ReimagineFutureChurch: David Bryant

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Reimagine Curator May 20, 2024 11:47

One Phrase Defines Your Entire Destiny!

Welcome back to our ongoing conversation with David Bryant regarding all he has discovered over the past five decades about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the riches of our life in him.

In this fourth interview, the discussion revolves around what David believes is the essence of the Christian life. More specifically, it revolves around a simple phrase taken (in context) out of just one sentence in Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

As David concludes toward the end of this conversation:

“In fact, you could say that the entire destiny of God’s people boils down to one truth from Colossians 1:27!”

Join the conversation and discover why David claims this—and how this truth could impact you as you seek to go deeper with Jesus day by day.

Read Conversation #1 here.

Read Conversation #2 here.

Read Conversation #3 here.

Christ Now: David, there’s no question that we see a growing hunger among many Jesus followers to enter a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with their Savior.

In fact, current statistics indicate that multitudes are leaving our churches because, at least in part, they have failed to find what their hearts long for there.

What is it that many of our churches in America are so desperately missing in the way Christ is shared with their people—in how they are growing in their walk with God’s Son?

David Bryant: After asking that question for years, I believe the one key answer can be found in Colossians 1:27.

That’s where Paul says that the riches of the gospel—that is, the heart and soul of God’s great salvation that we should be sharing around the world—is captured in this little phrase: “The Christ is in you, the hope of glory.”

CN: That’s not what I expected to hear. Is it really that simple? What exactly is Paul telling us in so few words?

DB: He’s showing us that the good news—the best part of the good news from heaven to all humankind—is this: The Father offers all of us three incomparable gifts.

First, he offers us “The Christ”—the one who received this title when he ascended to the Throne of Glory, having fully accomplished our redemption by his incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.

We call it his Ascension—the cosmic transaction when he was forever named “the Anointed One.” He has been anointed—called, set aside, honored, given full authority—to become the fullness and fulfillment of all of God’s purposes and promises for all who put their trust in him and for the deliverance of the whole of creation.

CN: You’re right! Most Christians have heard very little about the Ascension, let alone begun to comprehend its remarkable implications for our salvation.

DB: Yes, but it gets even better! Notice the following phrase: “is in you.” I observe two things here, based on the original Greek in which Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians.

First, the word “you” is plural; this is something to be experienced “in community” with others. Second, the “in” doesn’t just mean “inside of you.” More accurately, it means “in the midst of you.”

All of that tells us that God’s Son extends his power, presence, and reign into the thick of every congregation’s life. In union with him—alive in him before his very face, in a sense—together we live, and move, and have our being.

CN: There’s no question that American Christians are predisposed to “individualize” Scripture, taking every promise as if it were their own personal possession, to be applied and enjoyed individually as they please.

DB: I agree. But let me hasten to add that whatever we first discover that applies to our life together as the Body of Christ can then be incorporated into our own daily walk with Christ on a personal level.

However, the biblical pattern leans toward discovering life in the Kingdom in fellowship with other believers—learning and experiencing all we have in Christ as a body—and then drawing from that to shape my individual growth “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as Peter puts in 2 Peters 3.

CN: So, what about the last phrase, “the hope of glory?” What’s this referring to? It seems to tell us even more about who Christ is, correct?

DB: Definitely. I like the Phillips’ Translation of this passage: “the assurance of all the glorious things to come.”

Paul is telling us that with Jesus, there is always so much more! As he says in Ephesians 3, there are “inexhaustible” riches in God’s Son. There is no limit to all that the Father has for us and that the Spirit wants to bring to us in our life in Christ.

As the Lord of our lives, Jesus guarantees that we will never cease discovering more of the breadths and depths of what God’s love has planned for us for all eternity.

CN: OK. Let’s return to this phrase that Paul calls the “riches of the gospel” and explain it another way. Based on what you’ve just shared, what does that phrase actually mean?

