Wanted: A Movement of God

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” Einstein

In the fall of 1969 a young college student at a small private college became
concerned over the spiritual life on her campus. She invited five other students
to join her in what she called the “Grand Experiment.” On the surface
the experiment hardly seemed grand: she asked her friends to join her in
spending one full hour a day in the Scriptures and in prayer, taking notes
on what they learned. Then, each week the six would get together and compare
notes. They decided to do this for one month.

After the first month, the students became excited and encouraged at all
God seemed to be saying. Growing in excitement, they determined to do
this for another month, inviting others to join them. Eventually each of the
original group invited five others to join them, and throughout the month
of January this expanding band of believers met, gathering once a week
to share with growing enthusiasm the things they were learning from the
Word and from each other.

At the end of January, these students began to share their testimonies about
the things God had been teaching them in the school’s chapel service. Something
“grand” seemed to be happening on the campus. What was going on?
The following Tuesday morning, the dean stood to preach in the regular
chapel service. As he stood, he said he felt strongly that rather than preach
he was to share his story of how he met Christ. After doing so, the presence
of God filled the chapel. An unplanned time of response was given, and the
students came alive.

The day was Tuesday morning, February 3, 1970. The chapel service
that began that morning continued uninterrupted for 185 hours! God
had come, and historians call this event the Asbury College Revival. The
“Grand Experiment” produced God-sized results, as students spread across
the country, testifying and witnessing movements of revival. We still encounter
people who met the Lord in a powerful way because of the Asbury
College Revival.

At the same time this was happening, another movement among youth
had begun in California and was also quickly spreading across America. The Jesus Movement witnessed a multitude of unchurched young adults come to Christ. The Jesus Movement began on the West Coast in the late 1960s and, while far less popularized by the media than hippie culture, it embodied an important cultural counterinfluence among hippies that provided
a much different message than the “tune in, turn on, and drop out” attitude promulgated by Timothy Leary and the Woodstock generation. Thousands of hippies and other young adults abandoned the counterfeits of free sex, drugs, and rock and roll and turned to Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Not only did important ministries and churches spring up as a result, but much of the contemporary Christian music and worship styles popular today also have their roots in this movement.

Movements change things. In fact, one could easily argue that the study of history is really a study of the ebbs and flows of movements. Some movements have been positive; many have not. But one thing is clear: history has been changed by movements. The secret to the success of virtually all initiatives that succeed outside the status quo is in the ability of those initiatives to grow from ideas into movements. The key to a movement is a groundswell of people who are galvanized by a common cause and/or are committed to a central idea or vision for which they pool their energies and resources to produce a result that is greater than the sum total of all the parts.

In its most basic form, Christianity should not be understood primarily as an institution but as a movement. To understand why the term movement more accurately portrays the church than the term institution, it is helpful to look back two thousand years and observe what originally began as a handful of people who locked themselves in a room because they were paralyzed by fear and confusion over the recent events they had experienced. This group of120 people, gathered together in an “upper room” (Acts 1) had no political might, no economic power, and no standing in the culture. But they had one faith, one Lord, and one mission, which became the central rallying point that was bigger than any one of their lives and for which they were all totally committed. They were a movement ready to happen. All that was necessary was for the Lord to ignite them with his Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the face of persecution, confusion, misunderstanding, and even some internal conflict, this once timid band of confused and fearful followers became totally committed to a mission and vision that they understood was bigger than themselves and which would change their lives forever. And you are reading this article in no small part because of this movement.

By its very nature the mission compelled motion, so these followers of Jesus moved into the surrounding regions, nations, and continents like the concentric circles of a shock wave after an earthquake. They were so successful that the expansion that took place in just a few years (captured in part in Acts 1–17) could only be described as the followers of Jesus having “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The clarity of their mission combined with the filling of the Holy Spirit and expressed through a coordinated commitment to pray and go ignited the most powerful movement in history: the Christian church.

Small dreams do not inflame hearts—big visions do. We all want to be part of something special, something bigger than we are. It need not be something that brings great recognition to us, but it does need to be of some significance. People pursue all sorts of causes, issues, and opportunities to quench the insatiable appetite to do something. What greater joy and thrill could a human being experience than being captivated and motivated by the greatest cause in human history?

History demonstrates again and again how the church tends to lose its focus. As a result, the advancement of the gospel and its transformative effects on culture waned. In a word, it is a move away from a movement mentality toward what we would describe as “institutionalism.” When entire segments of the church lose their focus on the proper end and function of the church and surrender orthodox foundations, they veer off course into hazardous directions. For example, consider the Reformation. After a theological and biblical renewal, which rescued the church to a large extent from institutionalism and back to the Word, the Lutheran church soon became steeped again in institutional deadness. A movement called Pietism was initiated by men such as pastor Philip Spener, whose book Pia Desideria, a Great Commission Declaration of sorts for his day, challenged the status quo and called for a renewed, passionate church, especially among its leaders. Theology professor A.?H. Franke joined in this movement, leading his students to minister in the community through orphanages, schools, and evangelistic endeavors. The Pietistic movement led to remarkable missionary work and a renewed focus on living out the faith. One can easily see a similar movement in the First Great Awakening, in the ministry of Charles Spurgeon who challenged the status quo of his day as a relatively young man, and in the successful parachurch ministries launched by men like Billy Graham and Bill Bright which spread rapidly in their influence. One can see this in the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention.

We need a movement today — a gospel- focused, biblically-centered, culture-changing movement of God. There are stirrings around. I sat in a conference with almost 3,000 called Advance 09 in Durham just this past week. I was in the original meeting with pastors Tyler Jones and Elliott Grudem and a couple of others months ago. No one envisioned the response both by interested speakers and by participants that we experienced this week. Movements still happen. Perhaps we can see one in our time that brings glory to God and souls into the Kingdom. I will give my life for such.

Note: some of this was adapted from Mark Liederbach and Alvin Reid, The Convergent Church: Missional Worshipers in an Emerging Culture (Kregel, 2009).