An Introduction To An Urgent Appeal: “Let The Conversation Begin” -- By: David Bryant

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 11:3 (Summer 2002)
Article: An Introduction To An Urgent Appeal: “Let The Conversation Begin”
Author: David Bryant


An Introduction To An Urgent Appeal:
“Let The Conversation Begin”

David Bryant

The document you’re about to read made its official public, bi-lingual debut on May 2, 2002, before the entire Western Hemisphere!

From Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., as a part of the nationally broadcast Concert of Prayer (climaxing America’s National Day of Prayer), over a thousand radio stations and nearly that many television outlets broadcast a three-hour live prayer meeting using An Urgent Appeal as its primary agenda. Simulcast in Spanish (by radio and TV) throughout all of Latin America, the event reached into millions of homes from Alaska to Peru, as well as thousands of churches via satellite hook ups. At the same time, the entire document was made available (and still is) in e-book form to be downloaded free of charge at www.urgentappeal.net.

Titled An Urgent Appeal to Christian Leaders in America for Consensus and Collaboration on The Biblical Nature and Hope of Corporate Revival—no treatise on revival has ever had such an auspicious beginning. It was instantly introduced to a huge swath of Christ’s Body, and then prayed over simultaneously on the very same night by a multitude of intercessors from a score of nations.

Who’s Behind It?

But the faces behind An Urgent Appeal are just as riveting. It was developed through six major drafts, with input from over one hundred national Christian leaders (diverse in denomination and ethnicity), and initially proposed to 4,000 pastors at a national conference in January 2002. The document is officially co-sponsored by Mission America (representing 80 denominations, 300 parachurch ministries, 70 ministry networks and nearly 100 city-wide movements), America’s National Prayer Committee (representing over 100 national prayer ministries and another 100 seasoned Christian leaders committed to a national spiritual awakening to Christ), and the National Revival Network (leaders with revival-related ministries who served as the “drafting committee” for An Urgent Appeal). Furthermore, it received numerous scholarly fine-tunings, with one Ph.D. church historian pronouncing it among the most significant publications on revival he had ever read.

What’s In A Title?

So how did the drafting committee (National Revival Network) land on a 21-word title (which sounds a little like a Jonathan Edwards book title!)?

Let me take you back three years to one of the first meetings of the National Revival Network (NRN) at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. At the time there was no document, let alone a vision for a campaign. What we ...

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