DB: That’s easy. Here is the key to the Christian life. Here is the truth that multitudes are hungry for even without knowing what it is. Here is the wonderful reality that will be the chief focus of the coming spiritual revolution for this generation, what we at Christ Now call an “American CHRIST Awakening.”

I would simply rephrase Paul like this: The “riches of the gospel”—the legacy of God’s good news to the world—is “intimacy with Jesus in his supremacy leading to great expectancy.” Let me explain:

(1)
Intimacy: “in the midst of all of you.” The Spirit is at work among God’s people, drawing us more deeply into more of the person and wonder of Christ and his kingdom, doing so both collectively and individually.
(2)
Supremacy: “The Christ” is the one anointed by God to redeem us, reign over us, and set up his throne in the midst of us to involve us in the forceful, saving advances of his kingdom throughout the earth.
(3)
Expectancy/Hope: This is “the assurance of more glory to come” because (as Paul puts it in 2 Cor. 1) all the promises of God are sealed and extended and now applied to us in Christ Jesus and because the Christian life will forever be unceasingly (in the words of Romans 15) “abounding in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

CN: “Intimacy with Christ in his supremacy.” Wow. So, that one simple phrase captures our whole life as Jesus followers!

DB: Simple, and yet at the same time utterly profound.

In fact, you could say that the entire destiny of God’s people boils down to that single truth from Colossians 1:27!

CN: But you’ve written so much about the Lord Jesus Christ—all that he is and has done and the many facets of our life in him—books like Christ Is ALL! and Christ Is NOW! involving hundreds and hundreds of pages. Are you simply spelling out the fuller, life-changing realities of that little phrase?

DB: Yes! Like I said, “It’s simple, yet profound.”

CN: Great! Then, let’s dig in. Where should we start the next time we have one of these conversations?

DB: After many years of traveling throughout every stream of the Church, in many nations of the world—and following nearly twenty years of research—I’ve concluded that most Christians have only a superficial acquaintance with what I call the seven dimensions of all Jesus is for us in light of his spectacular supremacy. Why don’t we start there?

CN: That’s a deal. Next time, let’s tackle the first of your seven dimensions. I suspect we’re headed into an exciting adventure with Jesus!

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!

Reimagine Curator June 15, 2024 16:48
The U.S. Church Has Become INVISIBLE!

David Bryant

| June 3, 2024

New Research:

The U.S. Church Has Become INVISIBLE!

Yet multitudes of young people show a growing hunger for more of Christ!

David Bryant

Invisible? Really? Does it seem that way to you?

After all, every day, we hear on the news about the very visible involvement of the “Christian right” and “white evangelicals” in current hotly contested political struggles.

But in terms of the overall impact American Christianity is having on fellow citizens and our whole culture, are God’s people really making any measurable difference these days in advancing the saving mission of God’s Son?

Apart from the public attention (often negative) grabbed by Christians and Christian organizations engaged in the 2024 presidential fray, many observers conclude that the Church as a whole has become “out of sight, out of mind” in this land.

INVISIBLE!

The tragedy is that at the very same moment many Americans appear to be searching for spiritual reality and authenticity. This phenomenon is seen especially visible among a host of GenZers!

Let’s examine the findings more closely to discover how we got here and what to do about it.

More on the Insights From Dr. George Barna

In an article in The Christian Post by Leah M. Klett titled “George Barna identifies biggest threats facing the Church: ‘We’ve reached a time of Christian invisibility,’” we learn that Barna has watched key negative trends increasingly permeate Western Christianity for some time.

Barna notes:

People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric. Families have invested less of their time and energy in spiritual growth, particularly of their children.

The media now influences the Church more than the Church influences the media, or the culture for that matter. The Christian Body tends to get off track arguing about a lot of things that really don’t matter.

Barna warns especially about how the Church now measures its success—by attendance, fundraising, infrastructure, and political clout—while, for all practical purposes, neglecting Jesus Christ and what his mission is all about.

If we were to go back to the Bible, I think we’d recognize the local church, the institutional church, as we’ve created it, is man-made. It’s not in the Scriptures.

