The Story A year ago I was discouraged. We had just had a frustrating SBC Annual meeting in Anaheim, CA. Our Nation was struggling morally and financially (still is!). I felt as though our local church, Perryville Second Baptist, had not responded properly to COVID-19 and was ultimately, under my lacking leadership, failing to implement … Read more
W.B. Sprague’s 1832 work, Lectures on Revival, is a helpful book in thinking trough the subject of revival. Charles Simeon called it, “A most valuable book…I recommend the good sense of Dr. Sprague In his third lecture, Sprague lays out six obstacles to revival.[1] They are as follows, Ignorance or Misapprehension of the nature of … Read more
I had the privilege recently of reading William Buell Sprague’s 1832 book* Lectures on Revivals of Religion. This work is a series of 9 lectures that Dr. Sprague gives defending the biblical warrant for revival and instructing churches on how to promote true revival and guard against counterfeits. This post focuses on lectures 6 and 7. … Read more
In God’s kind providence, it was a biblical understanding of the great doctrine of regeneration that birthed (I’m not sure if I’m intending the pun or not) the evangelical movement of the 18th century. Sadly, it is also a misunderstanding and underemphasis of this doctrine that has contributed to the unraveling of evangelicalism in the … Read more
Holiness of life and true revival can not be separated. A so-called “revival” that does not produce holiness is not a work of the Holy Spirit. Here we may offer an important reminder that true revival cannot be manufactured by men. The sign that says “revival next week” doesn’t really communicate what true revival is for true revival is God-sent and according to His plans and purposes, not ours.