第六章 福音更新的工作

我们已经讨论了福音更新的必要性，以及福音在复兴和更新中的本质，现在我们将探讨福音更新的工作——即圣灵如何通过实际的方法和手段，给个人和教会带来持久的改变。

我们还将更详细地关注其中一种方式——讲道的工作，并考察几个能够证明福音更新的标志。

福音更新的方式

尽管复兴的最终源头是圣灵，但圣灵通常会使用几种“工具性”或次要的方式来促成复兴。

翻转的祷告

要点燃每一次复兴，圣灵通常会使用约拿单·爱德华兹所称的“翻转的祷告”——即联合的、持久的、以神的国度为中心的祷告。有时，这种祷告从一个人或一个小团体开始，他们为神的荣耀临到社区而祷告。重要的不是祷告的人数，而是祷告的性质。C. 约翰·米勒对“维护型”祷告会和“前线”祷告会进行了有益的区分。

维护型祷告会通常较短、机械化，关注教会内部的身体需求。
阵地祷告会则具有以下三个基本特征：

  1. 祈求恩典来认罪并谦卑自己；
  2. 对教会的兴旺及未得之民得救充满怜悯和热忱；
  3. 渴望认识神，寻求祂的面，渴望见到祂的荣耀。

这些特征的影响力不容忽视。在任何一个祷告会上，如果留心观察，就能很清楚地判断这些特征是否存在。在圣经中关于复兴的祷告，如出埃及记 33 章、尼希米记 1 章和使徒行传 4 章，这三种祷告元素都显而易见。例如，在使徒行传 4 章中，当门徒们受到宗教当局的威胁时，他们祈求的不是自己和家人的安全，而是求神赐他们勇气继续传道！每次复兴总是伴随着超越正常聚会和常规模式的非凡祷告。

福音的重新发现

除了非凡的、持久的祷告，福音更新最核心的要素是对福音本身的重新发现，特别是对重生和唯独恩典得救的强调。D. 马丁·劳埃德-琼斯指出，教会可能会以几种方式失去对福音恩典的关注。

教会可能变得异端化，失去对支撑福音的正统神学要点的坚持，比如三位一体、基督的神性、神的忿怒等。它可能会背弃因信称义的信仰，否认悔改和归信的必要性，转而认为成为基督徒只是加入教会或效法基督的榜样。这会彻底切断福音更新和复兴的动力。

然而，即使一个教会坚持每一项正统教义，它仍可能无法以一种真正触及人心、带来悔改、喜乐和灵命成长的方式传达福音。

死气沉沉的正统是一种形式主义的信仰，人们对教义正确性过于骄傲，以至于教会的正统教导和实践变成了一种自我义的行为。虽然谨慎的教义和生活至关重要，但如果教会充满自义、讥讽、轻蔑他人，并带着争论和攻击的态度，那么即便信奉因信称义的教义，律法主义的精神仍然主导着这个教会，表明福音并未真正触动人心。

劳埃德-琼斯还提到“有缺陷的正统”和“属灵惰性”。有些教会虽持守正统教义，但在平衡和强调上存在问题。许多事工花更多精力防守信仰，而非传播福音，或把过多的关注放在诸如预言、属灵恩赐、创造与进化等问题上。另一些教会则沉迷于事工的运作和教会组织的管理，导致关于恩典、因信称义和悔改的核心教义虽被认同，却未能真正融入人们的生命。许多人对这些教义耳熟能详，却并未真正经历它们的力量。

历史上，福音的重新发现常常成为复兴的关键。例如，约拿单·爱德华兹在1734年11月讲道《唯独因信称义》，引发了马萨诸塞州北安普顿的第一次大觉醒。而约翰·卫斯理和乔治·怀特菲尔德——英国大觉醒的主要领袖——正是因着对恩典得救的理解而经历个人更新，并成为复兴的器皿。

福音的应用

如何让福音真正触动人心，使人看到它的能力和影响？这可以通过以下几种方式在教会中实现：

  1. 讲道——教会恢复福音最重要的方式是讲道。讲道是大多数信徒接受教导的主要途径。任何经文都可以用于福音讲道，关键在于是否将基督和救恩作为经文的核心，而不仅仅是传授生活原则。真正的福音讲道需要应用到人们的实际生命中，而不仅仅是传递关于耶稣的启发性信息。

  2. 培训平信徒领袖——牧师或领袖可以通过培训教会的平信徒领袖来推动福音更新。培训内容可以包括基本教义，如马丁·劳埃德-琼斯的《属灵抑郁》中的“真正的根基”一章，或《浪子神学》。更深入的学习可以涉及理查德·洛夫雷斯和约拿单·爱德华兹的著作。此外，在个人辅导和会面中，引导领袖悔改偶像崇拜和自义，使他们深刻经历福音的力量，并帮助他们带领小组，引导他人进入同样的真理。

  3. 建立有经历分享的团契小组——许多小组聚会要么像圣经课，要么像团契聚会，人们分享生活负担，互相帮助和代祷。这些都很重要，但历史上的复兴领袖，如乔治·怀特菲尔德和约翰·卫斯理，鼓励人们组成小组，每周分享他们对神的经历、属灵争战、圣经如何塑造他们，以及祷告生活的状况。

  4. 个人对话——最基本也最自然的福音应用方式是“谈话”。福音更新通过个人更新的信徒，借着日常谈话传播开来。当一个基督徒分享福音如何改变了自己，并带来生命的重大转变，听者会受到触动，产生属灵渴慕。正如威廉·斯普拉格所说，“许多基督徒都会回顾自己的生命，发现他们的许多果效和喜乐，都源于与某位属灵成熟的朋友的一次谈话。” 关键并不只是内容，而是这个人因着福音更新而焕发出的属灵生命力。

当个人的复兴在这些对话和关系中扩展开来，越来越多的人开始省察自己，寻求神，整个教会就会经历福音更新，甚至影响周围的社区。

“体验聚会” 指导问题

要加入体验聚会，准成员必须对以下问题作出肯定回答：

为激发小组讨论，通常会提出以下问题：

第五种福音应用的方式是确保牧师、长老和其他教会领袖懂得如何在牧养辅导中运用福音，特别是针对那些深感罪恶、寻求指引以迈向前行的人。斯普雷格（Sprague）指出，福音必须适用于寻求者、新信徒以及属灵停滞的基督徒。

例如，斯普雷格建议牧养辅导者要“判断……一个人的知识水平和情感程度。”他强调，辅导者应帮助那些在教义知识上贫乏但情感强烈的人，或那些情感冷淡但对教义理解深入的人，使二者达到平衡。

此外，斯普雷格还建议辅导者识别各种形式的自义（self-righteousness）和律法主义（works-righteousness），并帮助人们摆脱这些陷阱。他还列出了一个颇具现代感的常见疑问和属灵寻求者面临的问题清单，并提供了应对每种情况的建议。

福音必须被运用来斩断道德主义和放纵主义这两种极端，因为它们都会摧毁真正的属灵生命与力量。

福音的创新

我们可以发现福音复兴运动中的另一个重要因素——创造力和创新。斯普雷格（Sprague）正确指出，复兴主要是通过“既定的恩典手段”——讲道、牧养、敬拜和祷告——来实现的。这一点极其重要，需要我们不断重申。神的灵确实能够并且常常使用这些普通的恩典手段，带来戏剧性的、非凡的归信以及显著的教会增长。

