As pastors, we navigate the exciting—but complex—topic of revival in the church.
When I started seeing young adults flocking into churches (and stadiums) in videos, on headlines, or even down the street, it made me stop and ask the question, “Are there hidden dangers of revival?“
For us leaders, I think so.
In a world where social media often can distort your motivations, understanding your heart becomes essential:
- Why are you seeing revival elsewhere but not at your church?
- Why are so many leaders drawn toward revival?
- How should you feel about revival when it happens?
It’s utterly amazing to see the seeds of revival emerge in Gen Z in so many settings (something I examine as a church trend in 2025).
But evil lurks in every human heart, and few of us (none of us?) are immune from the temptations associated with leadership. Watch the video below to understand the 5 temptations of church revival that leaders face.
Transcript:
[00:00] Introduction
Hey, pastors, did you know that revival comes with temptations? Okay, revival, we’ve seen it move all across the United States and around the world. It is not something you can manipulate or manufacture. It’s a move of God, and you can cooperate with it if and when it happens, but you can’t make it happen. Now, most pastors I know are sincerely great people trying to do great and important work.
Yet evil lurks inside every human heart. It lurks inside my heart. And few of us are immune from the temptations associated with associated with Christian leadership. So in the hopes of lifting the temptations into the light, here are the five temptations of revival every church leader should watch out for.
[00:50] Church Revival Amongst Gen Z
Well, you’d have to have your head in the sand as a church leader if you’ve missed the revival happening among Gen Z and young adults. So what emerged, what started really at Asbury in February of 2023, has rippled and spread across parts of the US, the UK and around the world. And the picture with Gen Z is kind of complicated. In many ways, Gen Z is showing signs of revival. We’re seeing that.
We’re seeing college campuses and churches filled with hundreds or even thousands of young adults who are praying, worshiping, confessing their sins, and lining up to be baptized. It is inspiring, and I am all for it. A lot of people have longed to see this for years, including me. But the data shows that in a lot of ways, Gen Z is also retreating from the church at an alarming rate. I explore the idea that Gen Z is in both revival and retreat in my five disruptive church trends that will rule 2025.
If you want to dive deeper into this and into the other four trends, you can download my free leader guide at 2025ChurchTrends.com or by clicking the link in the description below. Now, that said, revival, as awesome as it is, is not without its temptations. You see, the human heart is complicated. Mine is. Yours is.
[02:12] The Complexity of Motives
And as every church leader knows, you don’t get a pass on sin, okay? Your motives don’t get magically purified overnight the moment you step into leadership. In fact, sometimes your emotional and spiritual struggles deepen when you step into Christian leadership because you have a target on your back, right? They become more intense. And while you long for pure and unadulterated motives, I mean, that’s what I do, too.
You still come up short. So, as I said, most pastors are super sincere, wonderful people, but evil lurks in our hearts. And so even revival comes with temptations and mixed motives for all of us in church leadership. S,o I recognize these because these are the motives that are in my heart. And as too many leaders find out the hard way, unexamined motives will drive you until they destroy you.
So, in the hopes of lifting them into the light, here are the five temptations every church leader should watch out for.
[03:11] The Temptation to Manufacture Revival
The number one temptation church leaders face is trying to manufacture revival. Okay, we’ll get into jealousy in just a moment. But jealousy has a close companion, and that is trying to manufacture something that isn’t there. Because when you see young adults flocking into churches and stadiums, it can be easy to try to manufacture it in your congregation.
Now, that can range from putting undue pressure on your youth or young adult pastors to make it happen in their ministries or trying to create moments in the service that could lead to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But don’t. You’ve kind of manipulated that. Okay? Revival is not something you can manipulate or manufacture.
It really is, in its authentic form, a move of God. So you can cooperate with it if and when it happens, but you can’t make it happen. You can pray for revival, you can prepare for revival, but you can’t plan for it to happen like on a Thursday night at 7 or a Sunday morning at 9 and 11. And as soon as you start trying to manipulate a move of God into happening, it’s no longer a move of God. The second temptation church leaders face when confronted with revival is bragging about it when it happens.
[04:23] Bragging About Revival When it Happens
Okay, emotions often get exaggerated in leaders. At least they do in me. I tend to feel, you know, the real highs and the real lows. And social media has become a force multiplier of human emotion.
To tell five friends that something has gone well or to celebrate something with your church is pretty cool. But to boast, and post a move of God on social media is both loaded and tricky. Okay? To brag about revival publicly is to tread on very thin spiritual ice. So let’s be honest.
Most leaders know exactly where to stand in the room to snap the picture that makes the room look full, right? Even when it isn’t. Or to instruct the camera crew to do the same thing. Hey, back there in the corner over there. If you take the picture from there, it’s going to look packed.
Okay? We all know exactly how to write our posts so that we appear humble, when in reality, we hope a lot of people are going to affirm us just by liking us commenting and saying, wow, that’s amazing. You’re such a great leader. Okay, I am calling myself out here as much as anybody. It’s not that you can’t share what God is doing.
