A Clash of Kingdoms: Welcome to the Great Reawakening

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” — Matthew 12:30 NKJV

What if the decline of organised religion is not necessarily the decline of faith—but a stewardship test for the Church itself?

There is something happening beneath the headline story of religious decline.

For years, we have been told that Christianity is disappearing from Western society. In one sense, the statistics support that conclusion.

In Australia, the 2021 Census recorded Christian affiliation falling from 52.1% in 2016 to 43.9% in 2021, while ‘no religion’ rose from 30.1% to 38.9%.

But those headline numbers are not the whole story. McCrindle Research’s 2025 report An Undercurrent of Faith analysed Australian Census Longitudinal Data and a national survey of 3,000 Australians. It reports that more than 784,000 Australians who had previously identified with no religion identified with Christianity in the 2021 Census. It also found 45% were extremely or very open to spiritual conversations involving views different from their own, while 19% were extremely or significantly open to changing their current religious view—up from 8% in 2011.

The same report notes that more than 390,000 former Christians had returned to Christian affiliation in the 2021 longitudinal measure, compared with about 265,000 in the equivalent 2016 measure. Religious identity is not simply moving in one direction.

At the institutional level, however, the pressure remains visible. NCLS Research’s 2025 Church Pulse Check estimated about 1.35 million Australians attending church in an average week, with weekly attendance at 89% of its 2001 estimate.

This combination matters. Formal Christian affiliation and organised church attendance remain below earlier levels, while spiritual openness, movement towards Christianity and return to Christian identity are still measurable.

That does not prove that Australia is in revival. It does tell us that the story is more complicated than faith simply disappearing.

The Church is not the institution

A distinction matters from the outset.

The Bible is not against the Church. Nor is Scripture against order, leadership, teaching or believers gathering together.

The first Christians devoted themselves to apostolic teaching, fellowship, prayer and breaking bread together (Acts 2:42–47). Hebrews tells believers not to abandon meeting together (Hebrews 10:24–25). And Ephesians says Christ gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip His people and build the Body (Ephesians 4:11–16).

So the biblical answer to corrupted organised religion cannot be isolated Christianity.

The answer is the Church restored to its purpose.

There is a profound difference between structure that serves Christ and structure that begins serving itself; between leadership and control; between shepherding and empire; between community and audience; between equipping believers and creating dependency upon personalities.

What may need to end is not the Church, but forms of institutional Christianity that have forgotten what the Church is for.

When structure forgets purpose

Every institution is vulnerable to drift. A structure originally created to serve a purpose can gradually begin protecting its own continuation.

The programme must continue. The platform must grow. The building must be funded. The leader must remain central. The audience must stay engaged. The brand must remain visible.

Eventually, a system can become extraordinarily successful at sustaining itself while becoming less effective at producing the thing it was created for.

That is not only a church problem. It is a systems problem.

And it is exactly where the Renovaré Stewardship Lens becomes useful.

PURPOSE — What is the Church actually for?

The Church does not exist primarily to sustain an organisation. Christ is its head.

Its purpose includes worshipping God, proclaiming Christ, making disciples, equipping believers, forming holy communities and demonstrating the love, mercy and justice of God in the world.

James gives one of Scripture’s simplest tests of authentic religion: care for widows and orphans alongside personal holiness (James 1:27). Jesus likewise rejects models of authority built on domination and directs His followers towards service (Matthew 20:25–28).

A church can have excellent lighting and weak discipleship. A sophisticated communications strategy and poor accountability. Packed programmes and neglected people. A powerful brand and very little resemblance to Christ.

The question is therefore not whether a church appears successful. The question is whether its structure still serves its biblical purpose.

STRUCTURE — Who is being equipped?

In my original prophetic reflection, I returned to 1 John 2:27: the believer has received an anointing from God and is not dependent upon another human being as the exclusive gatekeeper to Him.

But biblical soundness requires us to read that alongside Ephesians 4:11–16. John cannot mean that Christian teachers are unnecessary, because Paul explicitly says Christ gives teachers to His Church. Nor does any pastor become the believer’s mediator: Scripture identifies Christ as the one Mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5).

The distinction is important.

A pastor is not meant to replace the Holy Spirit. A pastor is meant to equip people to follow Christ.

Healthy leadership increases the maturity of the Body. Unhealthy leadership increases dependence upon the leader.

Healthy structures teach believers to know Scripture, pray, serve, mature and discern faithfully. They do not make spiritual importance dependent upon proximity to a personality.

And the other side of this matters too: ‘God told me’ is not a licence for private infallibility. Scripture tells believers not to despise prophecy, but to test what is said and hold fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:19–21), and to test the spirits rather than believe every spiritual claim (1 John 4:1).

The biblical pattern is neither spiritual control nor spiritual individualism. It is a mature Body under Christ.

STEWARDSHIP — What has been placed in the Church’s hands?

The Church has been entrusted with extraordinary things: the Gospel, Scripture, spiritual authority, money, people, children, the vulnerable, the wounded, community trust, the gifts of believers—and the name of Jesus Christ itself.

Those things are not possessions. They are trusts.

That changes the question from ‘What can we build with this?’ to ‘How faithfully are we stewarding what belongs to God?’

