Chapter 1 Eyes of Blazing Fire: The Zeal of Christ to Revitalize His Church
1. The word angel means “messenger,” and each of the letters Christ orders written to this or that church is written to the angel of that specific church. Christ would not be writing to a heavenly angel, so many interpreters feel that the angels of these seven churches are the elders or pastors of these churches. See John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Revelation 1–11 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 47–48.
2. “Five Trends among the Unchurched,” Barna, October 9, 2014, http://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/685-five-trends-among-the-unchurched.html.
3. Thom Rainer, “13 Issues for Churches in 2013,” Church Leaders, accessed June 13, 2016, http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/164787-thom-rainer-13-issues-churches-2013.html.
4. Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2007), xiii–xiv.
5. The largest church in America is Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, TX, with significantly questionable theology in the “word of faith” pattern. See John MacArthur’s critique of Joel Osteen quoted in Bill Combs, “Theologically Driven: Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary,” September 22, 2014, http:www.dbts.edu/blog/john-macarthur-on-joel-osteen/.
Chapter 2 God Speaks Life into Dying Churches
1. Eighty percent of the Czech population has no religious affiliation at all, and surveys indicate about 1 percent are evangelical.
2. Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright, and J. I. Packer, ed., “Theology of Revival,” in New Dictionary of Theology (Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1988).
3. Stephen Olford, Heart-Cry for Revival: Expository Sermons on Revival (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1962), 33.
4. Earle Cairns, “Revival,” in Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, ed. A. Scott Moreau (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000).
5. C. H. Spurgeon, “What Is a Revival,” The Spurgeon Archive, accessed July 28, 2016, http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/wir1866.php.
6. Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004).
7. J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), 298.
8. For more analysis of marks of a dying or dead church, see Thom Rainer, Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2014); also Harry L. Reeder III, From Embers to a Flame: How God Can Revitalize Your Church (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2008).
9. Tertullian said this is what the pagans would exclaim when they saw true Christians and how they interacted with one another. Quoted in Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 485.
10. Rainer, Autopsy, 33.
Chapter 3 Embrace Christ’s Ownership of the Church
1. Boniface (675?–754) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germania. To counteract local pagan superstitions in Geismar, he assembled a crowd around the sacred oak of the Thundergod and began chopping down the tree. According to one legend, a powerful gust of wind came at that moment and blew the tree to the ground, confirming the power of Christ over the pagan gods. Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), 47–48.
2. Medical research has shown the beneficial effects of a fever on fighting viral or bacterial infections. The body can handle the elevated temperature far better than the pathogens. Paul Fassa, “Do Not Kill a Fever: Fever Kills Viruses,” Natural News, October 2, 2009, http://www.naturalnews.com/027149_fever_virus_flu.html. In the same way, genuine Christians delight in more and more talk about the greatness of Jesus Christ and his kingship over all things. “Gospel hypocrites” (nominal Christians; unregenerate church members) cannot abide this elevated spiritual fervor.
1. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1978), 70.
2. John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. and indexed, Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 21 (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox, 1960), 1.1.3.
3. Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative,” in A Jonathan Edwards Reader, eds. John E. Smith, Harry S. Stout, and Kenneth Minkema (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 287–88.
4. Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1982), 28: “Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that which daily you condemn. Will you make it your work to magnify God, and, when you have done, dishonor him as much as others? Will you proclaim Christ’s governing power, and yet condemn it, and rebel yourselves? Will you preach his laws, and willfully break them? If sin be evil, why do you live in it if it be not, why do you dissuade men from it? If it be dangerous, how dare you venture on it? If it be not, why do you tell men so? If God’s threatenings be true, why do you not fear them? If they be false, why do you needlessly trouble men, with them, and put them into such frights without a cause?”
Chapter 6 Rely on God’s Word, Not on Techniques
1. Martin Luther, “Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s Latin Writings; Wittenberg, 1545,” in Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings, ed. John Dillenberger (New York: Anchor Books, 1961), 11.
2. Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York: Abingdon Press, 1950), 185.
3. Timothy George, The Theology of the Reformers (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1988), 53.
4. Charles G. Finney, Revival Lectures (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 1993), 5.
5. Arnold Kurtz, “Charles G. Finney—Prototype of the Modern Evangelist,” Ministry, November 1976, https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1976/11/charles-g.-finney.
