The kind of revival the church in America needs now

I am an evangelical white Christian American.

“Revival” is a word that we say a lot in the evangelical white Christian church in America. Revive Us Again was my favorite church song when I was a boy. The evangelical Christian university I attended hosted two student “revivals” every school year.

Here are the words to one of the songs we sing most often in the evangelical church where I am a member:

We are Your church
We pray revive this earth
(We’re praying for revival)
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here
We pray

But what do we mean by “revival”?

What is it that we want God to revive?

I’m going to come out and say exactly what I think we mean.

When the white evangelical Christian church in America prays for “revival,” we mean we want a revival of our rules, standards, and teachings to a position of power, preference, and privilege in culture and society. We want a revival of the right to use the authority of law and the power of the economy and media to bend culture and society to our way of life.

Not only do we think we have a right to do that, we believe we have a divine commission to do it. After all, we are on “God’s side.” We have “the Truth.”

We assume that love is our motive. We assume that if culture and society came back to our way of doing things, culture and society would do well right along with the church of Christ.

As an honest Christian, I cannot take this assumption at face value. The Holy Scriptures I read say that God is breathing words into the world that are “alive and active,” “sharper than any double-edged sword,” penetrating soul and spirit to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Letter to the Hebrews 4:12).

It is easy to say that love is our motive, but then to use it as cover for a quest to control, a passion for power. As people who believe in the “sinful nature,” how could we not look at our own motives with skepticism? How could we not believe that we could use love as an excuse for any means it takes to advance our own agenda?

Is using love as cover not the original sin of every abuser? Every oppressor?

Is not “for their own good” the original sin of every slavedriver and taskmaster?

The quest for control and power absolutely corrupts and diminishes Christians. Our Christ rejected control and power at every chance he had to possess and use them. Freedom is the essential prerequisite to the love that God hopes each human being will choose on her or his own.

Indeed, faith, hope, and love cannot exist absent the freedom to choose.

If the white evangelical Christian church in America truly wants to be an instrument of God’s revival, then our first step must be to repent of our quest for authority and power over the lives of our neighbors. We must confess and repent of the abuse and oppression that we carried out on our own or helped others carry out in our name. We must separate from associations, organizations, parties, or persons who use the promise of authority and power to manipulate us into supporting their agendas of control.

We must then seek to follow our Christ away from authority and power so that we might join him in working for freedom. That is, the God-given freedom that each human being has to choose her beliefs and way of life for herself. God knows that people who are free will find him and love him in spirit and truth. Coercion and control only makes slaves.

And God’s children are not to be slaves. They are to be free.

As the church of Christ in America, let us not pray for a revival of our cultural, political, or social power; let us pray and work that every person will enjoy to the full the gift of the freedom of God.