Video for November 6th, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
I’m in the rather beautiful town of Esslingen in Southern Germany. Here in the town square are three churches cheek by jowl. In the early 17th century this Swabian region was swept by pietism, a revival movement within Lutheranism. It emphasised personal conversion, daily Bible reading and prayer, small group fellowship, holiness of life and missional energy. All things that have characterised renewal movements in the Church throughout history. I’m here this week for the annual conference of the 24/7 prayer movement. From small beginnings 26 years ago it has given rise to little monastic communities around the world and a dispersed Order of the Mustard Seed of people who commit to live by a shared rule of life emphasising prayer, mission and justice. I always find it a refreshing time, hearing stories of God at work around the world. There were 40 countries represented in person and another 80 joining online. One can get easily get pre-occupied with the concerns of one’s immediate horizon, either parochial or diocesan. Its good to be reminded that the church is far bigger than the diocese of Hereford and the Church of England. God is at work in every place and in Christian traditions very different to our own. This week we’ve heard the raw honesty of a group working in the chaos of Lebanon, steadfastly praying and serving faithfully with little visible fruit. At one point the livestream had to be cut as a Chinese Pastor described his church in China, increasingly driven underground by severe state orchestrated persecution. Had his details been public, he ran a real risk of arrest on his return home. Neither of these could point to stories of spectacular growth. They could only describe steadfastness in the face of severe trial. Alongside this were reports of extraordinary growth of the church in Iran, stories of an 80% increase in church attendance in young men in Finland over the last 5 years, and similar stories of a very noisy revival amongst young people in London churches.
The growth of the kingdom of God has never been uniform or predictable. There are some principles which correlate with growth, but they don’t necessarily cause it. The characteristics of the pietist revival here in the 1600’s tend to repeat whenever the church re-discovers its primary calling in the face of institutional inertia. The church has been through tough times and times of great abundance and revival. The Israelites discovered throughout their history that the good times were often more dangerous to their souls than the difficult ones. Paul in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippians said, “I have learned to be content in all circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength”. Coming to an end of yourself can force one into the arms of God. The great saints of the past who we remembered last Sunday managed to maintain humility, holiness and a hunger for God. They avoided the spiritual danger of things going well. Even when we acknowledge the Lord is the author of such good things spiritual or temporal, they can lull us into thinking we can manage just fine on our own.
The experience in many of our parishes probably feels more like faithful perseverance in difficult circumstances than revival, quiet or otherwise. Inevitably, if we see what appears to be fruitfulness elsewhere we question ourselves. Are we doing something wrong? Has the Lord moved on to something more interesting? Does courageous perseverance count for nothing? Regular self-examination individual and corporate is part of a healthy spirituality. If such reflection reveals there are things that need to change we must be undefended about it. Our worship reenforces the grace filled cycle of repentance and forgiveness. All our hearts are on a journey of reform and restoration. A new start is always possible. But if we discern that the decline of the church we love isn’t actually our fault – as Im sure is the case in most places, we will need especial grace to persevere, to pray and to continue faithful in the place God has put us.
+Richard