Awakening Cry

I've just started reading Awakening Cry by Pete Grieg. I like what I've read so far, which is only the first chapter.

Here he addresses an issue that I blogged about a while backwhich is, revival and normality.
Pete Grieg quotes Robert Coleman, "From the standpoint of New Testement Christianity, there is nothing unusual about the revival experience...... The idea that revival is something of special times and seasons comes from the inconsistant nature of man, not from the will of God."

Pete continues, "Coleman is suggesting that we should regard revival as the revival of normal Christian experience rather than the occasional elevation of it. We are, therefore, currently sub-normal!

He goes on to say:

"Most people assume that revivals are only ever meant to be limited seasons of blessing; an occasional energy boost for an otherwise languid church. Some respected revival theologians argue that God only ever intends the church to advance through sporadic growth spurts; loping down the years from one revival to the next- two steps forward and one step back."

"But the early church appears to have lived in a fairly constant state of revival for nearly three centuries!............The revivals come and go because we are in a battle and not because God intends the church to endure seasons of sub-normality."


The state the church at least in the UK is in is not normal and we shouldn't settle for it.

God bless

Carol