Cities and Communities Conference Call
September 20, 2007
Topic: The Coming Christ Awakening and City Transformation
Guest: Dr. David Bryant
Host: Rev. Glenn Barth – President of GoodCities
Co-Host: Phil Miglioratti – National Facilitator of City/Community Ministries - MAC
Phil welcomed early callers, and asked Neil Cox to lead in prayer.
Announcements:
► Next Call: September 20, 2007 – Researcher Michael Lindsay works with George Gallup, Jr. and is a close friend of Jarvis Ward
► Mission America Coalition Meeting in October 9-11 in Kansas City. Registration is still open. Early registration and reduced hotel rate expires this weekend. www.MissionAmerica.org
► Intercultural Leadership Consultation –New England Regional CIR at Grace Chapel, Lexington, MA October 20. Emmanuel Gospel Center has documented immigrant groups coming to the U.S. and how they impact their countries of origin.
► CIR 2008 – Boston, MA – April 14-16, 2008
► Paradise 08 May 25, 2008 in Paradise, KS
Glenn introduced Dr. David Bryant, President of Proclaim Hope and former Chairman of America's National Prayer Committee, Chairman of Paradise 08, a Christ-proclaiming event being planned for Paradise, Kansas May 25. He has authored a number of books, his most recent being Christ is All!, an inspirational book that points the church to the centrality of Christ in all of life.
Currently he lives with his wife, Robyn, in Metro New York City, actually in NJ, where he ministers among a wide range of churches and denominations … always casting a vision toward fostering "a nationwide Christ-awakening movement" through prayer and a focus on Christ as sovereign King. Please welcome our friend, Dr. David Bryant.
Interview:
Glenn: David, would you tell us briefly, what is a "Christ-Awakening"?
David: I feel I know many of you on the call. When Neil prayed recently he said, “Lord Jesus, I know you are on this call.” That sent chills up my back. It’s great to be with you all. Let me tell you a couple of quick stories that illustrate that Christ is All. I read a recent Newsweek article talking about origins of the Christian movement in North Korea. The gospel had such an impact that ¬¬¬¬ Pujon was called the Jerusalem of the East. When the war came, thousands of Christians fled the north and went to South Korea. The founder of the Communist movement in North Korea, the older one, grew up in the home of a deeply committed Christian family. What happened 100 years ago in Pujon is a picture of what happens when Christ becomes the center of the city.
Another illustration, I am reading a new book that came out, Come, Be My Light, about Mother Teresa. There was a front cover story in Time Magazine, essentially about her work in Calcutta. I have been there; I spent part of a day with her and got to see what the Sisters of Charity are doing. She had a Christ-awakening on a train in 1946. Christ appeared to her and said, “Come, be my light. Become one of the poor in Calcutta.” She gave up her teaching and moved to Calcutta. This book is a compilation of her letters over fifty years. Her life motto was “For Jesus and for souls.” She planted herself among the poor for the poor. I can tell you there are transformations going on in Calcutta as a result of her testimony of Christ, what his kingdom was all about, and thousands of others joined her in that impact. God wants us to join him beyond those stories, in an impending Christ-awakening.
Glenn: When we think about a Christ-awakening -- recognizing who Jesus Christ is and what it might mean personally, how we live for Christ. In a time when the church appears to be well fed in congregations that are growing, still the impact of people’s lives really living for Jesus, changing the world they live in, isn’t readily evident. Why do you believe it is imminent or impending?
