The Megachurch

2004

“A lot of people pray for the big R’ who need to get off their ‘big A”. So said a British megachurch pastor during the sermon on Fri 13 Aug 2004. It seemed a bit harsh.

I was attending a megachurch at the time, an independent church which attracted all kinds of people. Thousands of people in one service complete with contemporary worship team and slick presentations.

The view that Christians were simply not doing enough was a common perspective. Maybe more prayer? Maybe more social action? The preacher had basically said the same thing as the Muslims I interviewed when the story started.

After the service I spoke to a member of the congregation there named Lee. He said something a bit more profound. “If you look at the Bible, God wants everyone to know about him. Revival means bringing people to God. I don’t think you can necessarily tell there is a revival until after things have happened.”

Did he mean that a revival could actually be happening at the moment, we just don’t know it? Well that is madness isn't it? If a pandemic is happening you know it is happening. The same with a revolution or a recession... can we really just be so isolated that we miss it all?

It bugged me though. All of the past revivals had happened in public and people would know that they were happening. The idea of some behind the scenes secret revival seemed to be a little vague. The kind of thing that a contemporary prophet might say if they had predicted a revival which never happened, but still maintained that it had begun... only it could not be seen or felt yet. A kind of denial that they got it wrong.


This particular megachurch was not without its critics. They said that they focused too much on money and effectively preached a prosperity gospel by their lifestyles and their constant requests for money. My experience of this place was mixed. I'm not saying that this church explicitly preached the prosperity gospel. This was too simplistic. Many people loved this church and found the teaching helpful. The church also had initiatives to help homeless people and those in need. Many people became genuine Christians at this church. It was all so grey and mixed up... like so many things.

But even among the modern day revivalists there were those who seemed to be in it for the money. It was a popular view that many churches simply wanted their income rather than their congregation to grow. Televangelists and (often American) high profile Christian authors and leaders had turned people off the whole faith by their insistence that God wanted them to have the latest jet plane to travel around and spread the gospel. The leaders got their mansions, but often at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable. The trouble was, and is, that their lives spoke louder than their words. They effectively changed the gospel message of John 3:16, to say, 'If you give me money, God will give you more money back.' Or heal you. Or answer your prayers. Reducing their sermons to the kind of thing that you could read in any self-help book.

I'm not saying that this is what was happening at this megachurch, but this is what their critics claimed.

If there was anything that revival wasn't, or shouldn't, be about, then it is money. That was missing the whole message. That was missing the whole point. If there is a quiet revival then it should not be about money. Let's face it, there is only so much that money can do. If a revival comes and it becomes about money then we have absolutely failed in anything we hoped to do. We are not supposed to be Elmer Gantrys. We do not have to be financially illiterate, but when Christ accused people of loving money, he did know what he was talking about. And, when push comes to shove, we really have to let go of it all in the end. Would a revival be good for certain trades? Certain businesses? And bad for others? It is hard to say, as all we have are past stories - let's hope, for example that if it happens it would not be good for the drugs trade. But what about gambling? Gambling can be fun. What about pubs? You're not going to be for any kind of revival if you think it is bad for your business. But at what cost do we place our money and our jobs?

Edward, a Christian, agreed...

“The prosperity gospel will never usher in a revival only a fake revival as it’s not based on the true gospel according to the way the disciples and apostles understood it.”

But no-one will admit to preaching the prosperity gospel will they? If it becomes about money again we really are all 'doomed'. Which is why, when Christ said 'You cannot serve both God and mammon', he knew what he was talking about. It is a false security. What is more important, health or money? What is more important? Lives or money?

The Churchgoers' View

2004

I wasn’t getting very far. I had no home access to the internet so most of my research had to be done the old-fashioned way, at libraries and by actually speaking with people. After my encounter with Michael the whole subject was getting too depressing for me.

Back to the present, someone recently said, 'The quiet revival is so quiet that I don't think most people can even feel it'. It's an issue and it is ongoing. Perhaps there needs to be some kind of breakthrough?

Back in 2004 it was April and things felt cold on so many levels. Spring had barely allowed the leaves to return to the trees and certainly had not kickstarted any spiritual Spring. I was confused, so I decided to go to a church and ask around. I went to a city Elim Pentecostal church. Surely they would have been praying for a revival? During the sermon, the youth minister, as an aside said, “We are in a period of pre-revival.”

That seemed more hopeful. But it also seemed to be part of the problem. We always seemed to be on the verge of a revival or an awakening. There was a perpetual anticipation. After the service I asked some of the Christians in the congregation there what they thought.

