Can revival fall as American Christianity collapses?

“Revival in America.” 

What’s that make you think of? 

Naturally, I think, well… more saved people! For me, and I imagine lots of folks, the general idea behind “revival in America” is an expectation that we’ll see the spiritual arithmetic of Acts happen again in our nation: “the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved.” 

Then, we contextualize that expectation inside the arms of our recent history. Visions of crusades dance through our heads. Billy Graham. Jonathan Edwards. George Whitfield. The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening, Round 2. Fiery preachers hurling gospel seeds across stadiums, tents, and sanctuaries. Altars bursting at the seams with emotional new converts. 

Revival = getting bigger again. 

Nothing wrong with that, right? 

On the one hand, of course not. I’m from a charismatic denomination. Among other things, that means we’re pretty much always praying for revival. Show up at any church service or prayer meeting, drop the word “revival” into the mix, and, hey! you’ve got a Mentos and Coke situation on your hands. Hope you wore your spiritual bathing suit cause we bout to get wet. 

Craving a fresh move of God is fundamental to any heart that’s tasted and seen the Lord’s goodness. It’s natural. 

On the other hand, I can’t help entertaining a question that feels a lil’ scandalous: 

Do we really want more American Christians?

Follow my thinking: if revival means the straight addition of more Christian converts in America and those converts end up looking like the average Christians we’ve got roaming around American society right now…do we really want more of that?

THE COLLAPSE OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY

It’s no secret: American Christianity is in decline. 

Between 2007 and 2019, the number of Americans identifying as “Christian” dropped from 78% down to a bare 65%. In that same time, the number of “Nones” in America (i.e., those who claim no religion) rose from 16% up to 26%. That’s one decade of change, folks. Rapid, considering the USA has existed for about 24.5 total decades. We also haven’t mentioned Americans who simply follow another religion altogether. 

Fast forward. If this rate of decline continues—and there’s nothing really suggesting it won’t—by 2035, for the first time in our nation’s history Christians will be an actual minority. Christianity’s loss of numbers will inevitably come with a steady loss of cultural and political influence as well. Put it all together, and we’re living through what scholars call the “collapse of Western Christendom.”

**PS - In case you’re seeing that term for the first time, just think: Christianity + Kingdom = Christendom. And “Western” just refers to cultures like modern America’s culture (not western as in cowboys and horsies and cactuses and tumbleweeds). To take a long topic with a long history and make it short and over-simplified: Western Christendom is why we hear things like, “America is a Christian nation!” Christendom comes from the long, you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours relationship between Church and State that rubbed off on American society and made our culture feel somewhat Christianized on the surface. In Christendom, most people you know are Christians because, well, most people just sort of grew up that way. In Christendom, everybody kind of believes in Jesus and respects the Bible—even if they’re not actual followers. In Christendom, the coins in our pockets all have “in God we trust” stamped on them. In Christendom, non-Christian religions are kind of weird and somewhat socially unacceptable if we’re being honest. In Christendom, we stress about things like the “war on Christmas” and fighting off the evil Starbucks cronies who are polluting our holy American nation with their dirty “Happy Holiday” secularism. Also, 

In Christendom, we see things like this on the road.

Christendom, in short, is why the Church thinks she runs the show in America. The Christian Church is used to being the deep majority. She’s used to having influence and power and respect. Presidents and billboards. She’s used to being at the center, not on the margins.

But, right now, we’re living through Christendom’s collapse. It’s like a break-up. The government, the culture, and the American Church aren’t best friends anymore (if they ever were). No longer will being an American and being a Christian be considered a package deal. 

Hello margins, goodbye control! 

WHY THE COLLAPSE?

Why this decline? Why is American society breaking up with American Christianity? (And yes, this article is still about revival. I promise.)

To boil it down to a single reason is to oversimplify. There are lots of reasons for the breakup: 

…There’s spiritual warfare, for one. Both God and Satan are at work in every culture. Can’t rule that out.  

…There’re the philosophical forces of Western society, for another. Relativism + pluralism + syncretism don’t do well stomaching the exclusive claims of the gospel. Truth is Playdoh, and it’s just not vibey for there to be one, single, true, right way.

…There’s the I’m-spiritual-just-not-religious trend in pop-culture, as well. Today, everyone is happy to be spiritual, but few care to be herded into a particular religious category (hence, the rise in “Nones” I just mentioned). Religious labels are also very un-vibey. 

…There’s also the deep-seated skepticism the American public harbors towards institutionalized structures of power (of which, the Church is a big one). 

Those are a few factors contributing to the ongoing decline of American Christianity. And there are more. Many of which we, the American Church, don’t really have control over. 

But surely, part of the problem is our witness. Shoot. Maybe it’s the biggest part of the problem. That reason, we do have control over. And this is where I’m reconnecting with my scandalous question, “do we really want more American Christians?” 

I can’t help thinking the average American Christian roaming around society today and in decades past has not really been a good model of the Good Shepherd. Sure, there are exceptions who live a fantastic witness.

But, that’s the point. They’re the exceptions.

When the majority of everyday Christians become bad models of the Good Shepherd, we become a Church known for—not a compelling, winsome witness—but a tired charade of dissonance that’s not really believable or attractive in the eyes of outsiders looking in.

For example:

American Christianity. How often have we been known for…

·      Live like me, then I’ll love you. 

·      Think like me, then I’ll accept you. 

·      Vote like me, then I’ll value you. 

American Christianity. How often have we confused…

·      Cultural preference, for holiness. 

·      Power and prosperity, for favor. 

·      American nationalism, for Kingdom citizenship. 

·      My president, for God’s chosen one. 

