A Decentralized Revival Makes Space for a Centralized Jesus
It was unlike anything we had seen in our lifetimes.
Some of us just spent a couple of days at Asbury University, a week or so into the revival that has been taking place at their school. After getting our heads around how many people, like us, had been drawn there from all over the world, we began to discuss two common takeaways:
What was happening in Hughes Auditorium felt surprisingly ordinary. Ordinary people were seeking God fully, in repentance, worship, Scripture reading and prayer. It was simple and far from flashy - it was obvious that the programming wouldn’t have drawn people from all over the world to this place.
It also felt obvious - whether you want to call it revival or renewal or awakening - that this had to be God.
Because of that, there have been mixed responses in the past day or so as University President Kevin Brown announced they would end the ongoing services this week in an effort to reestablish norms of student life. While this is disappointing to some, it also highlights something interesting about Brown's leadership. It shows he doesn't need to "own" this move of God. He doesn't need to contain what is happening to just his campus. And that type of thinking could very well be why God chose Asbury as a place to steward a movement - one that would not be localized and contained.
Brown’s leadership in this hour reminds me of some principles in a secular book I read several years ago, The Starfish and the Spider, by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. In it, they describe the difference in mindset in centralized and decentralized movements, using the symbols of a spider and a starfish. Hang with me as I explain the difference in the way these two animals work.
If you cut off a spider's head, it dies. Spiders represent localized organizations that are contained to a place and dependent on a top-down leader. If the place closes or the leader can’t be around, the thing dies.
If you cut off a starfish's leg, however, it grows a new one. And the cut-off leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Starfish represent movements. There is no stopping the growth.
It seems the starfish principles for leadership can be seen in Brown’s heart for the changes this week at Asbury. Ending the services at Asbury begs for decentralization of God's movement and invites replication into many more expressions around the world. It allows people in other places to co-opt the growth, to steward what God is doing in many places rather than one. This kind of movement is unstoppable.
Movements are, by their very nature, not dependent on one place or one person. They are reproducible in a variety of locations, are adaptable, have low control, and are organic in nature. Kingdom movements are the same. A movement of God's spirit often involves ordinary people, in ordinary places, without control, reproducing.
These are some of the traits in the expression at Asbury. In the recent age of the church we have seldom seen an expression so replicable and simple. Rarely have we seen leaders so content to not take a piece of ownership or acclaim - this has been called a nameless and faceless movement. Spirit-seeking leaders are asking for his direction, resisting control. And already we are hearing how it is erupting in other countries and other continents, as hungry but ordinary people everywhere cry out in their own ways for God.
Brown said the movement on his campus could best be described as the “fruit of our mission” but also said, “it is not ours to hold alone. We are not the keepers of this movement. We are hearing amazing stories across the world. Not just the U.S., the world. People are hungry and they are hungry for something more. I think of Matthew 5:6 from Jesus’ most famous sermon, where he says, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.’ In other words, blessed are those who have hunger after a right relationship with God and a right relationship with others. They are the ones who leave the table satisfied. We look to other schools, other churches, or ministry communities as co-commissioners in this movement taking shape before us.”
When a movement of God begins to spread beyond a place, when we can’t even name a person behind it, when we can’t articulate what’s so attractive about it, we finally come to this logical conclusion: man is not the center of this. The only one that can be considered a central figure is Jesus himself.
How can we be co-commissioners in this movement that is taking shape before us? How can we join the movement of prayer for God’s outpouring in our own communities?
Lord, may yours be the only face we seek.
May yours be the only name on our lips.
May your fame be what spreads on the earth in the coming days, with you at the center of it all.
