Notes: Renew, Restore and Revive

Renew, Restore and Revive

The Fall of Humanity

They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve chose to turn their backs on God. They separated themselves from God, and God gave them over to their choice and removed them from eating from the tree of life.

Adam and Eve died to God. God promised He would make all things new to bring humans back to God. Even as Adam and Eve heard about the consequences of their sin (Gen 3), God promised that the human race would be revived, restored, renewed back to God. God would make a way back to himself.

Renew

Renew means to make like new: to restore freshness, and vigor, or toward perfection. We believe a key part of renewal has a spiritual aspect. God made this beautiful creation, and He has created humans to bring creation back to a more beautiful place. Christians are agents of renewal. We want all God's creatures cared for in their physical and spiritual needs. As great as the fall affected all creation, also so great is the grace and power of God in Christ to make all things new.

Isaiah 42:7 says that God acts "to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

Restore

Restore means to give back or return. It means to bring back into existence. When Adam and Eve rebelled from God, they broke the connection with God that brought life to humanity. Jesus Christ came to restore a new and lasting connection to God and the tree of life.

1 Peter 5:10 says,  "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

Revive

Revival is the spiritual reconnecting with God in a pronounced way. Individual revival is the restoring of a person's spiritual life. Corporate revival is when groups together experience individual revival to God. After the time of Pentecost, this type of revival is very evangelistic in that the Holy Spirit is poured out powerfully (Acts 2).

Revival leaders of the Old Testament were people like

Enoch 

Noah -He preached "righteousness” when few listened. God restarted humanity through Noah and revived faith on the earth.

Abraham (Genesis 12): After the flood, civilization was leaving God again. Abraham walked with God and revival was brought back to the earth, and a new nation was formed.

Moses 

David 

Daniel 

The Renew, Restoration, and Revival that Grounds Every Revival

In the fullness of time, God sent his own Son to bring humanity back to God. The entirety of the life that Jesus lived, his death and resurrection, and his ascension back to His Father is the seed for every revival for until the world ends. After Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to bring revival to God, not just to a nation, but to all people.

The Church is Formed

Jesus had trained leaders for revival whom he called disciples. They were ordinary fishermen. I have learned that God often chooses unexpected lowly leaders for a great revival. Or he brings the high low; once God makes them low, he uses them. Jesus met Saul en route to persecute Christian leaders. On the way to Damascus, Jesus showed up. Paul "fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'” - Acts 9:4.

God began a new church where humans could be revived to God. God was going to use revival leaders beginning with the disciples and apostles. These revival leaders were going to be used to proclaim the gospel and revive people's hearts back to God.

Every Person on Earth Needs Revival

Traditionally, revival is a term that is used to describe the revival of the church in a specific time or location. I will use the word revival about revival back to God. I believe that a "seed” of religion is embedded deeply in every human being. I also believe that our goal is to raise up an army of revival leaders whose passion is to reintroduce people to God, the Creator and Redeemer, and to keep people close to God.

For those who are already Christians, we want the spirit of revival living strongly in them. We want those Christians to lead others to revival. For those who are not Christians, we will preach the gospel and disciple them into a living relationship where their dead spirits will be revived.

Raising Up Bi-Vocational and Vocational Leaders

I found in studying revivals that the revival of the Reformation centered on a shift in leadership. The existing church at that time recruited church clergy in a hierarchy which usually did not include lay leaders. The reformers saw that the clergy/lay separation was hurting the health of the church. So, instead of the rare priests knowing the Bible and giving leadership in the faith, everyone is included in this calling.

Raising Up Bi-Vocational and Vocational Leaders

The Priesthood of all Believers is a doctrine of the Protestant Christian Church: every individual has direct access to God without ecclesiastical mediation and each shares the responsibility of ministering to the other members of the community of believers.

Essentially, the point of the Reformation was that everyone is called to be a leader in the faith and everyone is responsible for making a difference in the world for Christ. The counter-reformation of the Catholic church also stressed many of these themes.

Christian Leaders Institute Mission

Christian Leaders Institute beams training via the Internet to raise up called Christian leaders everywhere. God created a wonderful world. That world is frustrated by the fall of humanity into sin. In Christ, there is redemption. Christians share Christ's redemption, the good news. Christian Leaders Institute is training Christian leaders armed with that narrative.

Christian Leaders Institute Mission

CLI is happy to see that God has compelled "called" believers from every place on earth to seek advanced ministry training using the Internet. This is only the beginning. God is raising up revival leaders. At the beginning of a student's training, they are asked to find a local mentor to help process their CLI training.

Christian Leaders Institute Mission

For the last few centuries, missionary leaders proclaiming the gospel have reached people in various countries and regions on earth. This has created millions of indigenous Christians everywhere. Out of these indigenous Christians, leaders will be raised up.

The indigenous Christian capital is in the place where Christian mentors can provide a local context for students that enroll at CLI.

Local Mentor-based Training

How does a local mentor-based philosophy work? The Christian movement has been spreading throughout the globe for about 2,000 years. In many places on earth, there are Christian leaders. New students at CLI will recruit more experienced Christian leaders to be their mentors. Let me give you a historical example.