然而，当我们研究复兴的历史时，通常会发现其中夹杂着一些创新的福音传播方式。十八世纪的大觉醒（Great Awakening）采用了两种此前很少被使用的事工形式：公开的户外讲道和广泛的小组“社团”聚会。在 1857-1859 年的纽约复兴中，大量的人归信并加入了曼哈顿的教会。而最关键的事工形式，竟然是由平信徒带领的，在华尔街商业区各处举行的工作日祷告会。许多历史学家指出，欧洲的新教改革（Protestant Reformation）在很大程度上是借助一项重要的技术创新——印刷术——得以推动和传播的。

没有哪次复兴会完全重复过去的经历，我们也不应把某种特定的方法等同于复兴。D. 马丁·劳埃德·琼斯（D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones）提到了一些令人遗憾的例子：有些经历了 1904-1905 年威尔士复兴（Welsh Revival）的人，执着于某些特定的聚会方式和诗歌风格，认为只有这些方式才能带来复兴（这种对特定方法的怀旧情结至今仍然盛行）。事实上，复兴的核心手段是神学性的（重新发现福音）和普通的（讲道、祷告、团契、敬拜），但我们仍然应该不断寻找新的福音传播方式，让圣灵在当下的文化环境中使用它们。正如 C. S. 路易斯在《纳尼亚传奇》中所说：“事情不会以同样的方式发生两次。”因此，我们需要保持敏锐的洞察力。

讲道与福音复兴

现在，让我们回到关于讲道在福音复兴中的角色讨论。这个话题怎么强调都不为过。以下是定义福音复兴讲道的五个特征：

  1. 讲道要区分“宗教”与“福音”
    之前的章节已经详细讨论过这个必要性。有效的福音复兴讲道，必须同时批判宗教主义（legalism）和放纵主义（antinomianism）。它还要解决偶像崇拜的核心问题，帮助听众看到自己行为背后的内心动机，并了解福音如何（或者没有如何）在他们的心里发挥作用。

  2. 讲道要兼顾神的圣洁与神的爱，以展现恩典的丰富
    讲道既不能只强调神的审判、圣洁和公义（像道德主义的讲道那样），也不能只强调神的爱和怜悯（像自由派讲道那样）。只有当人们同时看到神的绝对圣洁和绝对慈爱，耶稣的十字架才会真正触动并改变他们。耶稣是如此圣洁，以至于他“必须”为我们而死——没有任何更少的代价可以满足他的圣洁和公义。然而，他又是如此慈爱，以至于他“甘愿”为我们而死——没有任何更少的代价可以满足他对我们的爱与拯救之愿望。这一真理让我们从骄傲与自我中心中谦卑下来，同时也将我们从沮丧与自卑中坚立起来。它让我们恨恶罪，却不至于陷入自责和自厌。

  3. 讲道不仅要使真理清楚，更要使之成为真实的经历
    我们已经看到，保罗如何劝勉信徒慷慨捐献，不是单纯命令他们捐钱，而是提醒他们认识基督的恩典与慷慨（林后 8 章）。换句话说，如果基督徒过于物质主义，这不仅仅是意志力的失败，而是因为他们没有真正理解耶稣为他们舍弃一切、使他们在他里面拥有真正财富的真理。他们可能在理智上明白耶稣的丰富，但心灵深处却没有真正抓住这个事实。因此，讲道不能只是告诉人们“该做什么”，而是要重新呈现基督，使他比物质更吸引我们的心灵。

    约拿单·爱德华兹（Jonathan Edwards）指出，大多数基督徒的主要属灵问题在于：他们在理智上掌握了许多教义，但这些真理对他们的心来说并不真实，因此也无法影响他们的行为。例如，在物质主义的问题上，金钱所带来的安全感对人来说，比神的慈爱和智慧的供应更“真实”。因此，清晰的讲道不仅是要传递知识，更是要让听众的心灵比以往更真实地经历福音的现实。D. 马丁·劳埃德·琼斯如此总结：

    讲道的首要目标……是产生印象。讲道时的印象，比听众之后能记住多少更重要。爱德华兹对讲道的理解是正确的。讲道的首要目标不是传授信息……如果听众忙于做笔记，他们可能会错失圣灵的触动。作为讲道者，我们不能忘记这一点。我们不仅仅是信息的传递者，我们应该让真理“活”起来。

  4. 从每一处经文都要讲基督
    避免道德主义式讲道的关键，是确保每次讲道都以耶稣为终极主题。如果在讲道结束前没有把听众引向耶稣，他们会误以为讲道的重点是他们自己——是他们应该做什么。然而，路加福音 24:13-49 让我们看到，耶稣认为圣经的每个部分都指向他和他的救赎工作。虽然并非所有圣经作者都明确指向耶稣，但如果把某段经文放在完整的圣经脉络中，我们就能看出它如何预示基督。

    例如，士师记 19 章讲述了一位利未人在外地遭到暴徒围攻，为了保住自己的性命，他竟然把自己的妾（次等妻子）交给他们施暴。这段经文令人震惊，我们无法回避它所揭示的可怕现实——这完全违背了圣经对丈夫应有的形象描绘。圣经告诉我们，丈夫应当保护妻子，甚至要为她舍己（弗 5）。但我们如何知道真正的丈夫应该是什么样子呢？士师记的作者可能没有我们今天这样清晰的认识，但当我们回顾耶稣，我们就看到了真正的丈夫形象。保罗在以弗所书 5 章谈到了这一点。因此，我们必须在讲道中指向基督。只有他才是真正的丈夫，只有当我们认识到他的救赎工作，我们才能从恐惧和骄傲中得释放，成为更好的配偶。这不仅带来责备，也带来深切的鼓励。我们的婚姻生活，不是通过努力做个好配偶来赢得救恩，而是将基督已成就的完全救恩应用在婚姻中。

    每一篇讲道都必须回归耶稣，因为我们要在整体圣经的脉络下，理解每一段经文的意义。而这条旅程，必然会带领我们通过福音来到耶稣面前。

ADDITIONAL READINGS ON REVIVAL,

BASIC

Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. New York: Dutton, 2008.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. “The True Foundation.” Pages 23 - 36 in Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965.

INTERMEDIATE

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Revival. Wheaton, IIl.: Crossway, 1987. Lovelace, Richard F. Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of RenewaL. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1979.

ADVANCED

Edwards, Jonathan. The Nature of True Virtue. Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2003. __Thoughts on the New England Revival: Vindicating the Great Awakening. Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 2004. __Religious Affections. Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1961.

Edwards has numerous other works on revival that are worth examining. See also his sermons “A Divine and Supernatural Light” and “Justification by Faith.”

Sprague, William B. Lectures on Revivals of Religion. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1958.

归根结底，阅读圣经时只有两个问题要问：它是关于我的吗？还是关于耶稣的？换句话说，圣经的核心是关于我必须做什么，还是关于他已经做了什么？以大卫与歌利亚的故事为例。如果我把这个故事当作一个值得效仿的榜样，那么这个故事就是关于我的，意味着我要鼓起信心和勇气去面对生活中的“巨人”。但如果我相信圣经最终是关于主和他的救赎，并从这个角度阅读大卫和歌利亚的故事，就会发现其中更深层的意义！旧约的重点在于，以色列人无法靠自己战胜巨人。他们需要一位替代者——一位代替他们迎战死亡威胁的勇士。上帝提供的这位勇士并不是强者，而是一个弱小的少年，甚至无法穿上盔甲。然而，上帝正是借助这位拯救者的软弱，彻底击败了那个狂妄自大的歌利亚。大卫通过软弱得胜，他的胜利被归算给他的百姓。同样，耶稣也是如此。他正是通过受难、软弱和死亡战胜了罪恶。这生动而深刻的故事向我们展示了何为“与基督同死”（罗 6:1-4），以及何为“与他一同复活并坐在天上”（弗 2:5-6）。耶稣才是最终的勇士，我们真正的拯救者，他不仅冒险为我们而战，而是直接献出了自己的生命。如今，他的胜利就是我们的胜利，他所成就的一切都归算于我们。