The programs, the titles, the buildings, all the stuff that has become sacrosanct in American culture and around the world is not necessarily biblical.

Jesus didn’t come to build institutions; He came to build people.

Leah Klett concludes her interview quoting this sobering prediction from this leading evangelical diagnostician of American Christianity:

The Church is at a critical juncture . . . All the other stuff is noise . . . This is our moment.

We’ve reached a time of Christian invisibility in our culture.

. . . So, this is our moment. We either will put up or shut up. And I would suggest that we put up (emphasis added).

And Just When Opportunity Is Knocking!

What is even more tragic about the “invisibility” of God’s people and our witness in our nation at this hour is that it comes at a time when additional research reveals a major open door for the gospel! It’s found among GenZers (roughly ages 11-26).

Just out from Barna Group—the national polling and research organization George Barna founded and led for thirty years—comes this amazing recent discovery:

This next generation is extremely spiritually open, and their views of Jesus are largely positive.

In fact, nearly half of U.S. teens say Jesus offers hope to the world, cares about people and is trustworthy (47% each). Another 77 percent are motivated to continue learning about Jesus throughout their life.

This generation, the future of the Church, is open and curious to learn more about Christ.

Now is a good time to evaluate how your church and Christian community are connecting with and discipling Gen Z (emphasis theirs).

In addition, other findings by other researchers reveal that the majority of Americans—even those now defined as “nones” because they have no religious affiliation—have a strong desire for some kind of spiritual reality in their lives. The “Christ” they may be currently avoiding is often a caricature of the biblical Jesus.

This means there remains an openness to the REAL Jesus and a relationship with him IF God’s people will first deal with the “invisibility” of their own experience of the living Savior and then unleash a convincing witness for Jesus to unbelievers by both words and deeds.

The Church’s Greatest Threat Today:

The “Invisibility” of Christ Among Us

Let me ask you: How much do Christians where you worship actually talk about God’s Son to one another?

After over 40 years of itinerating into various parts of the Body of Christ across America, I must admit that too often, my own shocking discovery is how rarely our Savior is mentioned in the normal course of the shared life of God’s people.

For example, I’ve participated in half-hour worship sessions more than once where (unintended, I’m sure) specific references to our Savior were virtually absent in the choruses we sang.

More than once, I’ve listened to widely respected preachers deliver biblically grounded messages that barely referenced our Lord Jesus, let alone brought the congregation to bow at the feet of their King.

More than once, I’ve monitored the between-session conversations of delegates at major Christian conventions, hoping for even a hint that God’s Son was somehow vital to their discussions, only to be disappointed time and time again.

Let’s get candid here: Sunday after Sunday, how much of the general conversation in our churches actually honors Jesus in a manner comparable to how Paul talked? How often do we say to each other words like: “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1)? Or “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we might present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1)? Or again, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2)?

In our times of fellowship, do we seek to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10), which Scripture says is the key to the Church becoming vital in our life in Christ and our witness for him?

Recall for a moment a recent exchange you had with a fellow believer. Taking a cue from (and using phrases from) 1 John 1:
- Did your time together give both of you, to any degree, a greater vision of the glory of Jesus as “the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us”?
- Did you try in any direct way to encourage each other with “what we have seen and heard” of Christ?
- Was there at any point a shared effort to help each other enter into deeper “fellowship with the Father and with his Son” and, thus, have your joy “made complete”?
If your experience was like most of mine, probably not.

Too many of us, I’m afraid, have become comfortable simply conversing about benign concepts of God. We allow ourselves to sidestep deeper explorations of and encounters with Jesus in the fullness of who he is today as our risen, reigning Lord and Redeemer.

We talk around Jesus rather than about Jesus.

Yet, there’s no getting around the fundamental principle of Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” This process is as equally true of believers—in some ways even more so—as it is of unbelievers.

What Christians hear about their Savior from one another, as a steady diet, determines a good deal of the depth of hope and passion they express toward him—and consequently about him to the non-Christian community.

