在分析了复兴的一些元素以后，我们现在来思想一些观点，是那些认为复兴跟今天的教会毫无关系的人所提出的（这些人为数不少）。有些人说教会本质上是宗教机构，它和其他的法律和医疗机构一样拥有可以为有需要的人提供帮助的资源。持有这种主张的人说，教会拥有我们所需要的东西如圣餐、各种崇拜的仪式、诗歌、团契等等，让我们可以好好地过活。他们说，若有人在灵性上出了毛病，他们只需要到教会去，就可找到属灵的良药。

罗伯茨（Emyr Roberts）和戴维斯（Geraint Davies）在《灵性复兴及其果子》（Revival and Its Fruit）小册子中正确的处理了这个问题，说：「这样说来，教会好像一家商店，与会众是分别独立存在的；哪怕没有人来，教会这家商店仍要营业。」毫无疑问，个人对教会的看法影响了对灵性复兴的看法；那些认为教会是一间独立机构，而不是由神的话语和圣灵所维系起来的群体，这样的人肯定无视复兴的重要。

但教会是甚么？它并不是一幢建筑物，而是一个有属灵生命的群体。教会生存的秘诀是不间断地向赐下生命的圣灵敞开自己；教会不仅仅是从圣灵而来，也是倚靠圣灵生存和兴盛。

Having examined some of the ingredients of a spiritual revival we consider now arguments advanced by those (and there are many) who believe that revival is an irrelevant issue in today's Church. Some say the Church is essentially a religious institution not wholly unlike the institutions of law and medicine. And just as the institutions of law and medicine have the resources to meet the needs of those who wish to draw upon them, so also has the Church. The exponents of this view say that the Church possesses everything we need to live an effective life - sacraments, hallowed forms of worship, hymns, fellowship, and so on. If someone is spiritually sick, so they say, all that person has to do is make their way to the Church and they will find there the medicine they need for their soul.

Emyr Roberts and Geraint Davies in their booklet Revival and Its Fruit rightly take issue with this view and say of it: "In this sense the Church exists independently of the congregation; if nobody calls, the shop is always open." There can be little doubt that one's view of revival depends on one's view of the Church. Those who see the Church as an institution rather than a community of people brought into being and maintained by the Holy Spirit and the Word will regard revival as irrelevant.

But what is the Church? It is not a building but a body made alive by the Holy Spirit. And the secret of her survival is in continually opening herself to the Spirit who gave her life. She was not only born of the Spirit but survives and thrives by the Spirit.