Third Great Awakening

Many, including me, are praying for a Third Great Awakening in our world. This will be different than the previous Great Awakenings in the history of America as it will be a global awakening.

What will also be different is that it will not be primarily in the West. I have come to believe the next Awakening will be an Eastern and Southern event. It will come forth out of places like China where faith is burning in small groups where Christians are persecuted. Or, how about the great work occurring in the Philippines. It will come from places like Africa where the church is growing like in the Book of Acts. Thank God for these movements of Christ in our world.

We have witnessed, most among the oldline churches, many people afraid of this movement of God because in typical modernist fashion it has been turned into a dualistic debate between liberals and conservatives (the flourishing churches in other parts of the world are typically more conservative and thus kept out of denominational structure and leadership by the typically more liberal oldline leadership in the West for fear that these developing churches might threaten protected theological positions). We see this in both the UMC and the Episcopal Church.

We do well to recognize that our unity comes in the statement that "Jesus is Lord" and not through any named theological camp be it liberal or conservative.