How to Revive the Church by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1907

How to Revive the Church

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

THERE are many churches that need reviving. Members have lost their first love, and the coming of the Lord, though nearer than when they first believed, does not seem so to them. The form is there, but in some cases only a spark of life remains. Secret prayer, the very life of the soul, is neglected. In some homes the family altar has fallen down. Weekly prayer-meetings have died in churches because the members were too much occupied with the affairs of this world to attend once a week. And though it may still live in some instances, it is but a cold, formal affair. Covetousness has come into many hearts, and as a result little or no tithes are paid; and from their abundance but a mere pittance is given to help carry the last message that men will ever hear. Some, becoming absorbed in worldly things, fail to read and study the Bible very much. The Testimonies are read but little, and some who once believed in the spirit of prophecy are not quite sure in reference to the matter now.

Brother, if any of these conditions prevail in your church, they indicate a dearth of spiritual life, and explain why souls are not converted and gathered into the church. A revival is needed very much.

Yes, you say, we do need a revival in our church: we have been hoping for a long time that a minister would come and start one. But this is not necessary. A genuine revival can be effected in every church in the denomination, and many souls be converted, without ministerial aid, thus leaving the laborers free for work in new fields.

Do you ask how? Have you ever studied the revival at Sychar, recorded in John 4; and considered the agency through which it was accomplished? Sychar was a wicked place, worse perhaps than the neighborhood in which you live. The revival began with a woman. She was not a young woman, for she had had five husbands. Talk about humble and unworthy instruments! Here is one. She was living with a man who was not her husband, a reproach to the town in which she resided. And yet a great revival was brought about through this woman. I hear people say they can not do any missionary work. Say that no more. Is there a member in any church who could not do as much in his neighborhood as this woman of Sychar did in her neighborhood? What she did you can do. How was it done?

1. She had a face-to-face and heart-to-heart talk with Jesus. This poor sinful creature, a slave of Satan, led captive at his will, saw the Saviour and communed with him. She saw herself a sinner, and Jesus, the Messiah, as her Saviour. She drank of that “living water.” This is the real secret of the Sychar revival. It began with one person, and many believed. “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.” A like personal experience will work wonders in your church. It will result in an ingathering of souls.

2. After she had had a face-to-face talk with Jesus, she had a face-to-face talk with her neighbors. “Come,” she said, “see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” This kind of work will result in a revival in your church. Do something for Jesus. Go to your neighbors with the message, and tell them that he who sat at Jacob’s well is coming again. All that is needed to revive your church, and kindle anew the love of God in your own heart, is to go to work. Many are spiritually idle. You “do not feel like working,” you say. Then you need to talk with Jesus. Something is separating you from him. “Not more surely is the place prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth where we are to work for God.” Certainly we shall never fill the place prepared for us in heaven, unless we first fill the place prepared for us here. Are we filling that “special place,” or imperilling our eternal salvation by refusing to work for him? Many will be lost unless they go to work now.

She went and told others. She began work in her own neighborhood, with those whom she had known. She told them of the man who told her all things that she did. The face-to-face talk with Jesus had no doubt transformed her whole life, and the people could see that a marvelous change had taken place, and were thus led to go out and see and hear for themselves. She did not remain at home, excusing herself from doing anything by saying that she had no talent. She went to work diligently for those near by.

All that is needed to revive us as individuals and as churches is for a revival of personal missionary work to take place in our local churches. May the Lord awaken us to our individual responsibility.

Takoma Park, D. C.