The Pietist Revival’s Implications for Church Ministry in the Post-Pandemic Church

Abstract

This article contends that the Pietist revival of the seventeenth century provides a “usable past” that the contemporary church, currently reeling from the global Covid-19 pandemic, can learn from. It chronicles how the Pietist movement was born out of major disruption, rediscovered vital Biblical emphases and methods such as the common priesthood doctrine, the spiritual giftedness of all God’s people, and small-group spiritual formation. Such emphases inspired many Pietists to improve the church’s moral and spiritual life, ameliorate society’s most pressing social problems, and evangelize their neighbors and new people groups. This article closes by exploring how Pietism’s most vital emphases and methods might be appropriately applied in the post-pandemic church. The goal is that the post-pandemic church will emerge healthier and more vibrant than the contemporary and pre-pandemic church.