Thousands gathered in the Dallas Market Center in November for three days of preaching, Bible study, and action for social justice.
Justice Revival
For those who came to the Justice Revival's free opening night program (featuring former United Methodist District Superintendent and Texas State House Rep. Dr.
"Dallas needs this."
Those are the two statements Aaron Graham (Sojourners' Justice Revival Coordinator) and I heard over and over again as we visited pastors and other community leaders all over the city, lifting up the vision of a Dallas Justice Revival.
A growing number of Nashville-based Christian musicians are discovering that their faith compels them to play and work for social change.
In The Great Awakening, I wrote,
Imagine something called Justice Revivals, in the powerful tradition of revivals past but focusing on the great moral issues of our time.
Imagine linking the tradition of Billy Graham with the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.
Imagine a new generation of young people catching fire and offering [...]
Last evening, more than 3,500 people filled the Vineyard Church of Columbus for the opening of a three-day Justice Revival.
The Columbus Dispatch front-page headline this morning read " Faithful aim to aid poor, as Jesus did." The [...]
Jim Wallis, in his book The Great Awakening said,
Imagine something called Justice Revivals in the powerful tradition of revivals past, but focusing on the great moral issues of our time. Imagine linking the tradition of Billy Graham with the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Imagine a new generation of young people catching fire and offering their gifts, talents, and lives in a new spiritual movement for social justice. Imagine such revivals taking place in [...]
My dear friend, Ken Wilson, who pastors the Ann Arbor Vineyard, showed me a chart that I found very helpful:
Evangelical |
Charismatic |
Social Justice |
Liturgical |
What has happened in the last generation is that there has been border-blending among the four great movements in [...]
Let me give you an illustration of the difference between the narrow focus of contemporary American evangelicalism and the big focus of the Bible.
D.L. Moody, the great 19th-century evangelist, described his calling and said that he essentially understood the world as being like an ocean liner that hit an iceberg. God had said to him, "Moody, it is your job to pull as many drowning people out of [...]
Social justice is not a distraction from our commitment; it is part and parcel of the gospel of the kingdom. We read in Mark 1:15:
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"
What is the message of the kingdom? Certainly the center of the message is the proclamation that through one's faith in Jesus Christ (the King), a person can be eternally saved. Thus my church regularly calls people to put [...]
I've always wanted to be part of a church that seeks to be and to do everything the New Testament calls the church to be and to do. I've described this kind of church in the past as a holistic church, or a church that works on all eight cylinders. In other words, it is not enough if my church is known as a great worship center, or a great preaching church. The New Testament demands more.
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright gets us right to the heart of the matter when he [...]
During the Second Great Awakening, the fruits of conversion included social reform.