同时向基督徒和非基督徒传讲

当我在 1980 年代末初到纽约时，我意识到这里并不属于美国的“常态”地区。当时，曼哈顿有 30% 的居民表示他们“没有宗教偏好”，而在全美范围内，这一比例仅为 6%。此外，仅有 5% 的曼哈顿居民参加任何基督教新教教会，而全国这一比例为 25%。我意识到，在宗教和文化上，纽约更像世俗化、后基督教的欧洲。因此，我研究了 20 世纪中叶在伦敦传道的伟大讲道家马丁·劳埃德-琼斯博士的工作，并重新阅读了他的著作《讲道与传道人》。此外，我还听了大量（最终可能是数百篇）他的讲道录音。

我发现他对讲道结构的设计特别值得借鉴。劳埃德-琼斯将晚间讲道设计为福音布道，而上午的讲道则侧重于教导和建立信徒的灵命。晚间讲道包含直接的呼召，邀请人们来信靠基督并接受福音，同时仍然保持深厚的神学性和释经性。而上午的讲道虽然假设听众对基督教已有一定了解，但依然始终回归罪、恩典和基督的核心主题——即福音本身。劳埃德-琼斯鼓励他的会众参加两个时段的聚会。他认为晚间讲道是带领非信徒朋友前来的最佳时机，同时他也希望信徒能定期参与，以获得灵命成长。他并不介意非信徒经常参加上午的聚会，反而在书中写道：“我们必须谨防过于死板地分类，比如‘这些人是基督徒，因此……’（或）‘是的，我们曾在布道会上做出决定成为基督徒，现在，既然我们是基督徒，我们需要的只是教导和造就。’对此，我坚决反对。”

从他的教导中，我学到的功课是：不要仅仅为了信徒的灵命成长而讲道，假设每个听众都是基督徒；也不要仅仅为了传福音而讲道，以为基督徒不再需要听福音。要在造就信徒的同时传福音，也要在传福音的同时造就信徒。

复兴的迹象

当一群人——通常是那些自认为已经了解福音的人——发现自己实际上并未真正或完全明白福音，并因重新拥抱福音而进入真正的活泼信仰时，复兴就发生了。当这种情况大范围地展开时，就会释放出巨大的属灵能量。教会不再将自己的称义建立在成圣之上，而是完全依靠恩典称义。未信者看到这一点，被基督徒群体转变后的生命所吸引，而这个群体正在成长为上帝国度的标志，成为与世俗社会截然不同的美好见证，一个拥有基督的社会替代方案。

复兴的第一个明显迹象，往往是名义上的教会成员真正经历悔改归信。那些“挂名”基督徒开始意识到，他们过去从未真正理解福音，从未经历重生，也从未因恩典与基督建立活泼的关系。当长期以来的教会成员开始分享自己的真实归信经历，以满有光辉的言语谈论基督，或以全新的方式表达悔改时，整个会众都被点燃了。这些最早经历复兴的人，会激励其他教会成员也进入复兴之中。

很快，那些“沉睡”的基督徒也开始重新获得对恩典的确据，并深刻感恩。他们开始意识到自己过去之所以常常活在焦虑、嫉妒、愤怒和无聊之中，是因为未曾真正体会神的恩典。他们在内心深处感受到神的真实，并获得更高层次的、即时的爱与确据。他们的罪意识和悔改变得更加深刻，不仅涉及明显的外在行为罪，也包括内心的态度问题。同时，他们对神的临在和慈爱拥有更强的把握。他们越深刻地体会自己罪债的沉重，就越能对基督为他们偿还罪债而感到惊叹。因此，他们在属灵上变得既谦卑又勇敢。

马丁·劳埃德-琼斯如何运用福音

为什么要用福音来造就基督徒？ 马丁·劳埃德-琼斯（D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones）给出了两个理由。

首先，我们不应“假设所有……成为教会成员的人就是基督徒。这对我来说是最致命的错误之一。” 其次，许多人虽然在理智上接受了基督教，但从未真正经历神的话语和福音的大能，因此也没有真正悔改。换句话说，我们必须始终牢记，教会中仍然有一些成员并未真正归信基督。他指出：“对于传道人来说，最令人振奋的经历之一，就是当那些被所有人认为已经是基督徒的人，突然真正归信基督，成为真正的基督徒。这种事情若在教会中发生，对整个教会的生命力影响最为深远。”

不仅如此，许多自称为基督徒的人从未真正悔改并在恩典中安息；而即便是已经重生的基督徒，为了成长，也需要不断感受福音的大能，并反复回顾自己归信的经历。劳埃德-琼斯补充道：“如果我们的讲道始终是解经式的，并且只用于教导和造就，那么它所培养的教会成员往往会变得刚硬、冷漠，甚至苛刻和自满。我不知道还有什么比这更可能导致一个教会充满法利赛人的方式。” 他还警告说，不要“在没有福音作为根基的情况下宣讲道德和伦理。”

那么，为什么要像劳埃德-琼斯在晚间聚会中那样，为非信徒提供相对‘有深度’的神学讲道呢？ 他这样解释：
“我经常遇到这样的情况：一些后来归信并在教会中成长的人，事后向我讲述他们的经历。他们常常说，‘当我们第一次来到教会时，我们其实并不太明白你在讲什么。’ 但当我问他们是什么让他们坚持继续来听道时，他们一再告诉我：‘教会的整体氛围吸引了我们……我们逐渐开始吸收真理，福音的内容越来越有意义……’ 他们就这样在理解上不断成长，直到最终能够完全享受整个聚会和完整的信息。”

为什么他的布道既有深度，又能让非信徒逐步找到基督？ 这是因为他在回答信徒的问题并帮助他们成长时，总是以某种方式指向福音的核心真理。这样，信徒在被造就的同时，非信徒也能听到福音的讲解。这种做法的好处在于，非信徒归信后，不需要再“毕业”到完全不同的讲道内容，而是可以继续在相同的信息中成长。他们可能开始参加周五晚上的神学讲座或罗马书查经，但在周日的主日讲道中，他们仍然能通过深刻的解经讲道，在恩典中继续成长。

教会复兴的影响与福音更新的动力

当然，教会也会开始看到非基督徒被吸引并归信基督。这是因为他们看到教会变得更加美丽，敬拜更加真实，在社区中积极服侍，并且出人意料地没有了那种论断人的、封闭的部落式态度。基督徒变得更加喜乐和吸引人——他们更愿意并且更有信心向他人分享自己的信仰，在分享时更加友善而不带论断，并且对自己的教会更加有信心，因此也更愿意邀请人们来教会。这样的归信——真实、持久，有时甚至是戏剧性的——带来了显著甚至惊人的教会增长。

理查德·洛夫雷斯（Richard Lovelace）描述了一种在复兴前后常见的现象。通常，各种基督教传统和宗派在事工上会特别强调某些方面，而在其他方面较为薄弱。例如，长老会历史上在教导和教义上较强，五旬节派和圣公会（以各自的方式）在敬拜方面较强，浸信会在传福音方面较突出，再洗礼派则擅长社区建设和关怀贫穷。然而，在福音更新时期，这些优势往往会在原本较为片面的教会中结合起来。经历福音更新的教会发现，那些“次要元素”——过去并非其主要关注点的领域——在福音更新期间开始显现出来。

