“Praying for revival equates to blaming God for the condition of your local church,” read one of the tweets Andy Stanley sent out on June 10, around the time the Southern Baptist Convention was calling for a major spiritual revival.
But when Christian Post asked him to define “revival,” he admitted he was referring to local-scale revival—not Great Awakening-type revival.
His other controversial messages over Twitter included:
- “Instead of praying for revival leaders of the SBC should go spend three weeks with @perrynoble Why pray for one when you can go watch one.”
- “Why not call the Church to pray for the things Jesus & New Testament writers prayed for? Why add Revival to the list?”
- “Churches that need reviving most are the very churches that resist it most.”
He told the news outlet, “I can understand the confusion and I definitely contributed to it.”
According to his clarification, Stanley was commenting on how local churches often let the terminology of revival stand as an excuse for not implementing very practical ministry changes that would allow them to reach their communities.
At the same time, he also noted that it’s not “either/or” when it comes to local church planning and leadership versus the role of the Holy Spirit.
“That’s why there’s nothing like the local church. How do you say all that in 140 characters?”
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