Leading for Awakening

By Michael Forney

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6)

It was a moment I will never forget. Standing at the pulpit before the service, I began praying in desperation for God to show up. I had nothing left to give. I was supposed to preach on the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, but I could not have felt more drained. I was completely exhausted from a weekend where everything had gone sideways.

It was my first vocational ministry assignment. I was an eager 21-year-old youth pastor just finishing Bible college who had visions of changing the world with life-changing sermons and transformative altar calls. Yet, I stood there defeated — overcome by 15 junior high students.

We had just returned from a weekend camping trip; two chaperones had been no-shows to the campsite. This was before cell phones. I was the lone adult. Since the kids had been dropped off there, I had no way of taking them all back to civilization in my car and certainly could not leave them. Most of the kids were not from Christian homes, and I had hoped this trip would be a spiritual highlight where they all came to Jesus. Instead, they barely listened to my sermons, and they did not respond positively to invitations to follow Jesus. It was all I could do to keep them from getting into trouble.

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“The kids’ hearts were hard, and they were uninterested in just about anything I had to say.”

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I was up all night for two straight nights trying to keep them from sneaking about. We ran short of food. It rained hard the second night, and a tent flooded. The kids’ hearts were hard, and they were uninterested in just about anything I had to say. I was finally rescued as we were picked up to return to the church. The grand finale was for me to preach to the congregation and share stories of the life-changing trip.

Instead, I was exhausted in every way. Discouraged and defeated, I prayed in desperation. I confessed to God that I had nothing to give and surrendered to Him. I asked Him to be made strong in my weakness and show Himself to these students and to the congregation. Just before the service started, an older lady in the church made her way to the front, patted me on the arm and said, “Don’t worry. God hears you. The power is on its way.” I looked up and thanked her, not believing it for a second.

As we began to worship in song, I felt wave after wave of the Spirit wash over me. I don’t really remember what I preached, but I will never forget those 15 students responding first to the altar call and weeping as they invited Jesus to lead their lives. It felt surreal and exhilarating. I knew that it was not something I had done, but what God had done in response to prayer and surrender.

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“We experienced a mini awakening in our church and community.”

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The work of God that night changed me. It changed how I understood leadership. Before that night, all the wisdom I could muster and talent I could offer had not moved the hearts of those students. After that night, they were hungry to know more and pushed me to disciple them and lead them closer to Jesus. Our youth group and church grew numerically and spiritually as we saw God transform the lives of so many. We experienced a mini awakening in our church and community.

Reflecting on that experience, here are some things I gleaned about leading awakening:

1) Place your trust in Jesus, not yourself.

Proverbs 3:5-7a tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; don’t rely on your own intelligence. Know him in all your paths, and he will keep your ways straight. Don’t consider yourself wise” (CEB).

Why is it that often we must come to the end of ourselves before we are willing to surrender fully to Jesus? Why is it that we must be at a loss as to what to do before we are willing to confess our own inability to address the challenge?

We are at that place now, and we need awakening. The church in the U.S. has been in a decline for decades, and the decline seems to have been accelerated. The past few years have significantly changed how people engage in church and have caused many to reevaluate their beliefs and how they practice their faith. We are just beginning to realize the true impacts of these shifts. Pastors are reporting that people seem to be gathering in person less frequently, serving and giving less, and accepting digital engagement as a more significant pillar of their faith practice. Researchers are predicting people in the U.S. population who identify as Christian will drop to 35% of the overall population by 2070 as the observable decline seems to be accelerating.

We are unable to address the moment in our own wisdom and strength, but we are not limited to ourselves. As the people of God, we have the Holy Spirit within us and if we surrender, put our trust in Jesus, and lean into the Spirit, perhaps we will see an awakening again. We know it is “neither by power, nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6 CEB). As leaders, we must let go of our need to bring the solution and be the first to follow the leading of the Spirit in surrender and to put our trust in Jesus.

2) Pray in earnest.

Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT).

Why is it that we tend to pray only after we have exhausted our own efforts? Why is it that we worry about so many things, but pray about so few?

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“If we want to see an awakening in our time, we must become a people who pray.”

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God answers prayer. Prayer is not the least we can do; it is the best we can do. The Scripture is full of encouragement for us to pray and ask God for what we need. Even if we are weak and don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-27). If we want to see an awakening in our time, we must become a people who pray. Our people have lost the art of corporate prayer. As leaders we must model personal prayer and corporate prayer.

In my experience, building a culture of prayer in the church takes time and is often lonely at first. Every church or ministry I have led, I have started first working to build a culture of prayer. Often at the prayer meetings, I was the only one to show up in the beginning, and I prayed in earnest. After several months, one or two more would join. Usually by the end of the first year, the prayer meetings would have robust attendance, and we would start to see answers to prayer in the transformed lives of people in our church and community. God answers prayer and does what only He can do in response. James tells us we do not have because we do not ask God (James 4:2). We can pray, and, when we pray, God responds.

As we enter this year, ask God to kindle the fires of awakening. Let’s pray that God will do what only He can do. Let’s lead our people in trusting surrender to Jesus and in prayer. My prayer for the church is that God will do something so profound, it will be obvious to all that God has done it. May the report of those observing our churches this year — and in the years to come — be amazement at what the Lord has done in the churches and community to which we are called. Lord, awaken us.

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