This is especially serious where power is involved. Peter tells elders to shepherd willingly and by example, not by domination over those entrusted to them (1 Peter 5:2–3). Scripture also says that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17).

That last verse should produce humility before it produces accusation.

It means the Church must be willing to examine itself.

The statistics reveal a stewardship problem

The Australian data does not allow us to say that every person who leaves organised Christianity has rejected God for the same reason. But it does give churches something important to hear.

Among the respondents in McCrindle’s survey who had changed their affiliation from Christianity to ‘no religion’ (n=344), 51% cited disappointment with the Church involving lack of accountability, hypocrisy or dishonesty. Thirty-eight per cent cited disillusionment with the way Christianity was practised or represented by leaders and institutions. These are self-reported reasons from a specific survey subgroup, not a universal explanation—but they are too substantial to dismiss. The full report is available here.

Some people are unquestionably moving away from Christian belief. Others may be reacting to what they have experienced as Christianity’s institutional expression. Those are not identical phenomena.

If people encounter manipulation where Scripture teaches service, celebrity where Scripture points to Christ, concealment where Scripture demands truth, or neglect of the vulnerable where Scripture commands care, then the problem is not only one of public relations.

It is stewardship.

A necessary caution: hope is not evidence

There is another responsibility here: Christians must steward truth well, including statistics that appear to support what we hope is happening.

In Britain, the widely publicised ‘Quiet Revival’ report was withdrawn in March 2026 after YouGov reviewed the underlying survey and identified fraudulent respondents in sufficient numbers to undermine the findings. The episode is a useful warning; a summary of the withdrawal and its implications is available from the Religion Media Centre.

Christians should not need weak evidence to validate what God is doing.

There can be genuine conversions, spiritual hunger and local renewal without pretending every country is experiencing a statistically established mass revival.

Research should describe what research can establish. Prophecy should be identified as prophecy. Scripture remains the standard by which both are tested.

That, too, is stewardship.

A note on inspiration and authorship

Before developing this Brief, I wrote a much more direct prophetic reflection titled Welcome to the Great Reawakening. I have left that original piece published in its raw form for readers who want to see the thought at its source. Its prophetic language should be read as prophetic reflection, not as statistical reporting.

A separate video transcript later included in my working notes was another source of inspiration. The speaker describes a perceived movement away from performance-driven church culture towards authenticity, community, transformation and encounter with God. Those words, historical parallels and prophetic predictions belong to the speaker. They are not my words, and I do not present the video’s prophetic timetable as established fact.

This Brief is my developed Renovaré analysis: my earlier prophetic reflection examined through Scripture, the Stewardship Lens and the research cited here.

LEGACY — What kind of Church will remain?

If cultural Christianity continues to decline, what will remain?

Perhaps fewer people will call themselves Christian merely because their parents did. Perhaps institutions will no longer receive automatic cultural authority. Perhaps churches will have to earn trust that previous generations inherited.

That is uncomfortable. But it can also expose something valuable.

What remains when Christianity can no longer depend upon habit? What remains when the brand stops working? What remains when charisma is insufficient? What remains when people begin asking whether our lives actually resemble what we preach?

The New Testament answer is not spectacle.

It is a people devoted to Christ. A people formed by truth. A people who pray and gather. A people who care for one another and protect the vulnerable. A people whose leaders equip rather than dominate. A people who know the Holy Spirit is not a programme item but the Spirit of the living God. A people whose lives bear fruit.

Revelation’s letters to Philadelphia and Laodicea remain instructive here (Revelation 3:7–22). We should be careful about declaring that a contemporary congregation simply ‘is’ one of those churches. But we should not miss the warning: Christ loves His Church enough to correct it.

Welcome to the reawakening

When I speak of a great reawakening, I am not celebrating the destruction of the Church.

I am hoping for its restoration.

Not Christianity without community. Christian community without idolatry of institution.

Not Christianity without teachers. Teachers who know they are servants.

Not Christianity without structure. Structure submitted to purpose.

Not Christianity without authority. Authority understood as stewardship.

Not Christianity without gathering. Gathering in which Christ—not personality, platform, politics or production—is unmistakably the centre.

Perhaps the clash of kingdoms is not primarily taking place outside the Church.

Perhaps it begins whenever the logic of another kingdom enters it.

And perhaps reawakening begins when we recognise it and return.

Purpose → Structure → Stewardship → Legacy.

THE STEWARDSHIP QUESTION

If Christ examined the systems we have built in His name, would He find that they are forming people around Himself—or around us?

Sources & further reading

Australian Bureau of Statistics — Religious affiliation in Australia.

McCrindle Research — An Undercurrent of Faith: Exploring Australians’ renewed relationship with Christianity, 2025.

NCLS Research — Church Pulse Check 2025: Tracking the health of Australian churches.

Religion Media Centre — Quiet Revival report withdrawn: key lessons and future implications, 30 March 2026.

Audra Oakes, BA — original prophetic reflection: Welcome to the Great Reawakening.

Supporting video that helped prompt the developed reflection: source video.

Scripture considered: Matthew 12:30; Acts 2:42–47; Matthew 20:25–28; Hebrews 10:24–25; Ephesians 4:11–16; James 1:27; 1 John 2:27; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:19–21; 1 John 4:1; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 Peter 5:2–3; Revelation 3:7–22.