I related some facts on September 3 that show plainly why the church in America is asleep. Further evidence to support this conclusion include the following:

1. In proportion to population there arae less than half as many churches in the U.S. Today as there were in 1900. Since 1950, there are thirty percent fewer churches for today’s population.

2. Approximately 4,000 churches are begun every year, while 7,000 close!

3. North America and Europe are the only continents in the world where Christianity is not growing.

4. In 1991, 21 percent of all adults were unchurched, and in 2002 the number reached 34 percent.

5. Amazingly, giving per person in the church is less today than it was during the Great Depression.

6. The U. S. is the number two missionary receiving country in the world behind only Brazil. Christians outside of North America increasingly view us as a mission field filled with churches that are spiritually asleep.

7. The Association of Church Mission Committees (ACMC) says 250,000 of 300,000 U. S. […]

I preached this morning, in Sugar Grove, Illinois, from Isaiah 57, on “Removing Three Obstructions to Awakening.” My thesis was simple: The church in America is asleep! This sleep is both moral and spiritual. While megachurches seem to thrive church attendance in our nation actually dips by 8,000 people every single day, or 56,000 less people attend church each Lord’s Day. If the unchurched population in America were a country unto itself it would be the third largest country in the world. The culture continues to slide into moral bankruptcy and anti-Christian cultural patterns while many of our Christian leaders tell us the church is doing well. I suggested we think about the words of Isaiah 57:1 “The righteous perish and no one takes it to heart.”

So what is the solution? We need a God-sent revival that awakens the church to the glory and supremacy of Christ. In the words of David Bryant we need nothing less than a full-scale “Christ Awakening,” The prophet puts clearly what we must do now in these words: “Remove every obstruction from my people’s way” (Isaiah […]

I mentioned earlier this week that I was going to Colorado Springs to attend a “conversation on revival” (August 30-September 1) at Glen Eyrie, sponsored by the National Revival Network. I have been involved as a leader in the NRN from its inception. It is comprised of pastors and church leaders whose hearts passionately burn for revival. We represent many different traditions and churches and this in itself makes for a wonderful Christ-centered communion. Our primary purpose is to work together to promote the call for revival and spiritual awakening.

The most important public work that the NRN has done was to write a document called An Urgent Appeal (NavPress, 2003). Urgent Appeal is one of the clearest and most helpful documents that I know on true revival. Sadly, few have bothered to read it and fewer still have used it to fan the flame of revival in America. Urgent Appeal is a call for the church to come to agreement on what revival is, that there is a desperate need in the church for revival and that we should engage in […]

“Will you not revive us again so that your people may rejoice in you?” asks the Psalmist (85:6). I have pondered his question and prayed these words as a prayer since 1969. In 1970 I saw a campus revival that changed my life. I have seen evidences of such revival in India as well as in a few churches, at least now and then, in the West. I long to see a great downpour of grace, thus biblical “showers of mercy,” fall upon the church in North America. I still believe this may well be our only hope for restoring the fortunes of Zion in the sleepy and weary American church.

Tomorrow I begin a two-day conversation, and a time of rich personal fellowship, with thirty-two Christians from all over the country who will convene together in a small group meeting in Colorado Springs. This meeting will be led by a group of which I am a part, the National Revival Network. We meet at the beautiful Navigator headquarters at Glen Eyrie. If you have a moment, over the course of these few […]