A New Kind of Revival: Young Adults and Ancient Paths

By Moriah Summers

Have you noticed that in the last few years there is an increased interest and discussion on revival among the evangelical world?

As a recent graduate from Greenville University, I witnessed this firsthand. Throughout my years of study, I noticed this emphasis — particularly among guest speakers on campus — who prayed for revival for our campus, our nation, and our world. The recent Asbury revival led to even more attention focused on this phenomenon. As more excitement built within the Christian world, I found myself becoming more and more curious about revival.

After graduating from college, I began working in a small Free Methodist Church in Southern California, all the while holding my questions about revival in the back of my mind. When I started the position, I noticed immediately that there were almost no congregants attending from my age bracket, 20–25 years old. Despite being told for years that my generation was “ripe for revival,” I continued to notice that we are almost nonexistent in the church.

Unfortunately, instead of being rooted in the church, the growing trend is that young adults are finding comfort in other mystical religions or turning to agnosticism/atheism. As I continued to notice this firsthand in my local church, I found myself often thinking about revival and how my generation, despite leaving the church en masse, is somehow expected to become the leaders of this phenomenon. Feeling a responsibility to respond led me on a journey to better understand the history of revival and why the church has specific expectations regarding it for my generation.

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“I wanted to get down to the root of where in Scripture the term ‘revival’ is found and why it has sparked so much attention over centuries.”

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Common Threads

Since the Spirit’s movement in Acts 2, there are many examples of the Spirit “sparking” generations in specific ways, through large-scale occurrences such as the Great Awakening as well as in smaller local church bodies. These occurrences have come to be known in church tradition as “revivals.” While many of these “revival” experiences only span days, some have gone on for decades.

No matter the size or impact, I found that almost all of these movements of the Spirit share a few common threads. These include: charismatic worship experiences, mass conversions, an increased passion for evangelism, and confession/repentance. Despite learning this context, I still did not fully understand the church’s fascination with revival, particularly in the case of my generation today.

Scripture and Tradition

So, like any good Wesleyan, I continued my search for answers by diving into Scripture. I wanted to get down to the root of where in Scripture the term “revival” is found and why it has sparked so much attention over centuries. Due to its emphasis among evangelicals, I really expected to find the word shown crystal clear among the pages of the New Testament. But, to my disappointment, the term “revival” itself was nowhere to be found.

I, on my quest to find answers, decided to turn to church tradition to find the basis of this phenomenon. I found that although the direct term is not specifically mentioned in Scripture, the concept of God calling His people to be “revived” from spiritual death is all over the Good Book. Perhaps the greatest example I found was through the ongoing story in the Old Testament of the nation of Israel turning back to God after a time of intense sin and violence. Often being led by a prophetic witness, the people of God would confess and reorient their attention to the desires of God, being “revived” from a spiritual death.

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“… maybe revival is possible for my generation, just maybe not in the way that the church has been expecting.”

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While studying these examples, I found it interesting that the biblical examples we have on the concept of “revival” did not seem to suggest an extremely emotional or charismatic response by the people (as we might expect). In contrast, these experiences seemed to be practical reorientations of God’s people turning back to Him, focusing on core aspects of faith including: worshipping Yahweh only, ridding the nation of idolatry, caring for the poor, and enacting justice throughout the land.

Despite having some differences between church history and the biblical experiences of revival, I did find a common theme between them. Both shared that, in specific seasons, God calls a group of people through the power of the Spirit to repent and “turn back” to Him. With that in mind, I was finally able to see that maybe revival is possible for my generation, just maybe not in the way that the church has been expecting.

Spiritual Practices

In order to explain how that may play out, I invite you to take a peek into my own experience to better understand my thoughts on the subject. To begin, something you need to know about me is that in the past five years of my life, I have fallen into a deep love with spiritual practices. I meditate on God’s Word, participate in spiritual direction, pray through liturgy, listen to the Word through the practice of Lectio Divina (an ancient prayer practice), and practice the lectionary, while being deeply rooted in a Wesleyan band.

Unfortunately, in the evangelical world, many of these practices that I love are often looked at with suspicion, deemed too traditional, and have been thrown out of the church after being used for centuries to help disciple the people of God. In my own experience, going to a Free Methodist school from an intensely charismatic childhood, I found that I was extremely suspicious of anything that felt too traditional. Thankfully, under the amazing mentorship of my university professors, I was able to learn about and find comfort in these ancient practices that grounded me and connected me to God and the church in ways I had never imagined possible. I noticed that many of my fellow students reacted to these practices in similar ways. As I have seen how these traditions have shaped me personally and how they affect fellow young adults, I have often pondered if they may have a place in revival and transforming my generation.