这种变化往往最先体现在教会敬拜的活力上。当福音真正“深入人心”时——当人们对上帝的圣洁和慈爱有了更宏伟、真实且深刻的感受——敬拜自然会焕发出新的“上帝真实感”。无论采用何种模式或传统，更新后的教会敬拜不再是单一维度的——既非仅仅感性，也非仅仅形式化。上帝的超越性深刻地渗透在敬拜中，使信徒得造就，同时也吸引并帮助非信徒。

此外，对福音的更新兴趣总会引发人们对圣经神学的关注，使其与现实生活更加紧密相连。在复兴期间，倾向自由派的教会可能会变得更加符合圣经，而倾向基要派的教会可能会变得不那么宗派主义，而是更加专注于福音本身，而非教派特有的区别。

当福音真正深入人心时，信徒不再需要维持自己“敬虔和义人”的形象，这自然会打破阻碍人际关系的障碍，带来更加真实的社区体验。伪装和回避变得不再必要。福音也带来谦卑，使信徒更能同理他人、对人更有耐心。这一切都使教会内的关系变得更加深厚。在更新时期，教会独特的反文化特质变得更加吸引外人。

最后，福音更新会塑造出既谦卑（因此不会轻视或鄙视持不同意见的人）又深受爱（因此不再那么在意他人看法）的人。因此，每一位信徒都自然成为传福音者。复兴时期总是伴随着显著的教会增长，而这种增长并非通过信徒转会或“教会购物”来实现，而是通过真实的归信。此外，教会会重新强调贫困和社会公义事工。当基督徒意识到自己并非靠自己得救，而是从属灵的贫困中被拯救出来时，他们自然会改变对经济和物质贫困者的态度。这种谦卑的关怀正是雅各书1-2章及许多其他圣经经文的核心信息。被福音更新的基督徒会以牺牲精神服侍邻舍、贫困者以及周围的社区和城市。

这些在教会内部和周围社区发生的改变，最终会对整个文化产生深远的影响。经历福音更新的教会中的信徒，往往会在艺术、商业、政府、媒体和学术界产生深刻、充满活力且健康的影响。过去二十年，人们越来越多地承认，英国和美国的一些重要社会正义和变革运动——如废除奴隶制和加强童工保护法——都与宗教复兴有着深厚的联系。因为真正的信仰不仅仅是一种提供内心平安和满足的私人实践，圣洁会影响基督徒的私人生活和公共生活。它改变行为和人际关系。因此，当有大量真正的基督徒活跃在一个社区中时，这个社区的各个方面——经济、社会、政治、知识领域等——都会发生变化。

值得注意的是，这些“次要元素”之间是相互依存的，它们自然而然地从被福音更新的心流淌出来。首先，许多个人之所以被福音更新，是因为他们被一个具备这些特质的教会所吸引。其次，每个要素的活力不仅依赖于福音更新的内心，也依赖于其他要素，它们彼此促进。例如，当基督徒为穷人付出牺牲时，他们的邻舍会对福音更加开放。可以说，深厚的社区关系是福音传扬的结果，但同样频繁的是，它也成为福音传扬的手段，因为它让福音更具可信度。许多时候，使人归向信仰的并非讲道，而是朋友的陪伴和分享。然而，这些要素虽然相互促进，但各自的倡导者却常常把它们对立起来。例如，传福音者可能会担心对社会公义的强调会分散对传福音的精力、关注和资源。而社会公义倡导者往往抗拒文化更新的强调，因为他们认为基督徒应该走上街头，与穷人认同，而不是试图影响艺术、媒体和商业精英的世界。专注于社区建设的领袖可能会对迅速增长的教会和传福音项目持负面看法，因为他们不喜欢“项目化”的方式，而是希望一切都自然而然地发生。那些理解福音如何激励所有这些领域的领袖，必须学会化解这些紧张关系，我们将在后续章节更深入地探讨这些动态。

如果缺乏福音更新的动力，教会可能会在人数上增长，但不会在生命力上增长。它可能在规模上扩大，却无法结出持久的果子。这样的教会会展现出某种无生命的症状。大多数甚至全部增长都来自信徒的转会，而非真实的归信。由于缺乏深刻的罪的认知和悔改，极少有人能够见证自己生命的戏剧性转变。如果这样的教会增长了，它对当地社会秩序的影响依然微乎其微，因为信徒没有将基督教信仰带入自己的工作、财务使用和公共生活。然而，当福音更新深深植根于我们的心和教会时，我们的生命和会众将被神的灵赋予能力，并变得美丽。

在所有“中心教会”神学愿景的要素中，福音更新可能是最难以实践的一项。因为最终，我们只能为复兴做好准备，但无法真正引发复兴。只有神能赐下复兴。这对生活在技术社会中的我们来说，可能会令人沮丧，因为我们习惯通过自己的能力和意志控制一切。当我们看不到复兴发生时，我们可能会深感失望。但我们不应如此。德里克·基德纳（Derek Kidner）在《诗篇126篇》的注释中给出了帮助。诗篇126篇的前三节回顾了以色列人经历属灵复兴的时期，他们“满口喜笑”（第2节），周围的列国也惊叹：“耶和华为他们行了大事。” 但第4节表明情况发生了变化，百姓呼求：“耶和华啊，求你使我们被掳的人归回，好像南地的河水复流。”

基德纳指出，复兴的到来有两种方式：突如其来的恩赐，或是长期劳苦的播种。但无论如何，最终的收成是确定的。正如诗篇126篇所言：“流泪撒种的，必欢呼收割。”

讨论与反思问题

1. 关于阵地祷告（Frontline Prayer）
凯勒写道：“维护型祷告会通常简短、机械化，关注教会内部的身体需求。相比之下，阵地祷告有三个基本特征：请求恩典来认罪并谦卑自己；对教会的兴旺和对失丧之人的热情与怜悯；渴望认识神，寻求祂的面，得见祂的荣耀。”

2. 训练平信徒领导者传讲福音
应用福音的一个方法是训练平信徒领导者，使他们能够向他人传讲福音。这包括个人会面和辅导，帮助人们学习如何悔改自己的偶像和自义。

3. 体验式聚会（Experience Meeting）
请查看“指导‘体验式聚会’的问题”一栏中的问题：

4. 创新传讲福音（Gospel Innovation）
福音创新涉及以新的方式创造性地传达福音。

5. 以福音更新为目标的讲道
在“以福音更新为目标的讲道”部分，提到了五个定义这种讲道的特征。

chapter 6 THE WORK OF GOSPEL RENEWAL

We have talked about the need for gospel renewal and the essence of the gospel in revival and renewal, and now we will look at the work of gospel renewal — the practical ways and means by which the Holy Spirit brings lasting change to the lives of individuals and to congregations.

We will also focus in more detail on one of these means — the work of preaching — and examine several signs that give evidence of gospel renewal.

THE MEANS OF GOSPEL RENEWAL

While the ultimate source of a revival is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit ordinarily uses several “instrumental,” or penultimate, means to produce revival.

EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER

To kindle every revival, the Holy Spirit initially uses what Jonathan Edwards called “extraordinary prayer” — united, persistent, and kingdom centered. Sometimes it begins with a single person or a small group of people praying for God’s glory in the community. What is important is not the number of people praying but the nature of the praying. C. John Miller makes a helpful and perceptive distinction between “maintenance” and “frontline” prayer meetings. Maintenance prayer meetings are short, mechanical, and focused on physical needs inside the church. In contrast, the three basic traits of frontline prayer are these:

  1. A request for grace to confess sins and to humble ourselves
  2. A compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church and the reaching of the lost
  3. A yearning to know God, to see his face, to glimpse his glory

These distinctions are unavoidably powerful. If you pay attention at a prayer meeting, you can tell quite clearly whether these traits are present. In the biblical prayers for revival in Exodus 33; Nehemiah 1; and Acts 4, the three elements of frontline prayer are easy to see. Notice in Acts 4, for example, that after the disciples were threatened by the religious authorities, they asked not for protection for themselves and their families but only for boldness to keep preaching! Some kind of extraordinary prayer beyond the normal services and patterns of prayer is always involved.

