Tim Keller on Revival

Tim Keller has a good post seeking to address the question: How do seasons of revival come?

After discussing briefly whether we can have any influence at all over whether revival happens, he then carefully discusses “some factors that, when present, often become associated with revival by God’s blessing.” He mentions four from William Sprague’s Lectures on Revival of Religion:

Extraordinary prayer
A recovery of the gospel of grace
Renewed individuals
The use of the gospel on the heart in counseling

Keller points out that Sprague “studied under both Timothy Dwight, Edwards’ grandson, at Yale and also Archibald Alexander at Princeton” and that “the Princetonians – the Alexanders, Samuel Miller, and Charles Hodge – did a good job of combining the basics of revivalism with a healthy emphasis on doctrine and the importance of the church.”

He then adds two more observations:

First, “revivals occur mainly through the ordinary, ‘instituted means of grace’ – preaching, pastoring, worship, prayer. It is a mistake to identify some specific programmatic method (e.g. Billy Graham-like mass evangelism) too closely with revivals.”

And, second, after mentioning Whitfield and Wesleys “new method” of open air preaching, he adds: “I’m ready to say that creativity might be one of the marks of revival, because so often some new way of communicating the gospel has been part of the mix that God used to bring a mighty revival.” Very interesting.

Read the whole thing.

March 16, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Comments

3 Responses to “Tim Keller on Revival”

Bryan H on March 24th, 2011 10:53 am

Hey Matt–I think I listened to this same presentation a couple of days ago and what I thought was also interesting was what he said about the tension between having an enduring vision that everyone knows and is guided by while at the same time being innovative and creative. I don’t hear these two juxtaposed very often–though perhaps you’ve seen a decent treatment of it somewhere else??
Matt on March 31st, 2011 1:40 pm

Bryan,

That is a really critical juxtaposition–excellent that you caught that.

Jim Collins actually identified this sort of thing as the core attribute of visionary companies. It is the dynamic of “preserve the core, and stimulate progress.” In other words, know what you stand for–purpose and values (and, in the case of the faith, doctrine). Then, for everything that is non-core, innovate and experiment and try a lot of stuff.

Collins gives an excellent treatment of this in his book _Built to Last_. Here’s the thing: what he’s describing is not just a “business” phenomenon; he’s describing something about the way God has set things up in general, which you see evident not only in organizations, but all over the place — including church history and in Keller’s description here.

So, although he’s writing primarily about organizations, Collins gives as helpful a treatment of this dynamic as anywhere I have found.

Another expression of it is when Driscoll and others talk about contextualization. The gospel doesn’t and cannot change. But we should adapt our cultural practices–things where the Bible gives us freedom–to fit with our context. In other words, preserve the core (the gospel and everything the Bible teaches and requires) and stimulate progress (in other words, adapt and be willing to change everything where the Bible gives you freedom, in order to contextualize).
Bryan on March 31st, 2011 3:29 pm

I’ll have to break down and get Built to Last. I used to be an administratrive pastor but am presently doing ministry through my role as an administrator for a Christian owned electrical contractor (not that it would have to be a Christian company for it to be ministry). Have you done or could you do a post recommending the top three books in the categories of (1) productivity (2) organizational leadership? You obviously go to some standard places as you blog, but if a person could only own three books in each category, what would you say.