3 Leadership Lessons to Consider From the Asbury Revival
If you haven’t heard, we are witnessing a revival happening at Asbury University. It started on Wednesday and they have now worshipped in the space for over 100 hours. People from all over the country are arriving by the bus load to feel the presence of the Lord in the chapel space.
I love it. And I am beyond excited to see the overflow of what God will do from this movement.
As someone who continually thinks about leadership, I think there are some lessons to consider from this outpouring.
If we want the next generation to lead, the older generation has to let them. I say this because there have been more than a couple of churches that I have been a part of that would have stopped this revival before it started. And I’m not blaming anyone, I would just invite us to wrestle with the question: Would we let young adults stay in our own sanctuary for as long as they wanted? Or would someone have come by and shooed them out so we can lock up and go home? For many of our churches, we want the next generation at our church, but we want them there in the way we are accustomed to seeing them. The growth of future leaders always requires space.
Stewarding is a lot different than producing. Sometimes, I as a church leader have tried to produce an atmosphere where it feels like God is present. Maybe you have too. Either way, producing makes us the person in control. What we are noticing from the reports of this revival is that the leaders aren’t producing anything, they are carefully stewarding the presence of God. Stewarding requires openness, messiness, and obedience to where God is leading.
Movements of God are hardly ever convenient. One of the truths about what is happening at Asbury University is that it is messing up a lot of the daily life that happens there. I’m hearing reports about people sleeping in random places, trying to feed the crowds, and if you look at the pictures it looks like chaos. When God is leading a movement it won’t be based on the comfort of people, at least not from the worldly perspective. It will however be based in His goodness, and that will change everything.
I can imagine that in the days/weeks/months ahead, lots of us will be praying for something like what is happening at Asbury to happen in our own churches. We should pray that prayer! What a sweet gift from God, what a glorious representation of who He is.
Also, if we are going to pray the prayer we must start leading like it is already happening. God is going to do whatever God wants to do - that’s what makes Him God. We, as leaders, should consider leading from the posture that revival is already here.