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“We are tired of being spoon-fed mediocre religion for the sake of being accepted as ‘relevant.’ Being told to read our Bible and pray is just not enough anymore to “spark” us to be transformed.”

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Spiritual Seekers

As I mentioned before, my generation is not in the church. Fortunately, this absence is not from a lack of interest in the “spiritual.” Many young adults desire an escape from this chaotic world, and this has led them to an increased interest in spirituality specifically through ancient means. Practicing meditation, showing interest in Hinduism, and even practicing witchcraft are among some of the means through which young adults are seeking ancient ways to practice their spirituality.

In general, it seems that young adults want to be a part of something greater than themselves, and even more, they want to belong. I personally believe that this is the exact reason that the church sees such a potential for my generation to find God through revival.

Mirroring the World?

Unfortunately, as young adults have continued to search for alternatives to the chaos of the world, the church still attempts to win their favor using similar tactics as their opponents. In what seems like an ongoing competition, evangelicals have been tirelessly competing with the world using the same level of hype, stimulation, and overproduction as their counterparts. With their trendy T-shirts, social media accounts, celebrity pastors, and coffee shops, they have instead offered an exact mirror of what the world looks like. This unfortunately does not offer a ripe environment for the church to respond to the world’s sin through revival as in times of the past.

If revivals stem from a response in direct opposition to the world’s corrupt nature, it makes sense that our churches — full of idolatry, performance, and self-promotion — are failing to “spark” this generation. For us few young adults left in the church, we are fighting to be heard about this issue, sharing with our leaders our hunger for God, sharing that surface-level relationships (both with God and one another) just do not work for us anymore. We are tired of being spoon-fed mediocre religion for the sake of being accepted as “relevant.” Being told to read our Bible and pray is just not enough anymore to “spark” us to be transformed.

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“If the church is not healed — if we do not repent from our idolatry of being relevant — then revival will never happen…”

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Rooted and Grounded

In a world where we see too much, hear too much, and feel too much, we need something more, something deeper, even ancient, inviting us to God. We desire to be connected and grounded to a God larger than ourselves, and to the saints that went before us. We want to participate in God’s grand narrative, not just being a bystander to the here and now. In a world that is self-obsessed, we crave submitting our own desires of worship, and in turn, accept what brings God honor. More than just emotional experiences, we want to be deeply rooted in the Word and Spirit of God.

This call to a grounded spirituality is what I believe will be required from Christianity in order for a revival to take place in this generation.

If the church is not healed — if we do not repent from our idolatry of being relevant — then revival will never happen, at least not for young adults in the West. If the church keeps expecting the Holy Spirit to use the same methods as used throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to “spark” us to transformation, I’m afraid we may be disappointed. Perhaps, the Lord is instead calling us, the church, to be active participants in revival: providing ancient and rooted spiritual practices inviting this mystic-inspired generation into transformation.

The great news is that the Free Methodist Church is an impeccable breeding ground for this kind of new revival. Our roots have strong traditions and practices that are foundational to the Christian life. If we follow in Wesley’s steps to provide spaces for discipleship, as well as teach spiritual practices, I believe that revival will come. This may not look like all-night worship services that last weeks (although we cannot rule out that possibility). Revival may simply look like a mass return from exile, for my generation, to a place of refuge, an “other” to this world’s constant chaos. Revival may look like young adults being invited back to the God who is deeply concerned with loving and knowing us in intimate ways as shown through the story of the prodigal son.

Ancient Paths

When discussing this idea with my dearest friend, Pastor Kari Morris-Guzman, an avid lover of spiritual practices, she reminded me of the beautiful words shared in Jeremiah 6:16. “Thus says the LORD: Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (NRSV)

This word from Jeremiah shares a message directly from God to a people experiencing a deep need to turn back to Him. The text seemed to share that in God’s view, the “ancient paths” offer a good way for humanity to reorient one’s attention to the heart of God. What excites me is that my generation is hungry for this kind of communal experience. But is the church? Are we ready to lay down our expectations, assumptions, even our own longings, in exchange for excitement/participation in what God might do?

The text from Jeremiah shares a warning for us as well. It says, “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

Church, I pray that we will not take this approach. As you have read about my own journey and research, I pray and hope that you will at least ponder that “A New Kind of Revival” has, at the very least, the potential to take place in our world. We, as the church, can see this as an opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit to do a “new work,” inviting ancient tools as a guiding help, or we can choose to ignore it and walk our own way. It is up to each of us to decide how to participate. I pray that we may approach this humbly and prayerfully.

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