GOSPEL REDISCOVERY

Along with extraordinary, persistent prayer, the most necessary element of gospel renewal is a recovery of the gospel itself, with a particular emphasis on the new birth and on salvation through grace alone. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught that the gospel emphasis on grace could be lost in several ways. A church might simply become heterodox — losing its grip on the orthodox tenets of theology that under gird the gospel, such as the triune nature of God, the deity of Christ, the wrath of God, and so on. It may turn its back on the very belief in justification by faith alone and the need for conversion and so move toward a view that being a Christian is simply a matter of church membership or of living a life based on Christ’s example. This cuts the nerve of gospel renewal and revival.

But it is possible to subscribe to every orthodox doctrine and nevertheless fail to communicate the gospel to people’s hearts in a way that brings about repentance, joy, and spiritual growth. One way this happens is through dead orthodoxy, in which such pride grows in our doctrinal correctness that sound teaching and right church practice become a kind of works-righteousness. Carefulness in doctrine and life is, of course, critical, but when it is accompanied in a church by self-righteousness, mockery, disdain of everyone else, and a contentious, combative attitude, it shows that, while the doctrine of justification may be believed, a strong spirit of legalism reigns nonetheless. The doctrine has failed to touch hearts.

Lloyd-Jones also speaks of “defective orthodoxy” and “spiritual inertia.”$ Some churches hold to orthodox doctrines but with imbalances and a lack of proper emphasis. Many ministries spend more time defending the faith than propagating it. Or they may give an inordinate amount of energy and attention to matters such as prophecy or spiritual gifts or creation and evolution. A church may become enamored with the mechanics of ministry and church organization. There are innumerable reasons that critical doctrines of grace and justification and conversion, though strongly held, are kept “on the shelf.” They are not preached and communicated in such a way that connects to people’s lives. People see the doctrines — yet they do not see them. It is possible to get an “A” grade on a doctrinal test and describe accurately the doctrines of our salvation, yet be blind to their true implications and power. In this sense, there are plenty of orthodox churches in which the gospel must be rediscovered and then brought home and applied to people’s hearts. When this happens, nominal Christians get converted, lethargic and weak Christians become empowered, and nonbelievers are attracted to the newly beautified Christian congregation.

One of the main vehicles that sparked the first awakening in Northampton, Massachusetts, was Jonathan Edwards’s two sermons on Romans 4:5 (“Justification by Faith Alone” in November 1734. And for both John Wesley and George Whitefield, theprimary leaders of the British Great Awakening, it was an understanding of salvation by grace rather than moral effort that touched off personal renewal and made them agents of revival.

GOSPEL APPLICATION

How do we bring the gospel home to people so they see its power and implications? This can take place in a church in several ways. First, a church recovers the gospel through preaching. Preaching is the single venue of information and teaching to which the greatest number of church people are exposed. Are some parts of the Bible “better” for gospel preaching than others? No, not at all. Any time you preach Christ and his salvation as the meaning of the text rather than simply expounding biblical principles for life, you are preaching toward renewal. Preaching this way is not at all easy, however. Even those who commit to Christ-centered preaching tend toward inspirational sermons about Jesus, with little application. Realizing that this is an enormous topie to digest, I point you to Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005) for a place to begin your study.

The second way for a pastor or leader to recover the gospel in the church is through the training of lay leaders who minister the gospel to others. It is critical to arrange a regular and fairly intense time of processing these gospel renewal dynamics with the lay leaders of a church. The components of this training include both content and life contact. By “content,” I propose studying elementary material such as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s chapter “The True Foundation” in Spiritual Depression or working through my book The Prodigal God along with the discussion guide,! More advanced materials would include books by Richard Lovelace and Jonathan Edwards (several of which are listed in the sidebar on p. 78).

By “life contact,” I mean finding ways in personal meetings and counseling to help your leaders repent of idols and self-righteousness. Once the gospel “penny drops” and begins its ripple effects, you will have plenty of this type of pastoral work to do. Your leaders can then begin leading groups in which they guide people to the truths in the Bible that have helped them and have changed their lives.

A third way for a church to foster gospel renewal dynamics is to inject an experiential element into its small group ministry or even to form several groups dedicated to it. Many small group meetings resemble classes in which the Bible is studied or fellowship meetings in which people talk about their burdens and needs, help each other, and pray for each other. While these functions are extremely important, we can learn from leaders of the revivals of the past, such as George Whitefield and John Wesley who encouraged people to form groups of four to eight people to share weekly the degree to which God was real in their hearts, their besetting sins, ways God was dealing with them through the Word, and how their prayer lives were faring. The Experience Meeting by William Williams is a classic guide to how a Welsh seait or “experience meeting” ran (see sidebar).

A fourth way the gospel becomes applied to people’s hearts in a church is through the most basic and informal means possible — what the older writers simply called “conversation.” Gospel renewal in the church spreads through renewed individuals talking informally to others. It is in personal conversations that the gospel can be applied most specifically and pointedly. When one Christian shares how the gospel has “come home” to him or her and is bringing about major life changes, listeners can ask concrete questions and receive great encouragement to move forward spiritually themselves. William Sprague writes, “Many a Christian has had occasion… to reflect that much of his usefulness and much of his happiness was to be referred under God… to a single conversation with some judicious Christian friend.”? Sprague states that it is often not so much the actual content of what a Christian says but their gospel-renewed spirit and character that has an impact. Christians must have the infectious marks of spiritual revival — a joyful, affectionate seriousness and “unction,” a sense of God’s presence. 1Q Visible, dramatic life turnarounds and unexpected conversions may cause others to do deep self-examination and create a sense of spiritual longing and. expectation in the community. The personal revivals going on in these individuals spread informally to others through conversation and relationship. More and more people begin to examine themselves and seek God.

QUESTIONS TO GUIDE AN “EXPERIENCE MEETING” To be admitted to an experience meeting, a prospective member had to answer the following questions in the affirmative:

  1. Are you seeking God with all your heart?
  2. Are you willing to take rebukes, chastening, and instruction from others?
  3. Will you refrain from repeating the confidential things we discuss?
  4. Are you willing to use your spiritual gifts to edify others in the group?
  5. Are you resolved to forsake your idols and inordinate loves?

To spark discussion in the group, these questions were typically asked:

  1. Do you have spiritual assurance of your standing in Christ? How clear and vivid is it?
  2. How does the Holy Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are his child? Are you conscious of a growing spiritual light within, revealing more of the purity of the law, the holiness of God, the evil of sin, and the preciousness of the imputed righteousness of Christ?
  3. Is your love for Christians growing? Do you find yourself having a less censorious, judgmental spirit toward weak Christians, those who fall, or those who are self-deceived? Have you been cold to anyone?
  4. Is your conscience growing tenderer to convict you of the very first motions of sin in the mind, such as the onset of resentment; worry, pride, or jealousy; an inordinate desire for power, approval, and material comfort; and an over-concern for your reputation? Are you becoming more aware of and convicted about sins of the tongue, such as cutting remarks, rambling without listening, deception and semi-lying, gossip and slander, inappropriate humor, or thoughtless statements?
  5. Do you see signs of growth in the fruit of the Spirit? Can you give examples in which you responded in a new way — with love, joy, patience, honesty, humility, or self-control — in a situation that a year or two ago you would not have?
  6. Are you coming to discern false, idolatrous motives for some of the good service you do? Are you seeing that many things you thought you did for God you are actually doing for other reasons? Are you coming to see areas of your life in which you have resisted the Lord’s will?
  7. Are you seeing new ways to be better stewards of the talents, gifts, relationships, wealth, and other assets that God has given you?
  8. Are you having any seasons of the sweet delight that the Spirit brings? Are you finding certain promises extremely precious? Are you getting answers to prayers? Are you getting times of refreshing from reading or listening to the Word?