6. William G. McLoughlin Jr., Modern Revivalism (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1959), 84.
7. Grace to You website slogan, http://www.gty.org/.
Chapter 7 Saturate the Church in Prayer
1. J. Edwin Orr, “Revival and Prayer,” Renewal Journal 93, no. 1 (1993).
2. Matthew Henry on Zechariah 12:9–14 in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 1590.
3. Jonathan Edwards, “On the Unreasonableness of Indetermination in Religion,” Sermon on 1 Kings 18:21, in Sermons and Discourses 1734–1738, vol. 19 in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. M. X. Lesser (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 93.
4. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1984), 62.
5. I.D.E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1977), 216.
6. Andrew Davis, An Infinite Journey (Greenville, SC: Ambassador, 2014), 225.
7. I heard Erwin Lutzer say this at a Gospel Coalition stakeholder’s meeting. I looked it up online and found it attributed to many people, including Adrian Rogers. I’m not sure who first said it, but I first heard it from Lutzer.
8. Church Revitalization, Forty Days of Prayer: Devotional Guide for Church Revitalization (Grapevine, TX: Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 2014), http://sbtexas.com/am-site/media/40-days-of-prayer.pdf.
9. John Piper, Desiring God (Portland, OR: Multnomah Books, 2003), 177.
Chapter 8 Cast a Clear Vision
1. Glenn Elert, ed., “Number of Colors Distinguishable by the Human Eye,” published in 2006, http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/JenniferLeong.shtml; “101 Amazing Eye Facts,” Lenstore Vision Hub, last accessed June 14, 2016, http://eyecare.lenstore.co.uk/101-amazing-eye-facts.
2. Davis, Infinite Journey, 45.
3. Dave Lavinsky, “Are You a Visionary Business Leader?” Forbes, April 26, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/04/26/are-you-a-visionary-business-leader/.
4. The Book on Leadership (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), vii-viii: John MacArthur exposes numerous examples of Christian writers who cite secular business models of leadership and vision. He writes, “It is a serious mistake for Christians in positions of leadership to be more concerned with what is currently popular in the corporate world than what our Lord taught about leadership.”
5. Andy Reinhardt, “Steve Jobs on Apple’s Resurgence,” Business Week (May 12, 1998): Steve Jobs said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
6. John C. Maxwell, “The Four Practices of a Visionary Leader,” accessed June 14, 2016, http://www.johnmaxwell.com/uploads/general/The_Four_Practices_of_a_Visionary_Leader.pdf.
7. Kenneth Copeland teaches the faith formula in these three easy steps: “All it takes is 1) seeing or visualizing whatever you need, whether physical or financial; 2) staking your claim on Scripture; and 3) speaking it into existence.” http://thewordonthewordoffaithinfoblog.com/2013/03/17/the-secret-to-the-success-of-joel-osteen-and-the-prosperity-gospel/. Accessed September 11, 2015.
8. Ken Silva, “Joel Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel,” October 25, 2012, Apprising Ministries, http://apprising.org/2012/10/25/joel-osteen-and-the-prosperity-gospel/.
Chapter 9 Be Humble toward Opponents
1. Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, “O Church Arise,” ThankYou Music, 2005.
2. Robert’s Rules of Order is a book written by Henry Martyn Robert and originally published in 1876 that is intended to be a handbook for directing meetings and making decisions as a group.
3. Bainton, Here I Stand, 185.
1. John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Section 2 in The Works of John Bunyan, vol. 3, ed. George Offor (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 243.
2. The KJV of Mark 14:33 says Jesus was “sore amazed.”
3. Davis, Infinite Journey, 233–34.
4. Tertullian, Apologeticus, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 55.
5. Eusebius, “The Martyrdom of Polycarp,” Church History IV. 15 in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 190.
6. Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (New York: Dolphin Books, 1956), 303–53.
7. A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation, 2nd ed. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), 99.
Chapter 11 Be Patient
1. My PhD advisor, the late Marvin Anderson, stated this several times in lectures at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have tried to track it down to an actual Luther quote in print, but I have been unable to do so. However, these words stuck with me in a powerful way through the events at FBC. The closest I could come to a Luther quote was in his writings against the iconoclastic riots of Wittenberg, February 1522, and against Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.