David: We all want to see our cities not only come alive in Christ, where he becomes major topic of conversation, but the life of Christ ministering in all the different spheres. My challenge to you is: Go to church the next three Sundays, and while there, try not to talk to anyone; just listen. What are you hearing Christians talk to each other about? How often do I even hear the name of Jesus mentioned? You’ll be shocked. I’ve done this for the past five years. I’ve gotten answers back from Christians all over the country. They report that even in their denominational meetings “We aren’t even talking about Jesus.” If you do hear them talking about Jesus, do you hear them talking about something exciting, hopeful, that they’ve got to share it. If we aren’t sharing Christ with each other, there cannot be kingdom transformation until there is a transformation inside the church, and Jesus becomes the focus of our attention. Why do I believe it’s imminent? My conviction after traveling extensively is that the church is at a crucial crossroads. The Father knows this, and if he doesn’t re-convert his people back to his Son for all that he really is, there is no other direction the church can go, no matter how big the numbers are. Remember the description of Sardis in Rev. 3: I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. The next words are, “Wake up!” May I bring a brief word from your sponsor. If you go to my website, www.ProclaimHope.com . Look for audio messages from David Bryant on the left. Click on the first message, Seven Irrefutable Reasons I Believe We are on the Verge of a Major Christ-Awakening. I preached that message at Grace Church in Minneapolis. Pastor Daniel Henderson said it is a most important message that must be heard in America. I believe there are sound reasons that God is moving with his people. I won’t go into those seven reasons, but the church is at an important crossroads, what I call the centrality, the supremacy of Christ. That is a huge shift, and if that doesn’t happen, there won’t be transformation in cities.
Glenn: I came to know Christ out of the Jesus Movement in the 70s. I first understood the good news through The 4 Spiritual Laws. I went into ministry and began to preach about Jesus. Feedback from the people was, “We’re not used to someone talking about Jesus as much as you do.” It was a shock to me – that kind of response. They thought they were good Christians, living well, but they weren’t used to talking about Jesus.
David: I was pastoring through that time as well, and preaching on the centrality of Christ. The new awakening is about the supremacy of Christ. I began to see something about Him that makes me want to be centered in Christ. Frankly, we need laborers. We need to see God’s people mobilized to reach the cities. It won’t happen until God’s people get turned around, re-converted, see themselves as there for Him, not Him there for me. Then we’ll see it in education, the social realm, etc. throughout our cities.
Glenn: (noting Bryant’s passion) David, are you excited about this?
David: It’s like Christmas Eve. Go look at that message 7 Irrefutable Reasons at www.proclaimhope.com
Glenn: How do you see it impacting efforts toward city-reaching and community transformation? That is what this call is all about. We need to hear from you specific ways city reachers and those facilitating city strategies like the marketplace, can take the message of Christ into the heart of their work.
David: Let’s not forget historical events where cities turned upside down. Jerusalem, then Antioch, where Christ followers were first called Christians, which literally means the party of Christ, as pagans described the word Christian. In Acts 19, from Ephesus all the province of Asia heard of Christ within two years. The Asia Minor impact is what turned Ephesus upside down. Scripture shows what happens when there is a Christ awakening. We celebrate the businessmen’s prayer revival this weekend. I’ve been reading on this. I had a course at Fuller Seminary under J. Edwin Orr, read books by Timothy Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform. I’ve done more study since then. Listen, you’ll love this. The New York Times, just in time for this celebration, three months ago put all their archives in digital form. There are over 80 separate articles, beginning in 1857 up to 20th century, reporting on the impact that the prayer movement had on the total life of the city. In the first two years, so many were becoming Christians that the New York Times daily published their names in the business section. The overflow of that great awakening touched the entire city, every aspect of the city. It ministered to the poor, changed the business community. What is the impact of transformation today? It gives us new hope for what God can do, new unity in the body. Now it’s all about Christ supremacy, not about denominations. It creates an attractiveness of Christ that can permeate our city. In the last couple of years, I have changed the motto of the Mission America Coalition, out of the Lausanne Movement: The whole church taking whole gospel to whole city and beyond. I’ve added two words: The whole church focused on the whole Christ taking the whole gospel to the whole city. When we get the city focused on the whole Christ we’ll see change.
Glenn: I think Colossae came out of Ephesus. Paul didn’t visit Colossae, but wrote the epistle that exalts Christ. Phil, would you facilitate the question and answer time?
Question & Answer
Phil Miglioratti, Chicago: Paradise, this event coming up. Do you see that connected with the things you have talked about?
