Excerpt from The Gathered and Scattered Church
by Edward H. Hammett

We need, it seems to me, to have a new birth of life in the modern church. I think the basic thing that needs to happen in our present churches is that something must happen in the lives of those of us who call ourselves the 'People of God.' I am not now referring to the fact that something needs to happen in the lives of the unsaved. That is true. I am not even speaking now about the fact that something needs to happen in the lives of those who are on the fringes of our churches. That also is true. But what I am saying is that those of us who are the core of the church, those of us who are responsible leaders in the church, those of us who are now working in the church, I am saying that something of a relatively radical nature needs to happen in us. I would say, if you would not misunderstand me, we need to have a new birth of life within us.

Now, I am not using this phrase in the sense of a conversion experience, i.e., regeneration. I am, however, using it in the sense of sanctification. I am simply saying that, for those of us who are already good workers, who love the Lord, we must come to meet God at a deeper level in our lives in which He comes into our lives to shatter and remake and transform us increasingly into His own image. This is exceedingly difficult to explain with words, but I can say to you that I have seen this new life break out in the lives of some people of my own acquaintance.

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