It’s time to put church on Christ-control and let the congregation cruise beyond their comfort zone, being led by the risen Jesus. Leadership at the Asbury revival put the meeting on Christ-control and let the living Jesus take charge. Churches can do the same. A simple shift from pastor-control to Christ-control would revive churches around the world.

Christians have been preached and taught to death! Pastors, open up Sunday mornings and let Jesus’ people testify! Churches should be popping with love for Jesus with people jumping up to show and tell what He has done! (Rev. 12:11.)

If Christ can control the Universe, He can control a church service. All I’m saying is give Jesus a chance to lead one Sunday! Some drivers don’t trust cruise control. It’s sad that many churches don’t trust Christ-control. If you won’t trust Christ to lead a church service, how can you trust Him to save your soul?

Christ-control works inside individuals. As people are allowed, trained, and encouraged to obey His inner promptings, a congregation begins to demonstrate His presence. When a church is full of human programming and control, people don’t learn to notice, obey, and rely on Christ’s inner promptings.

What the Bible calls “the flesh” is human effort. Church too often chooses to operate by the flesh instead of by Christ-control. To repent is to shift from human effort to Christ-control–to try less and trust more. If Christians aren’t allowed to obey Christ’s inner promptings during church, it’s hard for them to ever get the courage to do so elsewhere.

When a Christian gets spiritually revied and excited about Jesus, that’s revival. It won’t end unless the revived person drifts back into complacency. When Christians get revived and unbelievers begin to encounter Jesus, that’s a move of God. Unfortunately, I think many Christians go to church to hibernate–to passively sit back, endure a sermon, and earn points with God.

A meeting isn’t a revival unless the people in the meeting are being revived. I saw revived people all around me when I was at Asbury. If you’ve been revived at Asbury keep the fire in your heart burning. Raise your hand the next time you’re in church, then stand up and tell what God has done in you!

The world needs to see Christians overflowing with love for Jesus. I saw multitudes doing so at Asbury. Pastors, let people be free to overflow in church! Asbury University is allowing an ongoing demonstration of the presence of the living God. What happens in most church services can happen without God’s involvement, but there’s no explanation but God for what’s happening at Asbury! Pastors, let go and let God.

What is revival? Christ-control! If you really want a move of God in our time, surrender your will and your desires to Jesus.

A “prototype” of Christ-control?

I’ve read that pastors are frustrated, stressed, and quitting. I was a pastor in a traditional church format and it’s a crazy job to run a church and be an every-Sunday-morning celebrity. It feeds your ego on Sunday and saps your strength during the week.

I tried to find the one-man pastor job in the New Testament, but never could. The more I read it the more I discovered that gatherings of the body of Christ work best when the living Jesus, Himself, is allowed to personally lead them by prompting individuals in the congregation to say and do what He puts on their heart.

Then one day, The Salvation Army in Nashville approached my wife and me and asked us to start a “non-traditional” church for them. They gave us amazing freedom to let Jesus lead. For 10 years we met with no sermons. Instead, after pouring our hearts out in adoration of the risen Jesus, people were free to listen to Jesus and then say and/or do whatever He told them to. People were free to come and go as they please. The living Jesus took over and time didn’t matter. As people opened their hearts to God and to each other, HIs glory filled the room and shined on the faces among us.

After 10 years, a new leader was sent to town and demanded that we return to the traditional church format. My wife and I felt we had to “obey God rather than man” so we left with grateful hearts that we had been allowed to do that for 10 years!

In our early days, a woman declared that what was going on there was a “prototype” of what God wants to do in many churches and other Christian gatherings (but she didn’t even know what the word meant.) To read an account about what God did there, search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

Christianity’s not about
Human ability
Or a church facility.
It’s about following Jesus
With radical humility.

Know Jesus now
Get to know
Jesus now
As your friend.
It’s not enough
Just to know
About Him.
Yes you can
Open your heart
And begin to
Know Jesus now.

It’s time to pop the church cork
That’s holding back
Christ’s new wine
So congregations can
Bask in His presence
And people can speak up
And freely testify
About His glorious works.