Missional Outpouring

It’s not rocket science.  Two of those hypothetical situations are showing signs of life that make you glad to be charismatic.  Two look arid and unproductive.

Identifying the desert

Let me describe four young families.  They range in age from late twenties to mid thirties.  Pretend for a moment that they are imaginary but I have a fairly clear mental picture of what each might be like.

Desert Potential

The desert is a metaphor for a place where life is unsustainable and there is no fruit.  It is a place where you get valleys of dry bones and the deer gasps for water.  Bear this in mind when you consider this headline analysis of Isaiah’s take on desert life.

Don’t diss the desert!

Charismatics are results oriented.  That’s no bad thing.  God is on a mission and he wants his mission to be successful.  He cares that the death of Jesus pays off.  When things are going well and revival/renewal is the greater flow of what has already been a steady stream of productivity, it is hard for God to get our attention.

Could church decline be just what we need?

To some extent what I’ve been blogging is no big deal for revival realists.  Over the next couple of sessions —there may be a break over the weekend—I want to introduce some ideas from an article I read recently which takes a whole new angle on revival.  It’s title is The coming revival in the desert: Expecting God to Move outside the Traditional Church setting.