Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002.
Companion volume: Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (1979)
Referenced in: Congregational Renewal through Spiritual Revival
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
In the broader work of congregational renewal, spiritual revival certainly has its place. As indicated in the Resource Guide on this subject, not all those interested in church renewal will wish or need to see their situation through the eyes of revival. Revivals are unique and unusual occurrences, and it is impossible to deny the importance of revival in scripture and Christian history. The important task in appropriating God’s work in revival, however, is to distinguish between true and counterfeit phenomena. The first step toward this is to understand how God brought revival in biblical history, and then to let these episodes serve as benchmarks for the current day. Lovelace’s volumes contribute well toward that end.
What Walter Kaiser does for our understanding of biblical revivals, Richard Lovelace does in providing a good overview of revival (or his term, “renewal”) from a historical, theological, and formational perspective.
Dynamics of Spiritual Life is a very scholarly work (455 pages), looking at revival from every imaginable angle. Renewal as a Way of Life is a revision and popular-level condensation (204 pages) of the larger work, and may be the best place to start. The LifeandLeadership.com summary, as well as the Publisher’s Description and Editorial Reviews, are based on the larger edition.
Lovelace briefly surveys the early renewal movements, including the First (e.g. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield) and Second (e.g. Charles G. Finney) Great Awakenings. He then looks at later awakenings such as the Welsh Revivals and local revivals under the likes of Billy Sunday, and other occurrences up to the time of his writing.
He evaluates a standard model of revival by J. Edwin Orr based on outpourings of the Spirit in Acts 1 and 2, and balances this model with the Old Testament instances of return to God’s law under Josiah and Hezekiah (cf. Kaiser, Revive Us Again). He also surveys several genuine awakenings in Christian history. His purpose in surveying these biblical and historical phenomena is to position today’s church “for a level of reformation appropriate to a new and continuing empowering of the Spirit,” believing that future awakenings “are unlikely to occur without the full consolidation and realization in the church of those elements that have appeared in the past.” Yet he acknowledges that “renewal is God’s sovereign work and not conditional on comprehensive understanding of any set of principles.” (53)
Lovelace then transitions into what is probably the most helpful section of the book, a very enlightening look at “Biblical Models of Cyclical and Continuous Renewal,” both Old and New Testaments, to “search out theological explanations for the phenomenon of decline and revival in the church’s history.” (61) This is an excellent section, out of which emerges his model of the “Dynamics of Spiritual Life,” which is developed through the rest of the book. This model encompasses three main areas:
- Preconditions of renewal, or the preparation for the Gospel
This involves first, the awareness of the holiness of God revealed in his justice and his love. Out of this grows an awareness of the depth of sin in one’s own life and community.
- Primary elements of renewal, or a depth presentation of the Gospel
This focuses on the essential components of our life “in Christ” as conveyed through the biblical concepts of justification (you are accepted), sanctification (you are free from bondage to sin), the indwelling Spirit (you are not alone), and authority in spiritual conflict (you have authority).
- Secondary elements of renewal, or the outworking of the Gospel in the church’s life – This looks at five manifestations from those who experience the primary elements of renewal. These are:
- Mission – following Christ into the world and presenting his gospel in proclamation and social demonstration
- Prayer – expressing dependence on the power of his Spirit both individually and corporately
- Community – being in union with his body in microcommunities and macrocommunities
- Disenculturation – being freed from cultural blinds in both destructive and protective measures
- Theological integration – having the mind of Christ toward revealed truth and one’s culture.
The remaining chapters develop each piece of the model in detail. This book is indeed weighty, and admittedly not as lucid as practicing ministers may prefer, though the shorter version, Renewal as a Way of Life distills Lovelace’s essentials into a more readable format. Church leaders interested in revival will profit from mining out the essential features of his model. It is less “formulaic” than most revival literature, and does a respectable job of integrating the disciplines of history, theology and spiritual formation.
From the Publisher
Richard Lovelace gives a history of spiritual renewals in light of biblical models. Isolating the elements of live orthodoxy, he proposes a comprehensive approach to renewal. Lovelace looks at such practical issues as renewal of the local congregation, the ways revivals go wrong, the evangelical thrust toward church unity, and Christian approaches to the arts and to social concern. A book for all concerned to revitalize the church.
Editorial Reviews
- “Disciples of Jesus Christ who know the cost of discipleship, heirs of grace who treasure its costly gifts, and men and women of taste and scholarship and civil impulse have good reason for wishing the author luck. No, put that not ‘luck’ but ‘steadfastness’ and ‘grace.’” — Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago
- “We need a book like this at this time. Lovelace has done the job in a sensitive, insightful, readable way. His work deserves a readership far beyond the Evangelical tradition out of which it grows.” — Mark J. Link, S.J., author of These Stones Will Shout and The Seventh Trumpet
- “Here is more evidence of growing Evangelical concern with renewal, spirituality and the historic witness of Christianity. Dynamics of Spiritual Life is a major new contribution to our understanding of God’s action in the church and in history. While writing from an essentially Reformed perspective, Lovelace remains open to other traditions, including contemporary Neo-Pentecostalism, and is sensitive to God’s renewing action historically within Roman Catholicism as well as in Anabaptism, Pietism and other Protestant renewal movements.” — Howard A. Snyder, author of The Problem of Wineskins and Liberating the Church
- “Why is Lovelace’s writing a must-read? It’s a madly efficient use of your mental and spiritual energy. For pastors, church planters, missional leaders, and thinking Christians, the benefits of this book will be well worth the effort.” —Coram Deo
About the Author
Richard F. Lovelace (Th.D., Princeton) is emeritus professor of church history at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the author of Homosexuality and the Church (Revell) and The American Pietism of Cotton Mather (Eerdmans).
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