is. There are undoubtedly many ways people could define it. For some, they picture things they hear in the news like a mysterious fog showing up, or extreme manifestations of God of sorts. Others picture these yearly tent revival meetings their church used to plan and execute when they were kids, which were basically long church services every day for a week straight.

Revival is none of these things.

When you think about what the word revive means, in my opinion, it tells us all we need to know about how God views revival. To revive something isn’t to take it to this extraordinary state of extreme. To revive something is to put it back to its originally intended form and function. When a person is dying and they’re revived, they’re not suddenly Superman. They’re just alive the way they should be.

It’s not complex, and it’s not mysterious in the sense that we can’t define it.

Revival is simply when God decides in His sovereign will (and we see in scripture, it’s in response to His people’s prayers), to awaken and illuminate the hearts of his people. Bringing them back to life, awareness of his presence, awareness of their sin, awareness of God’s mercy and grace, and lighting a fire around their heart - so that they burn with a passion for him.

Revival will be marked by both new people coming to faith, and perhaps more importantly from a missional standpoint, existing believers being awakened again to His work in their own lives and in their city.

Because of the comforts and freedoms in the West, the Church has become relatively impotent and ineffective. Religious decline in the US is at an all-time high.

According to Barna's research, only 1% of pastors across the US believe discipleship efforts are actually working in their church.

The church will lose 70-80% of its kids as they walk away from the faith by college time.

The church needs revival. We need God to move.

Revival isn’t hype. It’s not extremism. Revival is the restoration of New Testament Christianity. It’s believers becoming fully alive to God, obedient and effective, walking with and responding to the Spirit, the way God intended.

Often in times of revival, God will do in a day what we might normally see him do over a full year. But it doesn’t appear to be random chance according to historical records, it is always a result of a prayer effort that almost always starts with one or a few people.

Let’s be those people.

I for one want to see a revival in the Eugene area. I want to see God move in a way that restores his people. And I want to be praying for this alongside men and women from every orthodox church body and across every denomination in Lane County.

As I like to say, you can’t revive what isn’t almost dead, and it’s always darkest before dawn. The cultural moment we live in here in the PNW is a dark one, but rather than feel hopeless, let’s hope in the transformative work of our creator. There’s never been a greater time to join in prayer for revival.