It’s time to seriously ask ourselves, individually and corporately: How visible to us as believers is our Master’s presence and work among us, let alone to outsiders?

That’s why Paul challenged the Christians gathered in Corinth (and challenges all of us as well):

“Test yourselves! Do you not know that Jesus Christ is among you—unless you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13).

That’s why during America’s first “Great Awakening” in the early 1700s, Christians talked about how they were experiencing “the manifest presence of Christ.” They meant that essentially, God’s Son had previously been treated as peripheral to their life together. However, in their God-given revival, the Holy Spirit brought them back to the Lord Jesus Christ, making him again front and center among them—and even more so, supreme and reigning among them.

In turn, because Jesus became exceedingly “visible” to his people once again, the impact of that great (what I would call) “Christ Awakening” on many throughout the colonies was truly transformative. Jesus became “real” to those who had been sitting in darkness.

Our “Crisis of Christology”:

We Must Confront and Cure It Now!

Those who have followed the eight-year journey of CHRIST NOW know that one of our main objectives is to alert the Church, especially in America, to the sobering shortfall in how we see, seek, savor, and speak about God’s Son for ALL that he is.

We call it a crisis for the same reason Barna calls it a threat. The “invisibility” of the Lord Jesus among his own people is why our rapidly secularizing nation considers him either irrelevant or, maybe worse, a form of pragmatic ornament to enhance whatever may be the current cause, political or otherwise.

Therefore, for almost a decade, CHRIST NOW has been calling for an “American CHRIST Awakening.” Our mission is to help make our Lord more visible by waking up believers to Jesus Christ for ALL he is.

Thus, we’ve been developing a vast variety of free resources and tools to help manifest the greatness and glory of Jesus to those who come to us. All of it has been designed to foster and fuel a nationwide Christ Awakening within every stream of the Church.

Additionally, we have created free resources that Christians can use with fellow Jesus followers or within congregations to help them work together to exalt the name of Jesus, spread the fame of Jesus, intensify the reign of Jesus, and increase the gain of Jesus among us. We are convinced that as Jesus becomes far more visible, tangible, and essential among us, he will become increasingly conspicuous, unavoidable, compelling, and personally life-giving through us.

But whether you use our free materials or not—our social media, podcasts, vlogs, videos, books, online video training, or online live seminars—without a doubt, all serious Christians in America must sense the urgency to become exceedingly zealous in reversing the crisis of the “invisible” King among us.

This cure is not only for our sakes; it is for the sake of a nation that is right now in a desperate spiritual and moral disintegration taking place on many sides.

And yet, it is also a nation in which a multitude—including millions of GenZers—have hearts, it appears, that the Spirit is keeping open and ready to see Jesus in us, then hear Jesus from us, and finally join Jesus with us.

This is our prayer: May the Church in America soon experience a widespread Christ Awakening movement that is nothing short of a daily replication of the experience of those Emmaus disciples who encountered Jesus on the road from Jerusalem on our Lord’s resurrection day:

At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. . . . Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?” (Luke 24, The Message)

Follow up this blog post by watching this 67-second video clip HERE.

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!

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Reimagine Curator June 23, 2024 14:44

New Research: The U.S. Church Has Become INVISIBLE!

Yet multitudes of young people show a growing hunger for more of Christ!

David Bryant

Invisible? Really? Does it seem that way to you?

After all, every day, we hear on the news about the very visible involvement of the “Christian right” and “white evangelicals” in current hotly contested political struggles.

But in terms of the overall impact American Christianity is having on fellow citizens and our whole culture, are God’s people really making any measurable difference these days in advancing the saving mission of God’s Son?

Apart from the public attention (often negative) grabbed by Christians and Christian organizations engaged in the 2024 presidential fray, many observers conclude that the Church as a whole has become “out of sight, out of mind” in this land.

INVISIBLE!

The tragedy is that at the very same moment many Americans appear to be searching for spiritual reality and authenticity. This phenomenon is seen especially visible among a host of GenZers!

Let’s examine the findings more closely to discover how we got here and what to do about it.

