Awaken

Awaken: the Lord is doing a new thing, Anne Calver & John McGinley, Influence Resources, 2025, 261pp, £14.99,

There is a decent amount of evidence that Britain is experiencing something of a revival.  Its noticeable in research, in responses to surveys and in sales of Bibles.  Now, there is plenty of evidence about that says we are in nothing like a revival.  But, this doesn’t quite negate the data that points to this possibility.  So, I wonder….  What if we were heading into days of revival?  Would we notice?  Would it impact us?  Would it pass us by?

Its against that backdrop that Awaken is written.  The book is an attempt ‘to try to articulate how God awakens his people, and what he is saying to his church today’ (p37).  I am usually fairly doubtful about words of prophecy claimed today.  I imagine many reading this will be the same.  But I don’t exclude the possibility that we are entering into new days, and if so I want to understand and to be caught up in what God is doing.  So, I wanted to read this text by two well known and respected British church leaders (from Baptist and Church of England perspectives).

I didn’t warm to everything in this book but if we only read and talk to those we agree with, we end up in an echo chamber and never learn.  So, with that perspective this text is well worth reading.  The chapter on personal revival is challenging and in particular a final question about revival meaning large numbers join your church and everything changes.  With the best will in the world, many of us are a tad complacent, and that includes me.  We know the danger of focusing on religion more than relationship.  We do know this, but I wonder if our lives and local church really displays that we know this.  Are we well equipped to welcome new people, and allow our church to change?

Is it time for new leadership (chapter seven)?  In Irish Methodism our ministers are normally pastor/teachers.  They are not normally evangelists or church planters.  When we get to what we might call our senior leaders, we often find good managers.  We rarely find prophets.  Our norms worked well in Christendom, but we are a long time beyond that now and so it could be we are being challenged to find new ways to lead that are relevant to the era, to our church and perhaps to what God is wanting to do among us.

Do we need new wineskins, or new ways of being church and organising ourselves (chapter eight)?  My personal answer is absolutely yes and we have examples, although getting to there is challenging.  So, I did find this chapter more comfortable reading as it points us to the need to adapt, have different focus and renew ourselves.

This is a good book and well worth reading as its somewhat challenging.  And perhaps now is the exact moment we need to be moved from a level of complacency so that we are better equipped to join in with what God may very well be doing.

Rev’d Dr Stephen Skuce
Superintendent for Growing Churches
The Methodist Church in Ireland