A fifth way to do gospel application is to make sure that pastors, elders, and other church leaders know how to use the gospel on people’s hearts in pastoral counseling — especially people who are coming under a deep conviction of sin and are seeking counsel about how to move forward. Sprague shows how the gospel must be used on seekers, new believers, and stagnant Christians alike. l For example, Sprague tells pastoral counselors to “determine… what is his amount of knowledge and his amount of feeling.”12 He tells counselors to help those who have little doctrinal knowledge but much feeling — or little feeling but a good grasp on doctrine — to bring those two things into balance. Sprague advises to look for forms of self-righteousness and works-righteousness and tells how to help people escape them. He also makes a surprisingly up-to-date list of common doubts and problems that spiritual seekers have and gives advice on how to respond to each one. The gospel must be used to cut away both the moralism and the licentiousness that destroy real spiritual life and power.

GOSPEL INNOVATION

We can identify another important factor in movements of gospel renewal — creativity and innovation. Sprague rightly points out that revivals occur mainly through the “instituted means of grace” — preaching, pastoring, worship, and prayer. It is extremely important to reaffirm this. The Spirit of God can and does use these ordinary means of grace to bring about dramatic, extraordinary conversions and significant church growth. Nevertheless, when we study the history of revivals, we usually see in the mix some innovative method of communicating the gospel. The Great Awakening of the eighteenth century adopted two ministry forms that had seldom been used: public, outdoor preaching and extensive small group “society” meetings, In the 1857-1859 New York City revival, massive numbers of people were converted and joined the churches of Manhattan. Yet the most vital ministry form turned out to be lay-led, weekday prayer meetings all around the business district of Wall Street. Many historians have pointed out that the Protestant Reformation in Europe was greatly powered by new uses of a major technological innovation — the printing press.

No revival will completely repeat the experiences of the past, and it would be a mistake to identify any specific method too closely with revivals. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points to a few sad cases where people who came through the Welsh revival of 1904-1905 became wedded to particular ways of holding meetings and hymn singing as the only way that God brings revival. (This kind of nostalgia for beloved methods abounds yet today.) Instead, while the core means of revival are theological (rediscovery of the gospel) and ordinary (preaching, prayer, fellowship, worship), we should always be looking for new modes of gospel proclamation that the Holy Spirit can use in our cultural moment. As C. S. Lewis noted in The Chronicles of Narnia, things never happen the same way twice, so it is best to keep your eyes open.

PREACHING FOR GOSPEL RENEWAL

Let’s return to our discussion of preaching’s role in gospel renewal, for it can hardly be overemphasized. We’ll begin by looking at five characteristics that define preaching for gospel renewal.

  1. Preach to distinguish between religion and the gospel. We have already laid out much of this imperative in the previous chapter. Effective preaching for gospel renewal will critique both religion and irreligion. It will also address the core problem of idolatry by helping listeners look beneath the level of behavior to their hearts’ motivation to see the way the gospel functions (or does not function) in the human heart.
  2. Preach both the holiness and the love of God to convey the richness of grace. Preaching should not emphasize only God’s judgment, holiness, and righteousness (like moralistic preachers) or emphasize only God’s love and mercy (like liberal preachers). Only when people see God as absolutely holy and absolutely loving will the cross of Jesus truly electrify and change them. Jesus was so holy that he had to die for us; nothing less would satisfy his holy and righteous nature. But he was so loving that he was glad to die for us; nothing less would satisfy his desire to have us as his people. This humbles us out of our pride and self-centeredness yet at the same time affirms us out of our discouragement. It leads us to hate sin yet at the same time forbids us to morbidly hate ourselves.
  3. Preach not only to make the truth clear but also to make it real. We have seen how Paul seeks greater generosity from people by appealing to them to know the grace and generosity of Christ (2 Cor 8). In other words, if Christians are materialistic, it is not merely a failure of will. Their lack of generosity comes because they have not truly understood how Jesus became poor for them, how in him we have all true riches and treasures. They may have a superficial intellectual grasp of Jesus’ spiritual wealth, but they do not truly, deeply grasp it. Preaching, then, must not simply tell people what to do. It must re-present Christ in such a way that he captures the heart and imagination more than material things. This takes not just intellectual argumentation but the presentation of the beauty of Christ.

For Jonathan Edwards, the main spiritual problem for most Christians is that while they have an intellectual grasp of many doctrines, these are not real to their hearts and thus do not influence their behavior.14 In the case of materialism, the power of money to bring security is more “spiritually real” to people than the security of God’s loving and wise providence. Clear preaching, then, is a means to the end of making the truth more real to the hearts of the listeners than it has been before. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones summarizes it this way:
The first and primary object of preaching… is to produce an impression. It is the impression at the time that matters, even more than what you can remember subsequently. Edwards, in my opinion, has the true notion of preaching. It is not primarily to impart information; and while (the listeners are taking) notes you may be missing something of the impact of the Spirit. As preachers we must not forget this. We are not merely imparters of information. We should tell our people to read certain books themselves and get the information there. The business of preaching is to make such knowledge live.

  1. Preach Christ from every text. The main way to avoid moralistic preaching is to be sure that you always preach jesus as the ultimate point and message of every text. If you don’t point listeners to Jesus before the end of the sermon, you will give them the impression that the sermon is basically about them — about what they must do. However, we know from texts such as Luke 24:13 - 49 that Jesus understood every part of the Bible as pointing to him and his saving work. This is not to suggest that the author of every biblical passage intentionally made references to jesus but that if you put any text into its full, canonical context, it is quite possible to discern the lines that point forward to Christ.

For example, in Judges 19, we have the jarring account of a Levite who is surrounded by violent men in an alien city and who, in order to save his own life, offers his concubine (a second-class wife) to them to gang-rape. There is no way to preach this without talking about the fact that this is a horrible, direct contradiction of all that the Bible demonstrates a husband should be. A husband must protect his wife — and beyond that, he is to sacrifice himself for his wife (Eph 5). And how do we know what a true husband should be? Well, the author of Judges doesn’t know it as clearly as we do, but we know what a true husband is when we look at Jesus; Paul writes about this in Ephesians 5. And therefore we must bring the sermon forward to Christ. Only he shows us what husbands should be like, and only when we recognize his saving work can we be free from the fear and pride that makes us bad spouses. This message convicts, but it also gives deep encouragement. We are not trying to desperately earn our salvation by being good spouses; we are applying an accomplished and full salvation to our marriage. We must always turn to Jesus in our sermon because we want to put what the Bible declares in any one particular place into context with what the Bible says about it as a whole. And this journey always leads us through the gospel to Jesus.

ADDITIONAL READINGS ON REVIVAL,

BASIC

Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. New York: Dutton, 2008.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. “The True Foundation.” Pages 23 - 36 in Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965.

INTERMEDIATE

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Revival. Wheaton, IIl.: Crossway, 1987. Lovelace, Richard F. Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of RenewaL. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1979.

ADVANCED

Edwards, Jonathan. The Nature of True Virtue. Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2003. __Thoughts on the New England Revival: Vindicating the Great Awakening. Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 2004. __Religious Affections. Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1961.