More on the Insights From Dr. George Barna

In an article in The Christian Post by Leah M. Klett titled “George Barna identifies biggest threats facing the Church: ‘W...,’” we learn that Barna has watched key negative trends increasingly permeate Western Christianity for some time.

Barna notes:

People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric. Families have invested less of their time and energy in spiritual growth, particularly of their children.

The media now influences the Church more than the Church influences the media, or the culture for that matter. The Christian Body tends to get off track arguing about a lot of things that really don’t matter.

Barna warns especially about how the Church now measures its success—by attendance, fundraising, infrastructure, and political clout—while, for all practical purposes, neglecting Jesus Christ and what his mission is all about.

If we were to go back to the Bible, I think we’d recognize the local church, the institutional church, as we’ve created it, is man-made. It’s not in the Scriptures.

The programs, the titles, the buildings, all the stuff that has become sacrosanct in American culture and around the world is not necessarily biblical.

Jesus didn’t come to build institutions; He came to build people.

Leah Klett concludes her interview quoting this sobering prediction from this leading evangelical diagnostician of American Christianity:

The Church is at a critical juncture . . . All the other stuff is noise . . . This is our moment.

We’ve reached a time of Christian invisibility in our culture.

. . . So, this is our moment. We either will put up or shut up. And I would suggest that we put up (emphasis added).

And Just When Opportunity Is Knocking!

What is even more tragic about the “invisibility” of God’s people and our witness in our nation at this hour is that it comes at a time when additional research reveals a major open door for the gospel! It’s found among GenZers (roughly ages 11-26).

Just out from Barna Group—the national polling and research organization George Barna founded and led for thirty years—comes this amazing recent discovery:

This next generation is extremely spiritually open, and their views of Jesus are largely positive.

In fact, nearly half of U.S. teens say Jesus offers hope to the world, cares about people and is trustworthy (47% each). Another 77 percent are motivated to continue learning about Jesus throughout their life.

This generation, the future of the Church, is open and curious to learn more about Christ.

Now is a good time to evaluate how your church and Christian community are connecting with and discipling Gen Z (emphasis theirs).

In addition, other findings by other researchers reveal that the majority of Americans—even those now defined as “nones” because they have no religious affiliation—have a strong desire for some kind of spiritual reality in their lives. The “Christ” they may be currently avoiding is often a caricature of the biblical Jesus.

This means there remains an openness to the REAL Jesus and a relationship with him IF God’s people will first deal with the “invisibility” of their own experience of the living Savior and then unleash a convincing witness for Jesus to unbelievers by both words and deeds.

The Church’s Greatest Threat Today: The “Invisibility” of Christ Among Us

Let me ask you: How much do Christians where you worship actually talk about God’s Son to one another?

After over 40 years of itinerating into various parts of the Body of Christ across America, I must admit that too often, my own shocking discovery is how rarely our Savior is

mentioned in the normal course of the shared life of God’s people.

For example, I’ve participated in half-hour worship sessions more than once where (unintended, I’m sure) specific references to our Savior were virtually absent in the choruses we sang.

More than once, I’ve listened to widely respected preachers deliver biblically grounded messages that barely referenced our Lord Jesus, let alone brought the congregation to bow at the feet of their King.

More than once, I’ve monitored the between-session conversations of delegates at major Christian conventions, hoping for even a hint that God’s Son was somehow vital to their discussions, only to be disappointed time and time again.

Let’s get candid here: Sunday after Sunday, how much of the general conversation in our churches actually honors Jesus in a manner comparable to how Paul talked?

How often do we say to each other words like: “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1)? Or “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we might present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1)? Or again, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2)?

In our times of fellowship, do we seek to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10), which Scripture says is the key to the Church becoming vital in our life in Christ and our witness for him?

Recall for a moment a recent exchange you had with a fellow believer. Taking a cue from (and using phrases from) 1 John 1

Did your time together give both of you, to any degree, a greater vision of the glory of Jesus as “the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us”?

