Speakers responded to the following three questions:

1.  Why is revival needed among Christian leaders at this point in history?
2.  What do you hope to see God do during the 2008 Heart-Cry for Revival Conference?
3.  What is your personal heart-cry for revival?

Speakers' Comments:

1.  Why is revival needed among Christian leaders at this point in history?

•John Avant:  "We have become almost completely internalized.  We have turned on each other and lost our way.  Our churches often simply mirror our leaders.  Beginning with me, we need a renewal of love, humility, holiness, and deep compassion for the lost."

•Nancy Leigh DeMoss:  "As go the shepherds, so goes the flock.  The church desperately needs leaders who are holy, Spirit-filled, prayerful, whole-hearted, anointed men of the Word and servants and lovers of Christ."

•Daniel Henderson:  "Our Christian culture has become much like the Laodiceans of Revelation chapter three.  We are lukewarm and, in our self-estimation, 'rich . . . wealthy and . . . in need of nothing.'  We are blind to Christ's assessment that we are actually 'wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked' without a fresh experience of His presence.  We are entrenched in self-sufficiency, evidenced by our reliance on human leadership, technology, methodology and programming -- coupled with our general disinterest in prayer.  We need a holy outpouring of grace to repent, see our true condition and invite Christ into the midst of our corporate life as He is even now standing at the door and knocking, ready to revive His people with His holy presence."

•Erwin Lutzer:  "We need a revival among Christian leaders because many of us must return to the basic truths and practices that made the church great:  personal repentance, evangelism and a radical commitment to holiness, for ourselves and our congregations."

•James MacDonald:  "For decades I have prayed for revival in the church in America in our lifetime.  The western church has become an awful mess, but Jesus is not giving up on her and neither should we.  The answer we desperately need is a fresh move of God.  We need a renewed vision of God's exalted, infinite holiness.  We need an overwhelming sense of our own pride and personal sinfulness.  We need our eyes lifted from the bankruptcy of cultural reflection to the crucified, risen, glorified Christ.  There must be a returning to the centrality of the unadorned Gospel and the power of God's Spirit to redeem, restore and rebuild broken lives.  We need men and women on fire with passionate confidence in the power of God's Word proclaimed.  In short, what we desperately need is a renewing work of God that will cut a swath of revival across our land like a tornado across a Kansas wheat field.  Nothing else will do."

•Richard Owen Roberts:  "God is unchanging:  He still insists that things be done His way.  Revival is greatly needed when leaders forget that doing things God's way in the power of His Spirit is the only acceptable way." 

•Sammy Tippit:  "We live at a time in history where we face incredible darkness.  This is the moment to seek God for revival in our land and throughout the world.  A visitation from heaven is desperately needed."

2.  What do you hope to see God do during the 2008 Heart-Cry for Revival Conference?

•John Avant:  "I pray that God would awaken within us a renewed passion for the lost, resulting in real Spirit-led, Spirit-filled action to fulfill the Great Commission."

•Nancy Leigh DeMoss:  "Revive our hearts, rekindle our love for Christ, refresh our vision, and restore our passion for prayer and for a movement of revival and spiritual awakening in our day."

•Daniel Henderson:  "To give His people a fresh passion for His person and presence, not just through teaching about revival, but through transformational moments of seeking Him together in the actual experience of prayer."

•Erwin Lutzer:  "I would like to see God enlarge our vision of what is possible for us and our constituencies.  We have grown too content with mediocrity, with maintaining our positions rather than taking ground for the cause of Christ.  We need vision and motivation to pursue God both individually and corporately."

•James MacDonald:  "We cannot control national revival, local revials, nor church revivals - but we can pray from our hearts, 'Lord, start a revival.  Begin with me.'  I believe God can and would bring that personal revival to you and to your heart, as He has to mine.  I would love to see each of us acknowledge before Him, 'God, my heart has grown cold.  I have allowed some of the truth of your Word to become fact-based to me and a little dry and a little hard.  Lord, bring a fresh work of Your Spirit in my life.'"

•Richard Owen Roberts:  "It is my ernest hope that God will so touch the hearts of all leaders in attendance that the world will experience the tidal wave of the old-fashioned Holy Ghost power that accompanies full obedience to God."

•Sammy Tippit:  "My prayer is that God will send a great renewal to the hearts of Christian leaders across America.  If God meets with us, churches across America will never be the same.  We will never be the same."

3.  What is your personal heart-cry for revival?

•John Avant:  "Over the last decade, my vision for revival has shifted to a movement that would have its largest impact outside the walls of church buildings.  I am deeply concerned that many, if not most of our churches are now only religious clubs, existing only for the needs of its members.  I am stirred by the study of a man like C.T. Studd who called for a revival that would actually manifest itself in the Church following Jesus - away from the safe 99 and into the life of the wandering one."

•Nancy Leigh DeMoss:  "When I was a 12-13-year-old girl, I came across a number of historical accounts of revival and spiritual awakening.  I had the privilege of growing up in Bible-believing churches and attending a Christian school.  As I looked around, I was struck by the absence of an awareness of the presence of God, deep conviction of sin, and genuine love and passion for Christ.

I knew God had not changed since those days when He poured out His Spirit on His people.  My heart was quickened to pray, 'Lord, do it again!'  That has been my longing ever since.  As I minister to women, I think of myself as a 'wedding coordinator' - helping the Bride get ready for the Wedding!"

•Daniel Henderson:  "My vision is to see pastor-led, local church-oriented movements of Christ-exalting, worship-based prayer -- leading to a full-scale revival, supernatural evangelism and cultural transformation."

•Erwin Lutzer:  "My personal heartcry for revival is that we might yet see a day when Jesus is honored in our culture, when the gospel is central in our preaching and we live our faith with conviction and sacrifice."

•James MacDonald:  "I want more of God in my life.  I want more heartfelt worship and more measurable progress in personal righteousness.  I want true joy and peace that penetrates the conceptual and arrives unhindered at the center of a genuine personal experience.

We each personally need to be done with routine religion that makes drudgery out of what should be delight.  If we keep doing what we've always done, we're going to keep getting what we've always gotten.  That's not good enough.  If we want a real, growing dynamic relationship with God - we can't settle for anything less anymore.  Revival is:  More of God in my life, experienced, and enjoyed."

•Richard Owen Roberts:  "My personal heart-cry is that whatever days I have left upon this earth will be consumed in passionate love for Jesus Christ and in the profound expansion of His kingdom."

•Sammy Tippit:  "We will only be able to meet the challenges facing us when we as leaders meet with the Lord.  My cry for this time together is that we would encounter God in such a way that we will never be the same.  We need fresh vision and fire to fill our hearts."