Neil (19) said, “I don’t know. I mean, what kind of revival are you talking about? Because there is personal revival and there is a whole revival. I’m definitely for any kind of revival in which people come to Jesus in large amounts, yes, I’m for any kind of revival in that sense. I think it needs to happen in Britain, in Europe, these two places. I think it is on the verge of happening in Britain now. Whether it will ever get past being on the verge of happening, I don’t know, but I think it will. I can’t comment on Europe, but I would hope that it will happen there. It will spill over from Britain hopefully into Europe. I think the church is becoming more and more alive in Britain from my experience and things are happening. People are getting more and more hungry for what God wants and more willing to lay down their own personal agendas – which is always a good thing. If you can’t lay down your personal agendas then you just basically aren’t going to experience revival because God has to wait until you lay down your own…God’s plan is for all people.”

I asked churchgoer Scott what he thought.

“I’m definitely for it,” he said, “I don’t think it is happening yet but I think it’s going to happen soon, hopefully. A friend of mine always used to pray ‘Let revival start with me’ and I always thought that was quite bold. You can only revive that which was once alive and I do pray that God would use me for revival. Revive me and revive the Church. We definitely need it; our land is in a mess. We need help. I think people crying out for God…I think that’s what revival is.”

This was so long before the current situation, but the general feeling among churchgoers back in 2004 was that revival would not happen before there was either a 'battle', or a deep repentance. I will discuss the present circumstances a bit more in next week's blog, but for the moment I want to talk about how we got to where we are today in the UK.

I realized that I was focusing on one city in Britain and needed to get a look at the bigger picture...

A Not So Great Falling Away

 

2004

A Not-So-Great Falling Away

 

The idea that Christianity should be fun appealed to me, but I was sure I was just skimming the surface on the whole issue. The story lay fallow and I didn't research it much until 2004. Before Brexit. Before the pandemic. Before Queen Elizabeth died. Before any talk of 'quiet revivals'.

Because at the time there were no statistics from the Bible Society showing that more Gen Z young adults are going to church. The narrative of the decline of the Church in the West had taken hold. 

In Birmingham I interrupted a street preacher named Michael and asked him about revival. He was in his early 60s and his hair was in all directions but he was pleasant enough. He was out on an evangelical church outreach.

I asked him what he thought about Christian revival.

“My thoughts are a little pessimistic,” Michael said, “The Bible says that in the last days there will be a great falling away from the Lord. And if these are the last days, and I believe they are, then there will be a falling away of the saints and a lot of people turning their back on the Lord and being apostate – going back on the Lord. I believe, if you read the Bible, that is the condition of the Church just before Jesus comes – people actually are not in revival, but they are falling away – there’ll be a great falling away.”

Michael’s street preaching team were also open-mindedly sceptical. His colleague Richard said, “I don’t think it is going to happen while the churches are living in materialism. I don’t think it is going to happen while the churches are divided. I think the only way it is going to happen is wherever the Church finds its first love and unites and preaches the gospel as it is and stops watering it down.”

These were views which I would hear a lot more of within the UK Christian community, especially among Protestants. There are many Christians who take the view that we are living in the last of the last days and that the Bible says that there will be a huge number who abandon their faith in that time. That the whole Church will decrease in size. This perspective is based on a few scripture verses. Jesus himself said:

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another…. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:10–14 ESV)

And St Paul wrote: 'Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition...' 2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV

So, it is no wonder that many Christians who believe we are in the last of the last days believe that there will be no further Christian revivals. Especially if they have been offended by the excesses of contemporary revivalism. But, there is no new temple and what has happened before can happen again - even for good.

For Michael's view to be correct, it has to mean that we are in the final days before the end of the world. And that is a moot point. But when believers look around and see all the suffering and evil in the world, it is quite common to take the view that we really are in the end times. A view which is shared by some non-Christians who see global warming, war, or the rise of artificial intelligence as signs that the human race is about to be destroyed imminently. 

Michael resumed his preaching but this was the first time I had encountered the view that there not only would be no further revivals, but that things would get significantly worse in the near future. After all, it sometimes feels like the end of the world doesn't it?

Christianity is not always optimistic at the best of times, but Jeremiahs may have their point when it comes to prophecy. The thing about the prophet Jeremiah was that he was right. Sometimes things can go badly wrong and hopes don't always come true.

Believers who hold to such a perspective are often very sceptical of announcements of revivals. After all, if a revival is genuine, revivalists should be able to handle questions.

But how can we make something so interesting, so boring? I will try to resist that as best I can.