Edwards has numerous other works on revival that are worth examining. See also his sermons “A Divine and Supernatural Light” and “Justification by Faith.”

Sprague, William B. Lectures on Revivals of Religion. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1958.

There are, in the end, only two questions to ask as we read the Bible: Is it about me? Or is it about Jesus? In other words, is the Bible basically about what / must do or about what he has done? Consider the story of David and Goliath. If I read David and Goliath as a story that gives me an example to follow, then the story is really about me. It is an exhortation that I must summon up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I accept that the Bible is ultimately about the Lord and his salvation, and if I read the David and Goliath text in that light, it throws a multitude of things into sharp relief! The very point of the Old Testament passage is that the Israelites could not face the giant themselves. Instead, they needed a champion who would fight in their place — a substitute who would face the deadly peril in their stead. And the substitute that God provided is not a strong person but a weak one — a young boy, too small to wear a suit of armor. Yet God used the deliverer’s weakness as the very means to bring about the destruction of the laughing, overconfident Goliath. David triumphs through his weakness and his victory is imputed to his people. And so does Jesus. It is through his suffering, weakness, and death that the sin is defeated. This vivid and engaging story shows us what it means to declare that we have died with Christ (Rom 6:1-4) and are raised up and seated with him (Eph 2:5 - 6). Jesus is the ultimate champion, our true champion, who did not merely risk his life for us, but who gave it. And now his victory is our victory, and all he has accomplished is imputed to us.

  1. Preach to both Christians and non-Christians at once. When I first came to New York City in the late 1980s, I realized I had not come to a normal part of the United States. Thirty percent of Manhattan residents said they had “no religious preference” compared with (at the time) 6 percent of U.S. residents. Only 5 percent of Manhattanites attended any Protestant church, compared with 25 percent of Americans. le 1 realized that New York City was, religiously and culturally, more like secular, post-Christian Europe. So I looked at the work of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, one of the great preachers who had labored in London in the mid-twentieth century, and I reread his book Preaching and Preachers. In addition, [listened to scores (eventually hundreds, I think) of his sermon recordings.

I found particularly fascinating the structure he designed for his preaching. Lloyd-Jones planned his evening sermons to be evangelistic, while the morning sermons were intended to instruct and build up Christians. The evening sermons contained direct appeals to people to come to Christ and believe the gospel but were still richly theological and expository. On the other hand, while the morning sermons assumed a bit more knowledge of Christianity, they always returned to the clear themes of sin, grace, and Christ — the gospel. Lloyd-Jones urged his church members to attend both services. While he saw the evening service as an ideal setting to which to bring a nonbelieving friend, he wanted the professing Christians to attend regularly for their own good. Nor was he concerned when nonbelievers showed up regularly at the morning services. In fact, he wrote, “We must be careful not to be guilty of too rigid a classification of people saying, ‘These are Christians, therefore…’ (or) Yes, we became Christians as the result of a decision we took at an evangelistic meeting and now, seeing that we are Christians, all we need is teaching and edification’ I contest that very strongly.”12 I learned these lessons from him: Don’t just preach to your congregation for spiritual Growth, assuming that everyone in attendance is a Christian; and don’t just preach the gospel evangelistically, thinking that Christians cannot grow from it. Evangelize as you edify, and edify as you evangelize.

THE SIGNS OF RENEWAL

Revival occurs as a group of people who, on the whole, think they already know the gospel discover they do not really or fully know it, and by embracing the gospel they cross over into living faith. When this happens in any extensive way, an enormous release of energy occurs. The church stops basing its justification on its sanctification. The nonchurched see this and are attracted by the transformed life of the Christian community as it grows into its calling to be a sign of the kingdom, a beautiful alternative to a human society without Christ.

Often, the first visible sign of renewal is when nominal church members become converted. Nominal Christians begin to realize they had never understood the gospel, experienced the new birth, or entered a living relationship with Christ by grace. Congregations are electrified as longtime church members speak of their conversions, talk about Christ in radiant terms, or express repentance in new ways. These early adopters of renewal stir up other church members into renewal. Soon, “sleepy” Christians also begin to receive a new assurance of and appreciation for grace. They wake up to the reasons they have been living in anxiety, envy, anger, and boredom. They gain a sense of God’s reality in the heart as well as higher, immediate assurances of his love. Along with a new and deeper conviction of sin and repentance — concerning not only major behavioral sins but inner attitudes — they have a far more powerful assurance of the nearness and love of God. The deeper their sense of sin debt, the more intense their sense of wonder at Christ’s payment of it. As a result, they become simultaneously humbler and bolder.

HOW D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES USED THE GOSPEL

Why use the gospel to edify Christians? D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave two reasons. First, we should not “assume that all… who are members of the church are… Christians. This, to me, is the most fatal blunder of all.”1& Second, many people have accepted Christianity intellectually but have never come under the power of the Word and the gospel and therefore have not truly repented. In other words, it is important to always remember that some of your members are not really converted. “One of the most exhilarating experiences in the life of a preacher is what happens when people whom everybody had assumed to be Christians are suddenly converted and truly become Christians. Nothing has a more powerful effect upon the life of a church than when that happens to a number of people.”

Not only have many professing Christians never truly repented and rested in grace; regenerate Christians, in order to grow, need to constantly feel the power of the gospel and rehearse the experience of conversion again and again. Lloyd-Jones adds, “If our preaching is always expository and for edification and teaching it will produce church members who are hard and cold, and often harsh and self-satisfied. I do not know of anything that is more likely to produce a congregation of Pharisees than that.*2Q He also warns against “preaching morality and ethics without the Gospel as a basis.”

Why, however, give nonbelievers fairly theologically “meaty” expositions, as Lloyd-Jones did in his evening services? He makes this observation:
I have often had the experience of people who have been converted, and have then gone on and grown in the church, coming to me some time later and telling me about what happened to them. What they have so often said is, “When we first came to the Church we really did not understand much of what you were talking about.” I have then asked what made them continue coming, and have been told again and again that, “There was something about the whole atmosphere that attracted us… We gradually began to find that we were absorbing truth. It began to have meaning for us more and more…” They had continued to grow in their understanding until now they were able to enjoy the full service, the full message.

Why were his evangelistic sermons not simpler; and why was it possible for people to slowly but surely find Christ through his edification-based sermons? It was because he addressed believers’ questions and problems by always pointing in some way to the truths of the gospel. That way, as believers were edified, nonbelievers could also hear a gospel presentation. What made this such a good practice is that as nonbelievers came to faith they didn’t have to graduate to a whole different service. And they weren’t led to believe they had graduated from the gospel. They might begin coming to the Friday night lectures on theology or Romans, but on Sunday they were able to come to faith and grow in grace through rich expositions of the Bible.

Of course, the church also begins to see non-Christian outsiders converted as people are attracted to the newly beautified church and its authentic worship, its service in the community, and the surprising absence of condemning, tribal attitudes. Christians become radiant and attractive witnesses — more willing and confident to talk to others about their faith, more winsome and less judgmental when they do so, and more confident in their own church and thus more willing to invite people to visit it. The resulting conversions — sound, lasting, and sometimes dramatic — generate significant, sometines even astounding, church growth.

Richard Lovelace describes a phenomenon common to churches before and after awakenings and revivals. Ordinarily, various Christian traditions and denominations tend to strongly emphasize one or two ministry functions while being weaker in others. For example, Presbyterians are historically strong in teaching and doctrine, Pentecostals and Anglicans (in their own ways!) in worship, Baptists in evangelism, Anabaptists in community and care for the poor, and so on. During times of gospel renewal, however, these strengths are often combined in churches that are otherwise one-sided. Churches experiencing gospel renewal find that some of the “secondary elements” — areas that typically fell outside of their primary focus — emerge during gospel renewal.