David: Oh, yes. It’s the reason I’m chairing the board for Paradise, quite simply. Historically, most of the great awakenings in past years have been speared by youth. What we’re hearing from youth leaders, among high school and college leaders, there is something changing in their passion for Christ. There are tremors that there may be something of a spiritual earthquake. Reports have been coming from a core group of young people who want to be wholly given over to the supremacy of Christ. They don’t all call it that, but the idea has surfaced that if we can call together that core group, hundreds of thousands from colleges and churches. We call it a journey. Go to www.Paradise08.com You’ll see a whole curriculum of Bible studies, U-tube, wiki stuff. It’s where kids are today. So it’s a journey to help students grow their vision of the glory of Christ and then assemble before The King, Paradise is the geodetic center of the U.S. It is a small town of 35 houses. There is a small field in exact center of the nation. On the second day of Memorial weekend a multitude of students will gather for a day of undistracted worship. There will be no one on platform, musicians leading, scripture, reciting prayers, small prayer groups, and times of silence. No one will be highlighted, no one paid, no one selling anything. Just a throne in the center of the field, imagining Jesus on the throne, spending the whole day. We believe God will be pleased to use that one day in some sense like a tipping point, something to usher in students with a passion for Christ to impact our churches. Many of us have been praying for this for many years. Paradise does not have to be the answer, but we believe God can use it. Over 100 Christian leaders are involved. We believe this is the hour.
Phil: You keep mentioning students. Is it just for students?
David: Right now Moms in Touch plans to mobilize mothers to bring their students. This is for the 15-24 age. Mothers will be outside the field praying for the students in the middle. There is room for 300,000 students. There will be adults there – youth pastors especially, bringing bus loads. We see the primary impact being on cities, as youth from those cities travel together to and from Paradise, and become a base of operations for the church in their city.
George Ordway, Fresno: I wonder if this is what happened to the prayer summits over the years. They have dramatically impacted Fresno.
David: I’ve been tracking with prayer summits since their inception. I worked with Joe Aldrich on the first prayer summit. The prayer summit is definitely one of the major streams that is focusing in this direction. I often say, “listen.” There are thousands, probably millions of prayers that have ascended to the throne, crying out the living God – that is a Christ awakening. God won’t ignore those prayers. This prayer movement in our nation is not of human origin. It is of Spirit of God. If God has stirred his people to pray this long, he has not done it to deceive us. If it isn’t Paradise, He’ll find another way. If for no other reason, wouldn’t it be just like God to grab these young people, teenagers, to bring to adults the transformation we are so anxious to see
George: I had interaction with some others about how to engage more men in large churches. We tripped on conflict - the church is for the saints (this came from an elder). It cut across my heart, and I spent some time with Jesus and wrote out three pages, I was so agitated about it. We’ve lost the centrality of Christ.
David: That’s a good observation. If you get my book, you’ll see that I’m trying to get people to move from that concept. We’re talking about supremacy, our church being the center of where Christ is. People then cannot say the church is only for the saints. The church is for Christ and what he’s up to, and that’s more than just blessing the saints.
Pat Allen, Dallas: This has started to happen with some young people. Our two daughters are experiencing some of this new freshness of Christ. They are frustrated with the church. They want to pull away and go out in the streets. They feel alive and feel the church is dead. For them, how can young people bring us older ones into that? What mechanism is there for them to generate this and spark a fire within the rest of the church?
David: Those young people need to know they are not alone. The spiritual DNA in them is being raised up by the Spirit of God in hundreds of thousands of others across the nation. This wiki site will allow kids to talk together across the nation about how they are making Christ central. They will discover they are not alone when your kids interact with others in Boston and Seattle. There are some great ideas percolating now. When they get to that field and see without distraction how great Jesus is and how many others feel that way, they will go back to their churches and become messengers of hope. They can infect the church as only young people can with the vision that will be growing. They will become key to mobilizing our churches into work of transforming our cities. I believe God has a strategy that is biblical, historical, as ready to happen now as the Jesus Movement back then. I’ve said to mothers across the country, “twenty years ago you began praying for an awakening in this nation. God is raising up children born since you started praying. Answers to your prayers have fully grown to be the fulfillment of those answers.”
Larry DeWitt, CA: This is more a confirmation, an affirmation. When you said how often is Jesus Christ mentioned in church? So much of praise music and all of it is about God in a generic way, but no specific mention like Colossians 1 that Jesus is the center.