When asked ‘Will only a few be saved?’ Jesus effectively answered ‘Many will not’.

Perhaps we should all just bunker down and attempt to survive as best we can whatever comes. ‘Let's go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.’ That’s probably not a quote for Gen Z on the whole, so the question, according to the latest stats is – will this new phenomenon include other generations of both sexes? Just how inclusive will it be - if it happens?

Fun, fun, fun.

The Story Starts - a Muslim Perspective on Revival

2000

I began my investigation on revival, fresh out of journalism college by visiting my local library at the start of the millennium. Before the days of google search graphs it was much harder to figure out how interested the general population was in Christianity. I took a... roundabout way and had no real intention of starting the story you are reading now.

How did I do it? In an act of sheer inspiration and journalistic laziness, I tried to find out just how many times a book on Jesus had been taken out of my local library over the years and if it was being taken out more regularly. Cutting edge journalism, I know. After I found that the Christian book and a book about Mohammed had been taken out more or less the same amount of times I suddenly realized that I was actually going to have to talk to people about all this if I wanted to get any further. Or, as my journalism tutor had told me... 'You can do the stuff but you need to dig more.'

Life gets in the way of these things. I took up a couple of jobs in newsrooms before moving to Birmingham and finding my feet. Mostly I forgot about the subject of revival. I went to church, but the subject rarely cropped up. Street preachers still didn't draw a crowd. Most people were just getting on with their lives after the Blair and Bush years. People were war-weary and already tired of all the terrorism restrictions following 9/11 - an event which changed the world.

It was actually 2003 before I returned to the story idea. On a whim, on a windy day, I decided to vox-pop a couple of people in Birmingham city centre. Two young Muslims seemed the place to start. Why not?

I asked Imran (19, a law student) if he had heard of the term revival before and he admitted that he hadn’t heard of it in a Christian context, but he understood the concept immediately from Islam. I went on to ask what he thought Christians were doing wrong.

“I don’t know,” he said, “What are they doing right?”

His friend Salik (20) elaborated...

“The Church is a lot emptier now than it used to be, I suppose with society changing and that. It’s just the future isn’t it? Everybody’s modern lifestyle. Religion doesn’t actually take part in that type of thing any more. Religion is kind of old school.”

When I asked him if there was a counterpart to the term revival in Islam he said,

“It is the fastest growing religion in the world. Is there a revival in my faith? Possibly. With Christianity though everyone is just classed as a Christian, they’re just, sort of, classed it. If you ask them, they say ‘Yes I am’. So I don’t think there will be revival from that because I don’t think anyone is too interested at the moment…with Christianity I don’t think there will be a revival for it.”

I said that a lot of Christians hope there will be a revival of Christianity in Britain and asked if he thought that hope was realistic.

“No I don’t think that’s realistic. Unless the religion changes for the times I don’t think there will be. If you want to become a Christian you’ve got to actually follow what’s stated in the books. But what people do in general... I wouldn’t exactly call it being a Christian – it’s just what they’ve been classed as. Being a Christian is doing the actions.”

I asked him what he thought Christians should be doing to bring about a revival. The wind rattled my notebook, perhaps warning me not to pursue the topic. Salik said,

“Christians need to actually have a point where they’re bringing in people rather than shoving it in your face constantly. They need to have gatherings, not just Sundays, they need to do more for the community and for the community to become interested in the Christianity part of it. I don’t think many Christians do that. And not just have big signs up saying ‘Jesus is coming back’, they should have more information provided and make it fun as well. I don’t think Christianity should be about money either, it has got to be something that everyone can relate to.”

These were the complaints which I was to hear again and again from people of all faiths and none. What struck me was that Salik was right about at least one thing - there was certainly little fun in Christianity at the time. There was definitely no fun in fundamentalism and the rest of the UK Christian community, Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, were at least perceived as being argumentative, joyless hypocrites who didn't practice what they preached. A view which would get worse over the years.

We were clearly doing something very wrong. Could there be no revival because of us? Was it our fault?

That was, and still is, one of the perspectives - that 'revival tarries' because we don't practice what we preach. We talk of love but don't show it. We don't give or pray as much as we should. And some so-called Christians have even abused the most vulnerable. How could God heal a country if this was the state of his followers? So that view took hold and a lot of Christians, unwilling to blame God, unwilling to blame the devil, unwilling to blame the government shrugged and said, 'It's our fault again isn't it?' It was certainly the view of the Muslims I spoke to that day.

Catch 22 - No revival, no change. No change, no revival.

Others had a different view...