Did you try in any direct way to encourage each other with “what we have seen and heard” of Christ?

Was there at any point a shared effort to help each other enter into deeper “fellowship with the Father and with his Son” and, thus, have your joy “made complete”?

If your experience was like most of mine, probably not.

Too many of us, I’m afraid, have become comfortable simply conversing about benign concepts of God. We allow ourselves to sidestep deeper explorations of and encounters with Jesus in the fullness of who he is today as our risen, reigning Lord and Redeemer.

We talk around Jesus rather than about Jesus.

Yet, there’s no getting around the fundamental principle of Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

This process is as equally true of believers—in some ways even more so—as it is of unbelievers.

What Christians hear about their Savior from one another, as a steady diet, determines a good deal of the depth of hope and passion they express toward him—and consequently about him to the non-Christian community.

It’s time to seriously ask ourselves, individually and corporately: How visible to us as believers is our Master’s presence and work among us, let alone to outsiders?

That’s why Paul challenged the Christians gathered in Corinth (and challenges all of us as well):

“Test yourselves! Do you not know that Jesus Christ is among you—unless you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13).

That’s why during America’s first “Great Awakening” in the early 1700s, Christians talked about how they were experiencing “the manifest presence of Christ.” They meant that essentially, God’s Son had previously been treated as peripheral to their life together. However, in their God-given revival, the Holy Spirit brought them back to the Lord Jesus Christ, making him again front and center among them—and even more so, supreme and reigning among them.

In turn, because Jesus became exceedingly “visible” to his people once again, the impact of that great (what I would call) “Christ Awakening” on many throughout the colonies was truly transformative. Jesus became “real” to those who had been sitting in darkness.

Our “Crisis of Christology”: We Must Confront and Cure It Now!

Those who have followed the eight-year journey of CHRIST NOW know that one of our main objectives is to alert the Church, especially in America, to the sobering shortfall in how we see, seek, savor, and speak about God’s Son for ALL that he is.

We call it a crisis for the same reason Barna calls it a threat. The “invisibility” of the Lord Jesus among his own people is why our rapidly secularizing nation considers him either irrelevant or, maybe worse, a form of pragmatic ornament to enhance whatever may be the current cause, political or otherwise.

Therefore, for almost a decade, CHRIST NOW has been calling for an “American CHRIST Awakening.” Our mission is to help make our Lord more visible by waking up believers to Jesus Christ for ALL he is.

Thus, we’ve been developing a vast variety of free resources and tools to help manifest the greatness and glory of Jesus to those who come to us. All of it has been designed to foster and fuel a nationwide Christ Awakening within every stream of the Church.

Additionally, we have created free resources that Christians can use with fellow Jesus followers or within congregations to help them work together to exalt the name of Jesus, spread the fame of Jesus, intensify the reign of Jesus, and increase the gain of Jesus among us. We are convinced that as Jesus becomes far more visible, tangible, and essential among us, he will become increasingly conspicuous, unavoidable, compelling, and personally life-giving through us.

But whether you use our free materials or not—our social media, podcasts, vlogs, videos, books, online video training, or online live seminars—without a doubt, all serious Christians in America must sense the urgency to become exceedingly zealous in reversing the crisis of the “invisible” King among us.

This cure is not only for our sakes; it is for the sake of a nation that is right now in a desperate spiritual and moral disintegration taking place on many sides.

And yet, it is also a nation in which a multitude—including millions of GenZers—have hearts, it appears, that the Spirit is keeping open and ready to see Jesus in us, then hear Jesus from us, and finally join Jesus with us.

This is our prayer: May the Church in America soon experience a widespread Christ Awakening movement that is nothing short of a daily replication of the experience of those Emmaus disciples who encountered Jesus on the road from Jerusalem on our Lord’s resurrection day:

At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. . . . Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up

the Scriptures for us?” (Luke 24, The Message)

Follow up this blog post by watching this 67-second video clip HERE.

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!