It’s just that sharing it is a very tricky spiritual endeavor. Increasingly, I’m drawn to the advice given by financial gurus who, when encouraging people not to make purchases for status reasons, ask them this question, “Hey, would you still buy this thing if you could never post about it and if no one ever saw it?” It’s a great question. And you know what? Honestly, the answer often is no when it comes to spending money.
And obviously the answer when seeing God move is yes. I would still be excited about nobody ever saw it. But, sometimes, these moments are best left under-reported until you sift your motives. Maybe what you and I need is more. Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart moments.
And that would do us all good, right? That’s what happens sometimes. Mary doesn’t get up there when she finds out she’s going to bear Jesus and like tells everybody. She just kind of goes, she’s going to treasure this. I’m just going to ponder it.
I’m going to think about what this means.
[06:11] Bottling the Movement of God
The Number 3 Revival Temptation Church leaders face is bottling. Okay, what do I mean by that? Well, if a move of God breaks out in your midst, it can be tempting to want to bottle it, too.
To understand it, to say, okay, here’s the formula. This is how it works. Now, there’s a part of you that won’t want a move of God to end, but there’s also a part of you that will want to figure it out, right? To analyze it so that you can recreate it, extend it, and maybe even export it. In other words, you want to bottle it, you know, and so the formula might look like this.
Well, you know what, guys? If we pray this way and if we play these songs and if we preach a sermon like this and we give an invitation like this, then we can do this again and again and again and again. Now, again, this is nuanced. Okay? It is helpful to understand what’s happening and to steward your leadership gifts so you are sensitive to the patterns that the Holy Spirit seems to be using in a moment.
But the moment you want to bottle it for anything approaching selfish reasons, you jeopardize the whole thing. Wanting to bottle a move of God is the best way to ensure it’s no longer a move of God.
[08:09] Jealousy in Leadership
Okay, Number four, the fourth revival Temptation Church leaders face is jealousy. What happens if you fervently pray for revival? You try to follow God diligently.
And nothing happens on your watch, right? What if it’s just ministry as usual? Even though you long for God to move in your midst, well, chances are jealousy is going to creep in. You’ll start to ask what they are doing that you’re not doing. Why is God choosing someone else and not you?
And you’ll want what you don’t have and begin to despise what you do have. You might even start to, because I’ve done this before, invent stories in your head about your motives being purer than other people’s motives and about you being more, more noble and holy than the pastors who are experiencing a revival.
All of which just thinly masks the contempt you feel for yourself and maybe in that moment, the contempt you feel for God. Now, the best advice I have ever heard on dealing with jealousy is easy to understand, and hard to apply. It’s simple.
Celebrate what God has given others. Leverage what God has given you. Celebrate what God has given others. Like, all right, that’s awesome that they’re experiencing revival. And then get back to work and leverage what God has given you.
I started practicing that advice almost 20 years ago. It’s hard to do, but it’s tremendously healthy and therapeutic. So the question becomes, why not text a friend who’s experiencing growth and encourage them and say, hey, it’s awesome to see what God is doing in your midst. And then get back to work leveraging and thanking God for. For what he’s given you.
[09:15] Discouragement in Leadership
Finally, the fifth temptation church leaders face with revival is discouragement. Okay, the longer I lead, the more I’m convinced that discouragement takes out more leaders than moral failure does. Discouragement never makes the headlines. Pastors just really quietly slip away, and they announce they’re leaving. And a lot of pastors have been leaving lately.
Now look, the enemy doesn’t need a new strategy because discouragement works so well. I’m also convinced of two other things. First, you’re most tempted to quit moments before a critical breakthrough. I’ve seen this again and again in my leadership. The breakthrough is right over there.
But you quit right over here. That’s a problem. Secondly, there’s a great reward in heaven for church leaders who embrace a long obedience in the same direction. So what does a long obedience look like? Well, Jim Collins talks about the power of a 20-mile march.
So let’s say you decided to walk across America coast to coast. There are two approaches. One is to let your emotions determine how far you go every day. So, day one, you’re excited to go. You march for 40 miles, convinced you’re capable of more than most people, and you can extend yourself beyond your training.
Okay. The next day, though, you’re exhausted, so you take a day off. Then you encounter scorching heat in Death Valley and fierce blizzards in the Rockies. And then you give up. It was an emotional march.
Now, the other approach is simply to walk 20 miles a day, regardless of the weather conditions or how you feel. Some days you feel like you put in a half effort. I could have gone 50, but you got 20 miles in other days you’ll feel like 20 miles was everything you could give. But 20 miles a day gets the job done. And after a long obedience in the same direction, you arrive at your destination.
You know what? Ministry is kind of like that. Not every day is a great day, but if you make a little bit of progress every day, it’s amazing what you can accomplish over a lifetime.
Okay. It’s utterly amazing to see the seeds of revival emerge in Gen Z in so many settings in our lifetime. But with it comes all the opportunities and all the temptations that are native to the human condition. God has historically worked with all of us despite our limitations. That’s the good news, right?
And he can and will work through the mixed motives of any leader. However, leaders who are willing to wrestle down their temptations and sort and sift their motives are the leaders who tend to endure the longest in leadership and create the least collateral damage. And that is a noble goal for all of us.
