This is Slow Burn Christianity with Joseph Lear, a Substack about reviving your Christian walk one step at a time.

After he was raised from the dead, Jesus walked with Cleopas and an unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus, but they didn’t recognize him. Luke says that Jesus opened the Scriptures to them as they walked, demonstrating that the Old Testament is one big story all leading to him and his death and resurrection. It was only after Jesus broke bread that their eyes were opened and they knew him. The disciples remarked that their hearts burned within them as Jesus explained the Bible to them (Luke 24:13-35).

I will not be breaking bread with you on this platform. You’ve gotta go to church for that. But, with God’s help, I do hope to imitate Jesus in opening the Scriptures in ways that provide kindling for the Holy Spirit’s fire in your heart.

I’m a Pentecostal pastor and theologian, which means I’m part of a revival movement. Historically, my roots go back to the Azusa Street Revival, where fire fell from heaven with signs and wonders. I grew up in Burkina Faso in the Sahel region of West Africa where within 15 years of Azusa, the first Assemblies of God missionaries showed up to plant churches. I was there in 1996 when they celebrated 75 years of revival in the country.

The late 90s “Brownsville Revival” in Florida and the “Toronto Blessing” figured large in my childhood Christian imagination. When I attended Central Bible College in the early 2000s, students and faculty alike were convinced that revival could break out on campus in any given chapel service.