George Barna identifies biggest threats facing the Church: 'We've reached a time of Christian invis…

George Barna, a leading expert in church and worldview trends, has weighed in on some of the biggest issues facing the Church including the steady de…
Reimagine Curator August 9, 2024 17:25

MORE by David Bryant - - #Reintroduce America to Christ

Why Is an American CHRIST Awakening the Only Hope for Our Nation in 2024?

Second of a Four-Part Series (Part 1 Part 3 )

David Bryant

Sometimes, a thoughtful look at the past can give us fresh inspiration about the future. A few years back, this happened for me through a voice from three centuries ago. It sounded forth an extraordinary hope that is equally ours today.

After years of research comparing the promises of Scripture with the writings of various Christian leaders throughout Church history, I finally came to the writings of the New England clergyman and scholar Jonathan Edwards—pastor of the second-largest congregation in New England at that time.

In 1747, Edwards defined in his book on prayer and revival, An Humble Attempt, what many of us are praying for in 2024—what we call an American CHRIST Awakening. He wrote:

God has had it much on His heart, from all eternity, to glorify His dear and only Son.

Universal dominion is pledged to Christ. Even so, there are special seasons God appoints to that end, where He comes forth with omnipotent power to fulfill this promise and oath to His Son.

These seasons are times of remarkable outpourings of His Spirit. They prove the reality of Christ’s Kingdom to a skeptical world and serve to extend its bounds.

What joy this brought to my heart! It reinforced my faith to seek God’s face for nothing less in this critical hour for our nation.

Let me tell you why this same joyful hope can be yours in these coming months when so many Americans are living with despair.

Two Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve been teaching on the strong possibility of a “remarkable outpouring of His Spirit” across our nation for the past 40 years. During that time, I’ve unpacked for fellow Jesus followers the biblical hope for, significant impact from, and impending nature of any God-given, nationwide Christ-exalting revival in our own generation. Frequently, not a few people in my audiences have asked me these two questions in one form or another:

(1) How much does our nation really need for the American Church to experience such a Christ Awakening right now?

(2) In light of so many other pressing crises our generation faces, what practical, lasting difference could such a phenomenon possibly make?

In the first part of this series, I discussed how the universal testimony of Scripture is that waking up his people to more of his glory in his Son dominates the revealed purposes of God the Father.

As we found, the Father wants to give this glorious grace to the Church anytime, anywhere—to every individual believer and to God’s people together.

In this second part of the blog post series, I want to address these two persistent follow-up questions. Let’s look at the first one.

(1) How much does our nation really need for the American Church to experience such a Christ Awakening right now?

My initial response is to respond with this question: What do you think God sees when he looks at the American Church today?

Despite all the glitz and glamour, how much hollowness, barrenness, and spiritual exhaustion does he find inherent in our ways?

Regardless of our published claims and flurry of commendable activities, when it comes to advancing the work of Christ’s kingdom, how often do you think he finds our ministries ineffective, paralyzed, stymied?

Though outwardly, we seem to be prospering in the workings of “Churchianity,” is it possible that our Father would conclude that inwardly, we are far too dull, too weak, too stagnant?

Remarking on evidence of the Church’s current spiritual depletion, world-renowned British evangelical leader Dr. John Stott sometimes expressed it this way (to paraphrase him):

When the nighttime overwhelms us, we don’t blame the darkness; it’s only being what darkness is. We blame the tragic dimness of the light. If the hamburger spoils, we don’t blame the patty; that’s what happens to dead meat. The problem is with the potency of the salt that should have retarded its decomposition.

Stott’s point: We should not ask, “What is wrong with the world?” for that diagnosis has already been given—“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3). Instead, we should ask, “What has happened to the salt and light?”

To that point, current research tells us there’s little difference between the lifestyles of Christians inside the Church and that of our society as a whole. Therefore, it’s not hard to understand why our influence for Christ (our salt and light) is so negligible in the life of our nation.

The truth is that grievous manifestations of moral and spiritual disintegration rampant in the culture at large are woven all through many churches as well. Racism. Hypocrisy. Hero worship. Materialism. Busyness. Lack of social conscience. Road rage. Dysfunctional families. Pornography addiction. Status quo mediocrity. Self-indulgent abundance.

