Roles & Expectations Summer 1984

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The more we talk about revitalizing the church, the more questions we seem to raise. Some of the most central ones are these: Is renewal totally in God's hands, or do we have a part to play? How does God renew the church? And is "renewal fade-out" inevitable?

Renewal, like the church itself, is a mystery. But the study of Scripture and church history does tell us much about how renewal has come-and stayed-in the past. We begin to see that renewal has more than one dimension. Here are five:

This is our usual definition. Many of us have experienced individual renewal at some point in our Christian lives. Our spiritual life was deepened; God became closer and more personally real. Personal renewal may be a dramatic, decisive experience or simply a deepening that gives us greater peace and joy.

A few years ago, a friend reported that more or less on her own she had come into a new peace with God and a richer sense of his presence. She calls this her "rise"; that's the best way she can describe it.

Whatever else renewal is, it surely must be personal. We are human persons made to experience God in all his fullness. Nothing can substitute for this. First through the New Birth, then through the deepening work of the Holy Spirit, God wants every son and daughter to know the joy of deep, fulfilling communion with himself. This is, in fact, the heart of the Christian faith.

But there are broader dimensions to renewal. Renewing individual believers is only part of the story.

God is not satisfied until the whole community of believers takes on a renewed life.

Again, many of us have experienced this at some time in our lives. God's Spirit moved graciously over the whole church; everyone was touched. This may ...

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