Tipping Points: the Influence of Spiritual Awakenings
We've seen it globally. And now we are seeing it right here at home.
We have been warned from certain 'doomsday-sayers' that it was coming to America. But, as a baby-boomer/GenX evangelical, I would never believe that we would admit one day that America would be a place where Christianity would come under popular persecution.
And even though there have only been a handful if incidences of religious persecution in the past decade among American Christians in the United States, could that trend be changing? If all reports are true, and the latest school shooting in Minneapolis and Colorado were based from religious intolerance, the trends certainly could be changing if the church does nothing about the latest pop persecution.
Our silence could be the enemy of truth.
There is great interest in Christianity, but, little discipleship. we need a greater emphasis upon spiritual formation.
|While 65% of Gen Alpha identifies as Christian|Only 16% display consistent Christian beliefs and habits
|Yet, 3 in 4 say faith is important to their identity
Tipping Points: Persecution and AwakeningAside from the general degradation of morality in America over the past 50 years, could the persecution of Christians be another sign that we need a Spiritual Awakening?
Don't get me wrong. I am not naïve enough to think that America was birthed as a Christian nation. But, there would be little argument that America was, at least, influenced by conservative Christian principles that became a significant part of our heritage. Proven by the original state constitutions and early founders of our country being Christian in contract and practice.
Even in the last 50 years there was hope eternal in retaining our Christian beginnings.
Today, however, with the loss of any mainstream clarion call for righteousness, the hope of a national Spiritual Awakening seems to be hanging solely upon the sovereignty of God interrupting America in its downward spiral.
Something that very clearly could be happening right now. All of the signs are pointing to a moment that we have been praying for. Could it be that the recent events surrounding the persecution of Christians and Christianity are the beginnings of the next great awakening?
The millennials, Gen Z, and Alpha Gen are the only generations in America who have not seen a spiritual awakening. The young people living today have never seen a national Spiritual Awakening. They have not seen a significant or remarkable revival.
You would have to go back to the Father's Day Outpouring in Brownsville, Florida in 1995, when every newscast led in with the unusual spiritual awakening that took place and spread throughout the country, and globally, for about 4 years. Most of today's teens were just being born when the Brownsville Revival was ending more than 30 years ago.
However, the Brownsville Outpouring was not a national impact. It was a regional outpouring that did not shake our nation like the Jesus Movement 25 years before it.
There are always moments in every society that become 'tipping points'. In culture it might be called a shift or subculture or trend or movement. Sociology would say that a generation brought change with it every 80 years.
Then, during the information age, it was said that every 40 years we would see cultural shifts.
And over time, with the explosion of the entertainment and the social media age, our generational changes have come within a single decade.
What America is missing is a true Spiritual Awakening like the First and Second Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries. The term Great Awakening referred to seasons of religious revival in America that brought a wave of increased religious enthusiasm and involvement. When everything happening around us brings a shift in thinking and the spiritual fervor affects a nation.
The Cultural Awakening Caused By National Events
There are spiritual awakenings in the church that I would call revivals. Those are innate to the church and usually take place within a church or even denomination. This is what I would categorize the Brownsville Outpouring.
But an Awakening is different and usually takes place in the broader context of the culture.
Depending on your definition of an Awakening, and, whether you think the Brownsville Outpouring was the last movement America has seen, we haven't witnessed a significant 'bump' since the 9/11 terror attacks 24 years ago.
The cultural impact of 9/11 has Changed society. With NTSB changes and First Responder Protocols changing the way we deal with crisis. But, the spiritual impact of 9/11 only lasted about 3-5 months. And that is if you believe the most optimistic reports of church attendance going up from September to March directly after the NYC and Washington attacks.
We probably saw a more cultural (and global) impact more than we saw a spiritual one from 9/11. If that moment did not change American Spiritual history, what will it take?
These moments can become the most important moments in a society. And I believe the church missed that one. But, are we seeing another major 'tipping point' in the past few years with the increase of religious persecution and the lack of social and government concern?
Could the persecution of Christians in the past few years bring another Great Awakening to America? Or, will Christianity and the church miss another opportunity to take the cultural impact going on right now and turn it into a spiritual impact.
The church must be looking to ride this present crest or we miss another moment in American history to see a significant Spiritual Awakening.
The recent events such as the school shootings in Minneapolis and Colorado and the Charlie Kirk assassination should drive the young people of the church to two simple things:
First, to get upon our knees in repentance and humility as we intercede for God's sovereign move upon our nation. And second, to get up from our knees in confidence that God has called us to be a voice to our nation.
Where Was God Last Week In Utah
Sure, many will say that a loving God should have stepped in on that scene and stopped the senseless murder of Charlie Kirk. That God was absent again at such a tragic time in America's history.
Let me say that I don't believe as some suggest that "God was taken from the classroom back in the 60's, taken out of Washington DC in the 80s, or He turned He back on America in 2025.”
And yet, could it be that God has chosen a better plan of reaching our nation and bringing an Awakening?
As Ann Grahm Lotz has said, “In fact America asked God to get out of our government, our schools, and our culture. Maybe He has obliged and what we are seeing is God remove His hand from our country”
I think He is here.
He was in every faith-filled response of those students in the classrooms praying to God. He was there as every person within the sound of those prayers under pews or chairs or tables heard those prayers and lived a chaotic scene of mass murder.
Someone said that the most courageous of students in the classrooms were the students who turned to prayer and called upon God in these moments, and then began to aid their fellow classmates to safety.
However, let me say that I believe the most courageous moments will be taken in the weeks to come. When families attend viewings, and funerals, when families have birthdays and life moments, and family events without their children.
When families move on from this tragedy and begin to heal. When friends of the slain students and faculty start to go back to school and get on with their lives without their loved ones.
And, for you and I to decide that we will not let this significant moment in American history pass us by without a response.
Silence Is The Enemy Of Truth
We cannot allow the courage and the sacrifice that many students took in Minnesota and Colorado to pass again as other moments have. We cannot allow the assassination of Charlie Kirk to place us into hiding and fear.
Our response must be swift and clear.
Just look at the 100 thousand plus chapters of Turning Point USA that are being requested across our country. That is a decisive response that could be the fuel to the Next Great Awakening in America.
Our silence is the enemy of truth. We must not fear. In the face of a killer and his loaded weapons, these brothers and sisters of ours modeled to each of us the kind of faith it takes to build the Kingdom of God.
Remember, in John 12, Jesus said that "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone and cannot bear much fruit." Somehow, through hardship and suffering, the Kingdom continues in greater strength.
Maybe instead of blaming God for persecution, we should be embracing this persecution. Because we know that it may be the way to the Next Great Awakening in America.