These leave America (including our local communities) to fend for itself spiritually in the face of persistent fears of terrorism, stunting political gridlock, the drumbeat of ethical scandals, urban poverty and violence, unresolved economic and racial injustices—as well as confusion over our nation’s proper role in a world also in turmoil.

Look What We’ve Done to Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Above is the front cover of the current issue of Christianity Today, the world’s leading evangelical publication. It pictures a battle raging between elephants (the Republican icon) and donkeys (the Democratic icon)—carried out inside a church sanctuary, up and down the pews, with parishioners fleeing for their lives!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one graphic says it all about how politicized and polarized a huge number of congregations across our land have become in recent years—completely overshadowing our witness to the good news about Jesus. And in the process, countless members have fled. Literally, tens of millions have permanently left our churches in the past twenty years!

The sad part is that when these crises (inside and outside the Church) are combined, they create a multitude of distractions that end up marginalizing the living Christ among us. Spiritually exhausted, most of us cannot retain the kind of passion for him and his Kingdom purposes he deserves as supreme Lord of All.

Unconsciously, many Christians settle for regarding the exalted Son of God as little more than a divine additive available to embellish the schedules of our churches, enhance the reputation of our ministries, and possibly help America reclaim her divine mission in the world. Sadly, he is treated more as our mascot than our monarch.

As American evangelicals, how can we read Revelation 2-3 and not wonder if our Lord may be speaking an equally penetrating rebuke to much of contemporary Christianity? I think you would agree, for example, that modern-day believers frequently “have forsaken [our] first love” (Revelation 2:4), leaving us with “a reputation of being alive, but behold [we] are dead” (Revelation 3:1).

In many churches, this counsel of Jesus two millennia ago to a lukewarm congregation in Asia Minor needs to be repeated over and over to believers in 2024:

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see (Revelation 3:18, NIV).

Now, let’s look at the second question asked so frequently by my audiences.

(2) In light of so many other pressing crises our generation is facing, what practical, lasting difference could such a phenomenon possibly make?

Psalm 24 cries out, “Open Wide the Gates! Let the King of Glory Enter In!” That’s precisely the cure for our “crisis of Christology” plaguing the American Church today, as we’ve just seen.

If the American Church became more intentional about gaining a better diagnosis of our true need, discovering how we too have become “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17), surely, we would run—no, we would race—to Christ for mercy and forgiveness, seeking a fresh start with our Savior.

Together, would we not find ourselves falling before him, as it were, begging the King of Glory to once again burst through the doors of our hearts and the doors of our congregations, manifesting himself among us in the fullness and power of his redeeming reign so active throughout the earth?

Thankfully, as we saw in part one, there is nothing the Father is more able, willing, and ready to do by the Spirit than to have his Son invade his followers here and now, overflowing with grace and renewal, conquering us more fully than ever, and retaking us captive to himself and all he embodies as our Savior and Sovereign.

That’s what Jonathan Edwards concluded in 1747. You can’t top his observation quoted at the start of this blog post!

That’s also what Dr. Ebenezer Porter, president of Andover Theological Seminary on the East Coast, reported in 1830 to his student body. In a series of seven lectures, he shared his firsthand, eyewitness report of the essence of what happened in churches throughout the decades that historians define as the “Second Great Awakening” in American life. He defined it like this (emphasis added):

When the Redeemer comes in the triumphs of His grace to visit His churches, then his true followers are seen waking from their apathy and going forth to welcome the King of Zion with an energy and earnestness and ardor of affection greatly surpassing their first love.

Could another such radical “visitation” of our Redeemer come upon God’s people in our nation today—even in 2024?

Could another such awakening from apathy into an ardor of affection toward Christ, surpassing anything we’ve known before, unfold among us before the close of this year?

Why not?

We’ll explore those questions in the third of this four-part series.

Learn more about what a Christ Awakening is HERE.

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!

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