Adoniram Judson was a called revival leader. Adoniram Judson was a difference-maker. Adoniram Judson was the first American missionary, at age 25, who was sent to bring people back to God in Burma (Myanmar) in the early part of the nineteenth century. Judson spread Christianity.

Quite a Story!

Indigenous and Committed to being that Way

Christian Leaders Institute students are very committed to staying in their countries. They sign up because they have access to high-quality ministry training in their local context. They have not been asking if CLI training will help them move to another country. They want to stay and minister where they are placed by the Lord.

Insufficient in Monetary Resources

Christian Leaders Institute students are often without economic means but have enough resources and social capital to have received an education and to have access to the Internet. We will even receive phone calls from cell phones in Africa concerning a question. We invite students to donate to Christian Leaders Institute, and though they do not have large amounts to give, they still give generously

Bi-vocational Leaders – Post Vocational???

We have noticed that CLI is supporting those leaders who really want to explore a bi-vocational vision. CLI students generally expect they will be working bi-vocationally in their country of residence. While the allure of an invitation to study in western countries will entice some of the brightest and most academically wired students into western programs, our students will be passed over for these expensive programs and ordinarily will stay in their own country to become pastors, whether they receive quality ministry training or not.

Technologically Savvy

We have noticed that our students are technologically savvy even if they live in the remotest parts of the world. Internet access is more common than sewer lines in some countries. In places like America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and other western nations, the students who apply, though poorer by the standards of their mainline culture, navigate the web very well and ordinarily know what to do to succeed at CLI. We have also seen that many retired called ministry leaders will get their children to explain how to interact better through the technology of the Internet.

Ordained Pastors Lacking Respected Ministry Training

There is a large group of CLI applicants that already have been ordained as pastors or church planters. Many of them have been desperately seeking advanced training but are sadly unable to acquire it. In many places in the world, targeted missions money supporting specific mission goals has supplied only certain needs for training, neglecting to meet other important needs of pastors and church leaders 

Educated

Christian Leaders Institute students are smart. They know how to communicate. They are often bi-lingual, with English being their second language. Large percentages of them would thrive at residential seminaries, but would never have the opportunity to enroll, because they are too poor or their situation in life prohibits residential ministry training.

Respected in their Culture

In countries that are not hostile to Christianity, our students are highly respected. Even clergy in their countries who had residential training from western sources are mentoring students from CLI and encouraging them to get their diplomas.

Generally Older and Already Tested

Four out of every five students are 35 and older. Because of where they are in life, these older students are not in a position to go to a residential program, and distance-learning programs are difficult and still too expensive. This group of leaders is not going to move anywhere.

Often in Countries where it is Difficult to Lead in Christianity

CLI can offer training to places that Christianity is having difficulty penetrating. We have trained students in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, and these are just a few places our students get the training to create Christian culture, despite the resistance of their country. Sadly, we suspect that some of our students have been persecuted for their Christian witness. In light of this, we do everything we can to keep their identities secret.

Very Remote Places

We are training students in remote islands where western missions money would never be able to support quality ministry training. These students are being trained in places like Samoa, Martinique, and St. Kitts.

Immigrants and Refugees

Many students have emigrated to new countries looking for new opportunities; countries like Great Britain, Spain, and Canada. These students come with fresh enthusiasm, combining a love for their new country with a passion to share Christ. 

Vision Partner Students

Christian Leaders Institute is a generosity supported school. Thousands of students and graduates have been giving forward to become vision partners. These vision partners are making it possible to keep CLI free for new students. Many students are doing what they can to donate back to Christian Leaders Institute. We are praying that as our students graduate and plant and pastor churches, they will be able to contribute more and become mentors for future students, making better and better training available to church leaders.

Is this "Free" Opportunity a Good Idea?

Christian Leaders Institute offers free tuition. Why? Many have asked this. Some have wondered whether it will be valued if it is free. Some have said that we have so many students, let them pay for it themselves. Others have said that you will never be a sustainable ministry unless the student pays for the education and outside funding is not needed.

No One Missed

Christian Leaders Institute desires to make ministry training tuition-free so no viable, called revival leaders are missed. This mission is mobilizing a large number of trained ministry leaders. As you proceed through this course you will get a better idea of why it is possible to be ambitiously training thousands of revival leaders. The leaders are out there waiting to be trained.

"It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" (Ephesians 4: 11-12).

The Profile of the Intrinsically Motivated

Finally, free tuition is a test. Those that do well with free tuition are motivated internally at a deeper level. Charging tuition does bring a form of ownership, to the point that the ministry training is given a monetary value which helps in motivating the student to complete the studies. When something labor-intensive like ministry training is free, the prime force the student has is his God-motivated call into the ministry. Students lose nothing if they stop their training. They greatly gain if they finish their training.

The profiles of the students that complete classes at Christian Leaders Institute are profiles of "called” leaders who complete goals and challenges because they need to and want to!