This change is often first felt in the vibrancy of a church’s worship. When the gospel “comes home” — when both God’s holiness and his love become far more magnificent, real, and affecting to the heart — it leads naturally to a new “God reality” in worship. Irrespective of the mode or tradition, renewed churches worship in a way that is no longer one-dimensional — neither merely emotional nor merely formal. A clear, widely felt sense of God’s transcendence permeates worship services, which edifies believers while also attracting and helping nonbelievers.

In addition, renewed interest in the gospel always piques interest in an expression of biblical theology that is deeply connected to real life. During revival, liberal-leaning churches may grow more biblical, while fundamentalist-leaning churches may grow less sectarian and more focused on the gospel itself rather than on denominational distinctives.

When the gospel comes home — when believers no longer have to maintain their image as competent and righteous — it naturally breaks down barriers that impede relationships and leads to more authentic experiences of community with others. Pretense and evasion become unnecessary. The gospel also creates a humility that makes believers empathetic and patient with others. All of this enables relationships within the church to thicken and deepen. During times of renewal, the distinct countercultural nature of the church becomes attractive to outsiders.

Finally, gospel renewal will produce people who are humbled (and thus not disdainful or contemptuous toward those who disagree with them) yet loved (and thus less concerned about others’ opinions of them). Therefore every believer becomes a natural evangelist. Times of renewal are always times of remarkable church growth, not through membership transfer and “church shopping,” but through conversion. There is also a renewed emphasis on poverty and justice ministries. When Christians realize they did not save themselves but were rescued from spiritual poverty, it naturally changes their attitudes toward people who are in economic and physical poverty. This kind of humble concern is the message of James 1-2 and many other biblical texts. Christians renewed by the gospel render sacrificial service to neighbors, the poor, and the community and city around them.

All of these changes, both within the church and the surrounding community, will eventually have a broad effect on the culture. Gospel-shaped believers who belong to churches that are experiencing gospel renewal often have a deep, vital, and healthy impact on the arts, business, government, media, and academy of any society. The past two decades have produced a far greater acknowledgment that major social justice and social change movements in Britain and the United States — such as the abolition of slavery and the strengthening of child labor laws — had strong roots in the revivals. Because true religion is not merely a private practice that provides internal peace and fulfillment, holiness affects both the private and civic lives of Christians. It transforms behavior and relationships. The active presence of a substantial number of genuine Christians thus changes a community in all its dimensions — economic, social, political, intellectual, and more.

Notice the interdependence of these “secondary elements” flowing naturally from hearts renewed by the gospel. First, many individuals are renewed by the gospel because they are drawn into a church marked by these qualities. Second, the vitality of each factor depends not only on the gospel-renewed heart but also on each of the other factors. They stimulate each other. For example, as Christians give their lives sacrificially for the poor, their neighbors become more open to evangeliam. Deep, rich community could be said to result from gospel evangelism, but just as frequently it is a means to evangelism, because it makes the gospel credible. Often it is not through listening to preaching but listening to friends that brings us home spiritually. Although these factors are mutually strengthening, the specialists and proponents of each element will almost always pit them against the others. Thus, evangelists may fear that a social justice emphasis will drain energy, attention, and resources from evangelism. Social justice advocates, on the other hand, often resist an emphasis on cultural renewal because they maintain that Christians should be out in the streets identifying with the poor rather than trying to influence the elite worlds of art, media, and business. Community-focused leaders often view rapid church growth and evangelistic programs negatively because they do not like programs — they want everything to happen naturally and “organically” Leaders who grasp how the gospel inspires all of these dimensions must overcome these tensions, and we will discuss these dynamics in greater depth in later chapters.

When the dynamics of gospel renewal are not in place, a church may increase in numbers but not in vitality. It may grow but fail to produce real fruit that has lasting results. It will exhibit symptoms of lifelessness. Most or all of the growth will happen through transfer, not conversion. Because no deep conviction of sin or repentance occurs, few people will attest to dramatically changed lives. Church growth, if it does occur, will make no impact on the local social order because its participants do not carry their Christian faith into their work, their use of monetary resources, or their public lives. However, with these gospel renewal dynamics strong in our hearts and in our churches, our lives and our congregations will be empowered and made beautiful by the Spirit of God.

Of all the elements of a Center Church theological vision, gospel renewal may be the single most difficult one to put into practice because, ultimately, we can only prepare for revival; we can’t really bring it about. God must send it. That may discourage those of us who live in a technological society in which we seek to control everything through our competence and will. When we do not see renewal happening, we can get deeply discouraged. But we should not be. Derek Kidner’s commentary on Psalm 126 can help us here. The first three verses of Psalm 126 look back to times of great spiritual flourishing, when the Israelites’ “mouths were filled with laughter” (verse 2) and when all the nations around them said, “The Lord has done great things for them.” But verse 4 tells us that times have changed. The people cry, “Restore our fortunes, O Lord!” Kidner looks closely at the final parts of the psalm: 4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev. 5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. 6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

Kidner sees two very different pictures of how revival and renewal can come. The first is in verse 4b; it is “all suddenness, a sheer gift from heaven.” Few places are more arid than the Negev, where the dry gulleys become rushing torrents after a rare downpour and can literally turn a desert into a place of grass and flowers overnight 24 This points to times of revival that are sudden and massive, the kind that historians write about. The second picture is in verses 5-6, “farming at its most heartbreaking,” a long and arduous process when the weather is bad and the soil is hard. The image is one of those who, in the absence of rain, still get a harvest through steady, faithful work, watering the ground with their tears if they have no other source of water. It depicts gospel workers who spend years of hard work, often weeping over the hardness of hearts that they see, and who bear little initial fruit.

And yet the psalmist is absolutely certain of eventual harvest — “God’s blessing of seed sown and His visiting of His people.” This is the final note. Kidner says that the modern translations tend to omit the extra words of emphasis in the final verb and therefore miss the psalmist’s pointedness. No matter how long we may wait, nevertheless he that surely goes forth weeping… will surely come home with shouts of joy.”2§ Kidner concludes, “So the psalm, speaking first to its own times, speaks still. Miracles of the past it bids us treat as measures of the future; dry places as potential rivers; hard soil and good seed as the certain prelude to harvest.”

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

  1. Keller writes, “Maintenance prayer meetings are short, mechanical, and focused on physical needs inside the church. In contrast, the three basic traits of frontline prayer are these: a request for grace to confess sins and to humble ourselves; a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church and the reaching of the lost; and a yearning to know God, to see his face, to glimpse his glory.” How have you experienced God working through “frontline” prayer? If you do not currently have these prayer times in your church, how can you go about beginning them?
  2. One way to engage in gospel application is by training lay leaders to minister the gospel to others. This involves personal meetings and counseling to help people learn how to repent of their idols and self-righteousness. Does this type of gospel application currently happen in your church? If not, how can you begin training people to apply the gospel? How is ministering the gospel different from other forms of counseling?
  3. Look at the questions in the sidebar on “Questions to Guide an ‘Experience Meeting? “Which of these questions make you uncomfortable? Which ones do you find easiest to engage? Which are personally convicting?
  4. Gospel innovation involves creatively communicating the gospel in new ways. How have you seen an overreliance on a particular communication style or methodology hinder a ministry? Why is it necessary to be innovative? What are some dangers associated with this?
  5. The section titled “Preaching for Gospel Renewal” gives five characteristics that define preaching that leads to renewal. Which of these five do you need to strengthen? How can you incorporate these missing emphases into your preaching?