Pentecostal Revival Must Flow Into Creation Care

Pentecostal worship knows the language of water. We sing of rivers, rain, wells, fountains, overflow and the latter rain. We pray for dry places to live again. We speak of the Holy Spirit as living water and of revival as a river that no human institution can contain. These images carry biblical depth and genuine spiritual memory.

Yet the same worshippers leave sanctuaries for neighbourhoods where rivers carry waste, boreholes fail, farms wait for rain, floods enter homes and women and children bear the time and danger of finding water. If living water remains only a metaphor for an intense service, Pentecostal spirituality becomes less integrated than the gospel it proclaims.

The issue is not whether the Church should exchange evangelism for environmentalism. The mission of God cannot be divided so easily. The Spirit who renews persons is the Spirit poured out upon a groaning creation; the Lord who saves sinners is the Lord through whom all things were made and reconciled. Revival should deepen worship, holiness, witness and care for the world God loves.

The World Council of Churches is currently calling Christians to observe the 2026 Season of Creation from 1 September to 4 October. Its theme, Living Water, comes from Ezekiel 47:9 and 12. The official material connects water flowing from God's sanctuary with ecological restoration, human responsibility, worship, education, river clean-ups…