I am a veteran of a revolutionary war. I am not sure how many casualties were inflicted as a direct or indirect result of this conflict but I personally witnessed the pain and division it caused. As in many of the latest revolutions designed to bring church to the unchurched, my war, the worship war, was a fight to establish a new way of doing things.
Let me be clear; the church often suffers from tradition for the sake of tradition. The church has paid the price for creating doctrine out of habits and theology out of life experience. That being said it is just as easy to create new doctrine out of new habits and new theology out of new experiences.
Have we created a doctrine of change driven by a theology of proven success?
Do we seek a new way of doing things rather than a renewed connection with God?
Revolution
- Replaces the old authority structure with a new one.
- Requires critical mass to make things change.
- Puts power in the hands of those seeking change.
Revival
- Submits to the true authority – God.
- Requires only one person to humble themselves to see real change.
- Takes power out of the hands of those seeking change and lets God be God.
Revolution will never bring revival. Revival can bring revolution.
Revival based Revolution
- Replaces all authority structures by submitting to the only true authority – God.
- Reaches critical mass because individuals allow God to change them.
- Empowers those who desire to let God be God.
live4him.ca 
Reblogged this on The Recovering Legalist and commented:
The author of the following post just subscribed to mine today. So, when I went to look at his, the first post I read was this one, and man did it hit the mark! I highly recommend you reading it. He makes some brilliant observations.
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Dave, you hit the nail on the head with this one, my brother! As a pastor who has struggled with this issue (not to mention my years of playing contemporary music in the 90’s), I have had to stand between two opposing foes – although they shouldn’t be: the older generation and the younger one (an age-old – no pun intended – rivalry). You made an absolutely brilliant observation in your description of revolution vs revival. I have tried to get the younger, excited, on-a-mission groups to understand that old ways are not always bad, and new ones are not always good, but especially that none of it is effective without the power of God and hearts yielded to the Spirit. Methods are not the answer – the Man of Sorrows is.
Thanks for subscribing to my blog. I will return the favor and reblog this post.
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I see this new doctrine out of ‘new habits and new theology out of new experiences’ frequently on Facebook and elsewhere. A ‘pick and choose’ theology constructed from whatever is the fad of the week that makes you feel warm and fuzzy. Not how it works people.
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