"The Church needs more power and not more machinery. It
is a tragic paradox of church history that, as power declines, machinery increases."
From the patient study of the subject of revival power in Christian history the conviction
will strengthen that the Church is tending in the wrong direction when it multiplies and
depends so much upon machinery, and seems to realize so little its absolute helplessness
without divine power. Ask of Christ the secret of His ability to shake Judea and undermine
the heathen philosophies and religions. What machinery did he use? Means with Him were at
a minimum, but power was at a maximum. His words were almost wholly the means employed.
But what force was in those utterances! Men stood astonished at His marvelous speech. He
employed the same speech used by other men, but they were surcharged with a power that the
words of others never possessed. "What a word is this!" men cried. When he
anoints the blind eyes of the beggar with clay it is His command, "Go, wash,"
which opens a ravishing vision of beauty before that once sightless man. It is His words
that heal the lepers and raise the dead. Machinery had little place in His ministry.
Divine power was supreme; and when the Lord commissioned and sent forth the apostles for
the extension of the Church, he still bore in mind this great principle of Christian
conquest.
If it be argued that Christ's ministry was exceptional and not designed to indicate the
methods of Church activities for future ages, we make a twofold reply: His ministry was at
least typical and illustrative of the secret of greatest success in the effort to bring
the world to accept Him as Lord and Savior. In His instructions to His apostles during the
critical epoch of the establishment of the new faith, is found the essential and perpetual
condition of success. If Christ did not secure this supreme possession to His Church in
His own teachings and in the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, then He did not give us a
complete and perfected system of faith. Yet the author cannot believe this. One must hold,
who accepts the adequacy of Christianity to effect the world's redemption, that Christ has
revealed the whole secret in the New Testament. And what was His supreme teaching to those
nearest Him as to the source of unfailing success? Is there a word about careful attention
to organization and ecclesiastical machinery? Nay, he refers only casually to these. But
everywhere the recurring idea is that of power. The seventy went forth without scrip or
wallet, but were clothed with power over diseases and devils and poisonous reptiles. And
as Christ neared the hour of His departure, leaving His followers to do greater works than
He had done, what was His confidential disclosure as to the means of their great success?
Did He speak of perfect machinery or the invention of mechanisms? He uttered not a
syllable on this modern craze; but simply said, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye be endued with power from on high." An empowered ministry and Church were
His only thought for that day and for all subsequent ages.
The early Christians also went forth, turning the world "upside down," because
of their endowment of power. Poor in all else, they were rich in the heavenly gift. They
had no alms to give a crippled beggar, but they had authority to say to him, "Rise up
and walk!" Even the shadow of one of the apostles had more potency to heal the sick
than has all the machinery of modern Church organization. And all the early disciples had
power after the Holy Ghost came upon them. They appointed no committees and formed no
organizations to do the work of evangelization, but, individually empowered, proceeded to
accomplish their holy mission. The era of the least divine power in the Church was the
period of her greatest dependence on machinery. Myths were made dogmas; the baseless
inventions of priestcraft were exalted into canons of faith; pagan superstitions were
organized into Christian truths.
In all subsequent ages the period of maximum spiritual power has been characterized by the
minimum of machinery. Every genuine reformation in the history of God's Church has
witnessed the discarding of a vast amount of complicated mechanism invented in a corrupt
period. Did not the sixteenth century reformations in Germany and England break into
fragments much of the old Roman Catholic machinery? Yet did not these very reformations
fail to realize the fullest expectations because they retained too much of the worn-out
and worthless machinery of Rome? Have not elaborate organizations, stately ecclesiastical
forms, and imposing cathedrals always tended to formalism and feebleness of spiritual
power? Have not baptismal regeneration, sacramentalism, ritualism, and churchism largely
displaced the simple, sublime dependence of men on the power of God in the Holy Ghost?
Machinery is not power, but the means through which power accomplishes results. In
mechanics it is estimated (as the writer believes) that one third of the power is consumed
or lost by friction. To multiply machinery without additional power is, therefore, to
multiply weakness. Is not the pronounced tendency to multiply agencies rather a confession
of conscious lack of power? When they are on their knees, men do not feel the need of more
machinery, but of more divine strength. The heart and conscience, in the presence of God,
are safer guides to the sources of power and efficiency than the intellect in the study.
One thing should not be left unsaid. No one doubts concerning this invention and
multiplication of agencies that all are proposed by good men and women, and under the best
of motives. These workers know the lamentable needs of the Master's vineyard, and are
moved by burdened hearts to provide for such urgent needs. But the conviction grows that
the Church is moving in the wrong direction as it increases machinery. The overwhelming
need is more divine power outpoured on her present agencies. She can get this quicker,
easier, surer, than she can devise new machinery. The gift is free to all. It is suited to
all. It makes effective all classes, and without this power from on high, all machinery is
useless.
The Rev. Dr. Daniel Steele says that the chief peril of the Church today is the ancient
sin of forsaking God, the living fountain, and the hewing out of broken cisterns, with the
substitution of human agencies for divine power. Or, to quote the precise words given by
him in another paragraph: "The trend of modern Protestantism is toward a growing
feebleness of grasp upon the Holy Spirit as a reality and a practical disuse of this
source of spiritual life and power. What is needed on the part of every Christian is
"a mind to work," and then a long audience with God until they receive power
from on high. In seeking revivals many seek new machinery. But the need is more divine
power. If all the time and thought that are spent in planning new machinery were devoted
wholly to consecration, believing prayer, and direct work for the conversion of men, one
million souls would be yearly added, may God send us more power!
"Ye receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Our methods and
machinery are useless until we are endued with might from on high. All grace is with our
Christ for His people. We may have it for the seeking. It is a gift. All our arrangements
and methods can produce but a spurious revival without this divine bestowment. One breath
of the Holy Ghost will make a revival genuine! Oh, for power from on high!
Reference Used: The Revival and The Pastor by J.O Peck
From: A Revival Source Center