From roots to fruits – and the future.

In the second part of our two-part critique of The Turning evangelistic campaign, Tom Lennie looks at the fruits of the movement and its future. Click here to read Part 1.

Easy-Believe-ism

A common counter-argument to all the concerns raised last week is that even if just one or two people prove to have genuinely come to Christ through The Turning campaign, it will make the whole thing worthwhile. Surely just one person’s salvation is utterly priceless! I would respond: certainly we should rejoice over any genuine conversion, but how many are also being turned away from Christ by this instant-results methodology?

Consider all those who believe themselves to be saved because they once made an on-street ‘decision’, or prayed a prayer, and were told they are now in the Kingdom of Heaven. They might have no real understanding of salvation or its cost (because no-one told them there would be any) and there might be no change whatsoever in their lives. Consider also those who become more cynical and hardened to the true Gospel because their ‘decision’ or prayer didn’t lead to any significant personal transformation. In either case, where will they end up on Judgment Day?

The Turning script used for outreach in Wales during 2017.Such easy-believe-ism would have been deplored by the great evangelist-preachers of former ages, who stressed the essence of repentance from sin. I mentioned The Turning to a full-time evangelist friend recently and he was appalled by the approach.

The underlying problem is that the present-day Church seems infatuated with instant, impressive results. It’s as if we insist on them for our own encouragement and gratification and then we proudly brandish them around. I feel that reducing souls to statistics in this manner effectively cheapens the Gospel. We’re called to sow seeds; we have no right to necessarily reap and record a harvest a few minutes later. Leonard Ravenhill calls it plucking unripe fruit: we’re trying to get folk saved who don’t even know they’re lost. We need to leave the Holy Spirit to do his work, in his time.

The Fruits

Jesus said regarding a person’s character, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruit’. He never said ‘Ye shall know them by their decision’, or even ‘Ye shall know them by their sincerity’. It takes considerable time after seeds are sown for fruit to appear: far more time than modern evangelism is willing to wait, apparently.

In a report given at a local church meeting I attended, it was stated that one third of the 1,850 who initially responded to The Turning in Reading have subsequently become associated with churches and are moving on in their faith. Such a proportion would be any evangelist’s dream come true! A third works out at over 600 extra church-goers - a massive boost to Reading’s congregations.

I’ve had contact with someone on the leadership team of another Reading church, who said that 2, 3 or 4 people have been added to various churches across the city as a result of the campaign. Nothing approaching 100, let alone 600. Another good Christian friend of mine who lives in Reading, when I asked him earlier this year about The Turning’s success, had no idea what I was talking about. He had never heard of it, nor anyone who claims to have come to Christ through it.

And yet, the entire Turning initiative spreading all across the United Kingdom is based purely on the ‘phenomenal’ success of the supposed mighty ‘outpouring’ of the Spirit on Reading – as it was reported by The Turning’s own leaders. In his report, Yinka Oyekan claims that The Turning represents a similar outpouring to Azusa Street in 1906, and is comparable to Billy Graham’s mass outreaches – only better.¹

The significant hype that accompanies The Turning is, for me, another warning sign. As I often share in my talks on revival history, where you find a lot of puffed-up talk about a spiritual awakening, it’s a tell-tale sign there was no genuine revival in the first place. No true move of the Spirit requires hype.

Where you find a lot of puffed-up talk about a spiritual awakening, it’s a tell-tale sign there was no genuine revival in the first place.

Even if the above statistical claim is true, it still means that two-thirds of those who ‘made a decision’ on the streets of Reading have now, in Oyekan’s words, ‘brushed off’ attempts at follow-up and “not wished to continue the dialogue”.² Again, this speaks volumes about the types of ‘decision’ being made.

I’ve tried to engage politely with Yinka by email and on Facebook, thanking him for his heart for evangelism and sharing a few of my concerns, hoping to receive a constructive reply. He refused to answer me and quickly proceeded to block me completely.

The Future

We can only hope and pray that as The Turning gathers momentum (there is now an app, a network of regional hubs and plans for a nationwide mission in 2020) in conjunction with other mission groups, it will be developed into a helpful mission campaign. But at present, I am afraid I cannot put much store in what appears to be a quick-fix strategy.

To the extent that the Turning is inspiring Christians to get out and share the Gospel within their needy communities, it’s a positive thing. I have several friends who are involved in the initiative and in no way do I wish to dampen their genuine, compassionate, evangelistic enthusiasm. But how we do mission is very important.

I do believe the harvest is ripe. I long to see the people of my neighbourhood and city come to a true personal knowledge of Christ. But this will be by our obeying the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit for our own precious locality.

We need to be bold, and be ready to become the answers to our own prayers for our neighbourhoods. Lord, send the workers into the harvest field, following the leading of Your Spirit all the way.

About the author: Tom Lennie has a long-standing interest in revival and has authored a trilogy of historical studies on Scottish revivals: ‘Land of Many Revivals’ (1527-1857), ‘Glory in the Glen’ (1880-1940) and the newly-published, ‘Scotland Ablaze: The Twenty-Year Fire of Revival That Swept Scotland 1858-79’ (December 2018). His interest in The Turning was sparked by reports of the Reading ‘outpouring’ and fuelled further by its arrival in Edinburgh, his home city, as well as by the involvement of several acquaintances.

References

1 Oyekan, Y. The Turning Learning Review: ‘The Outpouring’, p6 and p8, respectively. This document is also available at http://theturning.eu/learning-review/.

2 Ibid, p20.