2. Donald L. Miller, The Story of World War II (New York: Simon & Shuster, 2001), 188.
3. Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2008), 394.
4. Ibid., 399.
Chapter 12 Be Discerning
1. Romans 14 speaks of “debatable issues” that Christians should not divide over: “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (Rom. 14:1). Romans 14 is a key chapter on how to maintain unity when discussing debatable issues that one should not break fellowship over.
Chapter 13 Wage War against Discouragement
1. This memorable expression refers to a morass of discouragement, and it comes from Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, 92.
2. Spurgeon, Lectures, 179.
3. Ibid.
4. Fred Meuser, “The Year Luther Quit Preaching,” in Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology, vol. 3, no. 4 (October 1994): 67–68.
5. Spurgeon, Lectures, 179.
6. J. Herbert Kane, The Legacy of J. Hudson Taylor, April 1984, http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/1984-02/1984-02-074-kane.pdf.
7. Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (New York: Dolphin Books, 1961), 378.
8. John Piper, “Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint: Reflections on the Life of William Cowper,” Desiring God, January 29, 1992, http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/insanity-and-spiritual-songs-in-the-soul-of-a-saint.
9. Jonathan Edwards, The Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000), 354.
10. “What Missionaries Ought to Know about Depression,” Missionary Care, accessed July 28, 2016, http://www.missionarycare.com/depression.html.
11. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 20–21.
Chapter 14 Develop and Establish Men as Leaders
1. The most comprehensive defense for this doctrine of male leadership in the church in recent years has been John Piper and Wayne Grudem, eds., Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991). This excellent book thoroughly addresses the key biblical texts relevant to this issue, as well as arguments often made against it.
2. The term elder is interchangeable with “overseer” in Titus 1:6–7 and Acts 20:28.
Chapter 15 Become Supple on Worship
1. This was a famous expression used during the nineteenth century to speak of the worldwide expanse of the British Empire.
2. Willow Creek Community Church was founded in South Barrington, IL, in October 1975 by Bill Hybels. It has been a role model for the “seeker-sensitive” approach to church life in which the entire ministry is geared to making Christianity appealing to unchurched people.
3. Philip Ryken, Derek W. H. Thomas, Ligon Duncan, eds., Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2003), 475.
4. Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 122.
Chapter 16 Embrace the Two Journeys of Disciple-Making
1. Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to someone within our own culture and language. Missions is the proclamation of the same gospel to people from other cultures and languages.
2. Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 177.
3. Tim Keller, The Missional Church, June 2001, http://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/Missional_Church-Keller.pdf: “Some churches certainly carried out evangelism as one ministry among many, but the church in the West had not become completely missional—adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community, and service so as to be engaged with the non-Christian society around it”; quoted by Ed Stetzer, Comeback Churches, 7.
4. Ed Stetzer, “Connecting People to Spiritual Maturity,” in Comeback Churches, 117–30.
5. Matt Branaugh, “Willow Creek’s ‘Huge Shift’: Influential Megachurch Moves Away from Seeker-Sensitive Services,” Christianity Today, May 15, 2008, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/june/5.13.html.
6. Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Christ Jesus is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” No movement of people in church history was as careful and practical as the Puritans in relation to helping people obey this text. They made careful lists of “marks of regeneration” by which people could see if God’s grace had worked savingly in their souls. They usually began with lists of false marks, signs which are no proof either way of genuine conversion. Then they would proceed to various marks that centered around willingness to examine yourself, personal holiness (especially in secret), love for God’s Word, love for Christ, love for God’s people, freedom from habitual sin, perseverance through trials, etc. Joel Beeke and Mark Jones have given a brief overview of these Puritan themes in “The Puritans on Regeneration,” in Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids: Reformed Heritage Books, 2012), 463–80.
7. Davis, Infinite Journey, 31.
8. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Scribner, 1963), 7.
9. A. T. Pierson, George Müller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999), 367.
10. Julia H. Johnstone, Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know (New York: Revell, 1913), 11.
11. JoshuaProject.net; the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board’s website, www.imb.org/pray.