Revivals are a very important part of the Asian American Christian experience. People embrace Christ. The flames are fanned again in our souls. And churches are recognized. It’s quite an affair. An elder of our church had asked me why I haven’t put one together for our youth group. I responded, “Why should I?� He looked at me like I had a third eye. It never dawned on him that when we approach each meeting and each soul to experience revival each week, that maybe there really is no need for the kind of affair that he was thinking of. The problem is, many people, particularly the leaders, don’t know to do this.
I wonder why it is that revivals are so prevalent and desired in our community. Maybe we need to be asking what is actually happening in between these revivals that make our churches so parched and dry. I realized something a long time ago. For some reason, and I believe that it’s mostly unintended, but we teach the flock to develop and unhealthy reliance on their shepherds and the church. Within the walls of the church and under the guidance of its shepherds, they drink and are merry. Once they return to their homes, their work places, and into the world, they don’t know how to return to the waters and drink for themselves. They need the church and its shepherds to do so. We can lead the flock to those still waters, but I think we need to show them how to return to the water and drink on their own. The church can be a place where we drink together, as a community, and its shepherds can inspire, motivate, and teach the community by modeling such dependence and independence.[/b]
ShepherdLeader.com
A safe place for shepherds to reflect together.