Those of us in the mainline traditions don\u2019t really know what to make of revivalism. Not many of us walk down the aisle to confess and surrender our sins to God. We don\u2019t think that we receive the grace of God because we have found faith; we believe faith is a response to the prevenient grace of God. I get that too.<\/p>\n
What I do not get is why the more theologically sophisticated a person becomes, the less likely she or he is to have any interest in inviting people to experience conversion<\/b>. The apostle Paul knew a lot more theology than most of us before he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. So he was wrong. This is what we are not so good at confessing\u201d\u201dthat there is more to Jesus than we know.<\/p>\n
We in the liturgically devoted Christian traditions are as in need of repentance and surrender as those who shuffled into my father\u2019s revival tent. We gave up the revival tents, thankfully, but for some reason we also gave up the invitation to surrender all to Jesus.<\/p>\n