These two Democratic cities drew 80,000 Christians within a two-week period; Megachurch, Athey Creek Church in Portland’s Moda Center held the PDX Crusade, with 35,000 attendees on August 2nd & 3rd,
and in Los Angeles’ Angel Stadium, evangelist Greg Laurie held the Harvest Crusade where 45,000 attended on July 19th.
Have you attended? What are your thoughts?
The last real revival America, the "Jesus Revolution," may have started in California, but did not stay there. This was a national event, that flared up spontaneously in many places across the USA. Millions of young people came to the Lord in far less formal settings. Home meetings. Personal conversations. Occasional "power encounters," such as the evening when a team I know dropped in on a black arts haven. Music, community, and informality were big deals. God was really there, and really met us where we really were. We dıd not need to dress up ın fancy costumes and put on artificial voices when praying. And we did not need to hire professional orators to do our evangelism for us.
It was a supernatural moment of openness to the Gospel, when people suddenly found themselves intrigued by "the Man from Galilee."
Like most revivals, it ended as suddenly as it began, and left our nation worse off than it was before. At least to human perceptions. The "man in the street" had lost confidence in our nation's political leaders. When ramming through Roe v. Wade, "our" "leaders" pronounced a death sentence upon their own "moral" order. The USA lost its "metaphysical dream," its raison d'etre, its justification for its own existence.
OTOH, millions of real conversions led to the rise of the independent charismatic churches which now represent the default mode of living Protestant Christianity. ("mainline" churches don't count, since they usually serve a different deity, the Status Quo) Christian Reconstruction began to gain traction, and the home schooling movement picked up the baton for responsible, active, Christian living.
Responsible, active, Christian living energized the Jesus Freaks. The idea that we should pay professionals to "do" our Christianity for us just did not compute. How could we not share the living Christ Who had so transformed our lives? This made a real contrast between us and the "church Christians," who tried to box God into "special" places at "special" times and under the control of "special" people. The typical Jesus Freak was assertive, confident, brash. The typical "church Christian" was mousy, timid, demure, and totally useless for Christian witness if you got him out from under the steeple. Or so it seemed to us, back then.
So -- as things wound down, and people relapsed into the passive spectator mode, the establishment's court jester pronounced the Jesus Revolution's obituary. The Great Apostle of the Status Quo gave the movement his patronizing imprimatur and token pat on the head. A threat to the accepted order had been neutered, domesticated, and brought back into harness.
Or so it seemed to "our betters." Who did not notice an ArmEnian Calvinist who wrote more books of real substance than all the stuff the Wheaton Mafia published. Who did not notice as a small but crucial Reformation got underway, under their radar.
God is still at work. Many of us who were there in 1970 now pray, along with Jim Laffoon, "O God, do it again, please. And this time, we'll know what to do." Starting with hooting the fortune-tellers off the stage, and burning all their sinister boo-talk books, for example!
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@Dr_S, Yes, it would be wonderful if this started a new “movement of faith”.
This generation has started off with technology that was not conceived of in my youth; information overload from our modern age, where you can store the bible in 5 languages on your watch.