The Awakening
The Awakening
by
Bryan Craig
“The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11
We are over a month into this strange season of quarantine, social distancing, economic uncertainty, and it is creating a definite restlessness in people everywhere. You, like me, are probably trying to make sense of this in your own soul and with the Lord. The other day, Rocky mentioned something about an “Awakening” occurring in the Body of Christ. Also, one of my Journey guys last week talked about the last “Great Awakening” that happened in America, back in 1857. A businessman in NYC, Jeremy Lanphier, felt a calling to Prayer for all the problems he saw in America. He called a weekly prayer meeting on September 23, 1857 and rented a Hall for its purpose. At first, only 6 people answered the call, but by the third week, 40 people gathered, and they urged Lanphier to begin meeting daily. Then, on October 10, 1847, the Stock Market crashed and many more joined these prayer meetings. Within 6 months, 10,000 people joined the prayer meetings in NYC, but this calling to prayer was also spreading across the United States and even in other countries. Thousands of people were gathering Daily in cities to pray, led not by pastors but by ordinary believers. It was a phenomenon, a “revival”, which was extensively covered by the media of that day and goes down in history as the 3rd “Great Awakening” in the history of the United States. Here are some of the results: All classes became interested in salvation, backsliders returned, conversions increased, and Christians desired a deeper instruction in spiritual truths. Families established daily devotions, and entire communities underwent a noticeable change in morals. Preaching, which in many places had become intellectual and lifeless, now concentrated on the truths of the gospel of Christ and His cross. As James Buchanan of Scotland summarized, it was a time when "new spiritual life was imparted to the dead, and new spiritual health imparted to the living." Taken from an article on Christianity.com I hope this inspires you as it does me. But that was in 1847! Well, I agree with Rocky that we are seeing an Awakening in our day. Let me make a connection for you to Influencers.
In 2005, I was a small business owner and part of a leadership team of laymen who were planning a Promise Keepers conference at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR. For a few years, I was driving over from Tulsa to Northwest Arkansas 2-3 days a week, meeting with Christian business leaders who were praying and planning for this event. In all of these meetings, the most impactful were the Prayer meetings, held in a little prayer cottage on the grounds of Dayspring Greeting Cards, led by 2 marketplace ministers, Don Leetch and Dean Kerns, founders of Dayspring.
These extended times of prayer were powerful and unlike anything I had ever experienced. Interestingly, Promise Keepers’ conference theme for 2005 was “The Awakening” and in our prayer times, there was a strong sense in the Spirit that God wanted to create a Revival in America. Even more specific, there was a sense that God was going to do this in the marketplace AND that Northwest Arkansas played a big part. Much attention was drawn to the fact that Northwest Arkansas was the home to the largest company in the world (Walmart), the largest meat producer in the world (Tyson Foods) and the largest transportation company in America (J.B. Hunt). And these businesses had tentacles that extended around the world.
All of this talk and prayer mesmerized me, though I had no idea how this might happen. Would it all begin at a Promise Keepers conference in Razorback stadium? Or maybe it was happening, like the one in 1857, out of a small prayer meeting? Or out of a small gathering of 7 businessmen meeting to Seek and Abide in Christ?
At the exact time all of this was happening, another marketplace minister, Rocky Fleming, was 4 years into the beginning of a little ministry called, Influencers, also in Northwest Arkansas. The Promise Keeper conference in 2005 came and went, and it was okay, but it truly was just another event. However, a few months after the event, I was invited to a meeting where they were starting a new discipleship process called “The Journey.” It was in the fall of 2005 that I met Rocky, and he invited me to lead a Journey Group in my hometown of Tulsa, OK.
Not only did I help start the first Journey group in Tulsa in 2006, I became part of a “movement”, a “revival”, an “Awakening” in the body of Christ. I’ve been an eyewitness to thousands of men and women discovering an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. I’ve seen many of the benefits described of that Awakening in 1857…backsliders returning, conversions increasing, daily devotions increasing, noticeable change in morals, ministers coming to life, families coming to Christ, and new spiritual life imparted to the dead and new spiritual health imparted to the living.
So, the inspirations I heard in those prayer gatherings that surrounded the PK event are making more sense to me now. I believe Influencers has played a big role in an Awakening that has been occurring for the past 20 years. It has been under the radar screen in most Christian circles, but it is beginning to gain momentum and become noticed.
NOW, in the midst of this pandemic, God appears to be shaking and awaking people in an even greater way. This is what is on my heart:
- Let’s PRAY, individually, regionally and globally for this Awakening and how Influencers can meet the needs of seeking believers.
- If you are an Influencer, consider your role in this Awakening. We will need many, many Guides to help the flood of awakened individuals find the path to an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ.
- Let’s think outside of the box, using creativity and technology to make Disciples through The Journey.
- Let me know if God is asking you to lead a Journey Group, no matter if you’ve never guided or don’t feel qualified. Or maybe you guided a group in the past and have moved on for whatever reason. Could he be Awakening you to answer this call?
- We’re praying for at least 100 new Guides be raised up by this Fall who will mostly be guiding groups via Zoom. These will be virtual groups which can allow people from anywhere in the world to join. We are building a Guide training team right now to train these new guides.