By HUNTER GREENE

I have been reading and watching a lot about the Bristol Revival with evangelist C.T. Townsend, and I am hoping to make it up for a few nights if I can. However, I have to admit, I am a bit amazed at how our behavior changes when a “revival” comes. I saw earlier this week where almost 3,000 people were in attendance the first night. I have had multiple Christian friends ask me, another fellow Christian, to go with them. I remember when people would drive four hours both ways to the Burlington Revival. Please don’t think I am critiquing C.T., the revival, or anyone for that matter. I fully support the ministry that he is doing, and I pray that God gives him many souls for his labor. But let me ask you this: why are we so willing to drive four hours for a church service but we aren’t willing to drive across the street to our neighbor’s house? Why are we so zealous about calling up other Christians for revival but we won’t pick the phone up once to invite our lost friends and family? Why do we get so excited over good preaching but we aren’t nearly excited about serving others with our hands and feet?
I am not claiming to have the answers to these questions. I just want us to reflect on how we may have our priorities out of order. Don’t get me wrong, worship is important, but Jesus was much more concerned about feeding the hungry than He was singing the last verse of Amazing Grace. The last words that Jesus gave to his disciples (probably pretty important and intentional) come from Matthew 28:18-20. The verses read, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The very last thing Jesus wanted us to know before He ascended into Heaven was that it was now our turn to go out into the highways and hedges to make disciples. Jesus spent His entire life and ministry loving, serving, and sacrificing for people. People were his ultimate goal. It wasn’t building an elaborate church. It wasn’t creating an amazing musical performance for Sunday’s service. It wasn’t making sure the church treasury had enough money to buy more comfortable pews. Jesus gave His life for people, and He has commissioned us to do the same.
I don’t want you to think that I am abandoning our call to praise and worship God. However, I want us to realize that we have swapped God’s calling and purpose for our lives as apostles for a comfortable one-hour gathering on Sunday morning. Our worship was always meant to supplement our evangelism, not the other way around. The early church in Acts 2 gathered daily to encourage one another as they went out the next day to preach and spread the good news of Christ. Today, we gather once or twice a week at church hoping that when we wake up on Monday morning, God has magically turned us into super-disciples that convert people without ever interacting with them. I have often heard that going to church doesn’t save a person, and I would agree with that statement. But I would also say that church attendance doesn’t make us disciples of Jesus either.
Church has become so watered down in America. We have almost turned it into a spiritual drive-thru window. If we like the preaching over here, then we will attend the McMethodist Church. If we like this singing over here, then we will attend the Baptist King Church. If we like the building and church playground, we will go to the Kind and Fun Church. We pull up on Sunday morning, get our quick sermon, and leave as fast as possible. I’m afraid this is what we have reduced following Jesus to.
Following Jesus is so much more. David Platt writes, “We have received salvation so that his name will be proclaimed in all nations. God loves us for His sake in the world.” God didn’t save us so that we could sit in a pew once a week and think about how great it is to be a Christian. He didn’t save us to throw more revivals and sing more songs. God saved us so that we would proclaim to the world His glory, honor, and love. God saved us so that we would go out to others and tell them what God has done for us. God saved us so that others may be saved as well.
In a nutshell, keep singing, keep preaching, keep attending church, keep going to revival, keep worshipping and praising. However, let us turn our stagnant worship of God into a passionate participation in His redemption of the world. Go make disciples of all nations, all tribes, and all tongues.
(AlSO: Come join us as we start our Solution Tour with food, singing, and preaching in the community this Sunday night at 6 p.m. at Cat Island Park).
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene.)