David: I’ve don’t want anyone to feel condemned, but if we aren’t sharing more and more of Christ because we love him and are discovering more about him and want others to love him more, should we be surprised pagans in our city don’t know about Christ. We won’t be sharing with pagans if we don’t share with each other. Let’s practice on each other. When you go to church, take something you’ve discovered about Christ in the previous week, find one other who believes and share something God has shown you about his Son. Faith comes by hearing, but what is hearing ? Faith comes by hearing the message of Christos – his name means supreme. When we hear more about him, who he is and what he is doing, then we’ll have an army with us in city transformation. It’s got to begin in the people of God and how they see Jesus.
Sherry Lorentzen, Seattle: I so appreciate you every time I hear you. Just Tuesday I had an opportunity on a steering committee for a huge event to address this issue again. Instead of the motivation of our work, we need to get back to Jesus. So just hearing you again and hearing all the power and passion and fire for the Lord within you makes me want to weep and jump for joy at the same time.
David: As you were talking, I remembered I got a letter from a pastor. He had purchased copies of Christ is All so there was one in every pew. Every Sunday morning he has them open to certain pages and read a paragraph about who Jesus is. He said “I’m going to make sure this gets into the worship life of our people, so they read it responsively or in unison.”
There was an interruption of loud music on the call.
Glenn: We thank you so much for proclaiming hope among us. I’m sorry someone had to interrupt with loud music.
David: Let me read one little thing. Jeremiah Lanphier published one book re: fifty years with the prayer movement in New York. The title is Alone with Jesus. On page 82 he said:
Christ is the text; and all preaching beside Christ, is beside the text; therefore, keep to your text.
Christ is the very foundation and subject matter of preaching; and preaching without Christ is building castles in the air.
Christ is the life and soul of preaching; and all preaching without him is like a body without life and spirit.
Christ is the great end of preaching; preaching is to manifest his glory; and when Christ is not preached, the great end is lost.
Try substituting "City Transformation" for "preaching" and see what you think.
Glenn: Thank you so much, David, for taking this hour with us and helping us focus on the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
Closing Announcements:
October 18th call – Community Researcher Michael Lindsay.
Don’t forget MAC meeting. Register for that at www.missionamerica.org.
Closing Prayer - David: Father, I ask you to do again in every city what you did in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, and Thessalonica. We have the record of what happens when Christ’s supremacy becomes the dominant theme of people in the city. We are absolutely convinced you are able to do again, you are willing to do again, and you are ready to do again. I pray for these who are laying down their lives for their cities. Encourage them this day, give them passion, great hope, keep them faithful and persevering. We bless you ahead of time for what is going to happen. Amen
The day after the call, David Bryant sent this email message:
Greetings to all my CIR friends! We just finished the September conference call. At the end I read some words from Jeremiah Lanphier (who was God's catalyst for the Businessmen's Prayer Revival that began in 1857). I had already shared on the call, based on over 80 articles in the archives of the New York Times from the 1800s, how this "Third Great Awakening" had profound impact on the total life of New York, as well as on cities around the world. I also told everyone that this weekend a multitude will be here in NYC to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the launch point of this phenomenal revival -- a 30 minute noontime prayer meeting on September 23, 1857, with just 6 marketplace Christians.
I would call such a movement a "Christ-awakening movement". I think Lanphier would agree. In fact, about 1870 he published a book of meditations on what God was doing in the movement titled ALONE WITH JESUS. On the phone call I read 4 sentences from page 82, which Glenn Barth asked me to type up and send to all of you. In these words Lanphier is focuses specifically on "preaching". But what I suggested to everyone is that we could substitute the phrase 'City Transformation" for the word "preaching" in each statement, and we would have a great summary of the vision we explored for a full hour on the phone call this morning. So consider the convictions of another city-reacher:
Christ is the text; and all preaching beside Christ, is beside the text; therefore, keep to your text.
Christ is the very foundation and subject matter of preaching; and preaching without Christ is building castles in the air.
Christ is the life and soul of preaching; and all preaching without him is like a body without life and spirit.
Christ is the great end of preaching; preaching is to manifest his glory; and when Christ is not preached, the great end is lost.
Again, try substituting "City Transformation" for "preaching" and see what you think. Blessings to all of you!
CHRIST IS ALL!
DAVID BRYANT
PROCLAIM HOPE!
New Providence, New Jersey
908-771-0146
visit us at:
www.DavidBryantDirect.com
order David Bryant's latest book at:
www.ChristIsAllBook.com