American Christianity. How often have we… 

·      Picked the wrong hills to die on? 

·      Ignored the hills we should die on? 

·      Called the wrong things progress? 

·      Treated outsiders (especially sexual sinners and the LGBT+ community) like lepers? 

·      Considered grace Christ’s personal endorsement to live my life my way?

American Christianity. The supposedly evangelistic religion that spends more money on Halloween costumes for household pets than on reaching the lost billions we say we want to save. The supposedly transformative religion that manufactures millions of complacent, entitled, Sunday-centric churchgoers, 76% of whom are completely unfamiliar with Jesus’s Great Commission.[4] The supposedly missional religion that reserves disciple-making for the super-special, talented, attractive, charismatic, trendy people on stages who are good with microphones. The love religion that loves God and others exactly as often as it’s comfortable to do so. The martyr’s religion whose average member can scarcely be bothered to live for Jesus, much less die for him. 

American Christianity. The religion of constant dissonance. 

…SO, REVIVAL?

So, again I ask: if that is what American Christianity commonly looks like today, do we really want to make more American Christians? If “revival” means adding more converts to this toxic mix, is revival what we actually want?

“Maybe the next revival isn’t about addition, multiplication, or exponential growth. Maybe it’s not about math at all.”

Gloomy and mean, I know. 

And to answer my own question, I still say… YES. Definitely, yes! May there be Mentos and Coke in our spirits when we dream about revival.

But maybe—just maybe—revival this time around looks different than what our historically shaped expectations suggest. Maybe the next revival isn’t about addition or multiplication or exponential growth. Maybe it’s not about math at all. Maybe our obsession with spiritual math is part of the problem. We’ve focused so much on getting bigger, we’ve failed to ask are we getting healthier, realer, deeper? 

Here’s my opinion: I think the next revival is more about quality, than quantity. Reclaiming deep discipleship, not adding converts. 

Of course, it’s silly and brazen to impose any false dichotomy on God. Quality and quantity aren’t mutually exclusive. I don’t suggest that reclaiming deep, quality discipleship won’t naturally result in more new Christians. The two can happen at the same time, I get that. It’ll never be wrong to want increased numbers of Christians.  

What would be wrong, however, is to crave the latter (more quantity) while neglecting the former (higher quality). The American Church is notorious for delivering new spiritual babies and then keeping them in spiritual babyhood for the rest of their lives. Why bother with a new revival when we’ve stewarded the fruit of former revivals so poorly?

THE ATMOSPHERE IS CHARGING

So, honestly: what are we praying for? How do we pray well for the next move of God? 

Well. What if instead of asking God to surge our numbers again, we ask him to resurrect a suffocated culture of discipleship among the 65% of us who already identify as Christians? What if we ask him to kindle a spiritual wildfire—not just detonate a numbers explosion—among us? A movement that reinvigorates the Church the way a wildfire does a sick forest: by burning away toxic growth so new life can blossom through the ashes of things that needed to die. 

What if we ask God to just help us be who we say we are?

To answer my original question, can revival happen while we collapse? I think yes.

…If that next revival is about revitalizing a culture of deep, martyr-level discipleship in everyday believers then, yes: I believe with all my heart we can see “revival” in America, even as her Christendom collapses. Even as her numbers decline. Even as she loses political power and cultural dominance. Even as she’s broken up with by the very society she long held in her arms. 

Honestly, perhaps we’ll see the next revival precisely because Christendom collapses. 

Bottom line: Revival is exactly what we should want. And contrary to how things currently look, I honestly do believe revival is stirring. The more churches and real believers I talk with, the more I catch glimpses of a generation (not limited by age group) that’s once again feeling that familiar, electric, “holy discontent.” 

“Where we’re headed next is a cultural gut check for American Christianity.”

The atmosphere is charging. 

But for what, exactly? 

I believe the revival we’re moving towards looks a lot more like Jesus in John 6—when his “hard” Kingdom teachings lost him lots of followers—than it does Billy Graham or Joel Osteen on mega-stages winning converts en masse through a holy haze of feverish preaching. (If you haven’t read John 6:25-71 in a while, read it, then ask yourself whether the Jews’ obsession with their forefathers’ manna isn’t something like American Christianity’s obsession with our forefathers’ Christendom.) 

I believe where we’re headed next is a cultural gut check for American Christianity. A pruning that readies us to live more like the Early Church did (or like believers in Europe, Iran, and Afghanistan do now)—embracing life on the sidelines of cultural/political power rather than in the dominant center of it. A pruning that exposes our addiction to the fading comforts of Christendom. A pruning that humbles us over the way we’ve been and what our witness has become because we’re so used to having the biggest spiritual stick in town. 

The challenge is this: when Jesus strikes our gut and humbly asks us, as he asked the half-interested, consumer crowds in John 6, “does this offend you?” 

What will we say in response? What will we do? 

May we not fight for yesterday’s manna. May we allow the expired bread of Western Christendom to spoil for good, and rediscover what it means to feed only on the One in whose words rests eternal life. May the holy discontent so many of us are feeling continue to gain momentum and charge the atmosphere, making us ready to become true disciples again. 

May that revival come quickly. 

Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?”

-John 6:61

FURTHER READS

[1] Pew Research Forum, “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” October 17, 2019. https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

[2] Bonnie Kristian, “The Coming End of Christian America,” https://theweek.com/articles/872709/coming-end-christian-america

[3] The Traveling Team, “Missions Stats: The Current State of the World,”: http://www.thetravelingteam.org/stats

[4] Dalton Thomas, The Ultimate Conquest: Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Hudson Taylor,  FAI Publishing, 2018.