During the Second Great Awakening, a hot potato leapt from one set of anodyne pastor's hands to another: “Can churches plan a revival?” What do you think?
Stories of revival are sacred heirlooms passed down through the generations. My grandmother told me my great-great grandfather was led to Christ by George Muller of Bristol. Granny ‘Nett lisped revivals to her grandkids while other grandparents rhapsodized famous FA Cup finals, career choices, or U2 concerts.
I have often wondered what I should do with my revival heirloom: is it a sentinel ornament protecting the past or a spiritual signpost pointing the way to future blessing?
Then I experienced a revival.
Revival among an unreached people group
The walls of the African chief’s home were festooned with string-hung freebie calendars from the local "Support your local Al Qaeda" catalogue, each month displaying variegated photos of men posing with their AK-47 guns.
Evangelism was risky business here, but I was under intense Holy Spirit conviction: “I am not a good person; I am a sinful man who Jesus died for on a Cross...”
God gave me these words to say, and, once spoken, heaven crackled and God’s power descended on the chief’s homestead. It is difficult to describe the kingdom of heaven intersecting earth – perhaps like walking in a prism of iridescent reality, enveloped by that reality, rather than seeing through a prism - a detached perspective.
The chief sent me to talk to another chief who lived about a mile away.
The second chief had the physique of boxer Anthony Joshua. And he was apparently angry - at least, he was shouting. Weather-stained Al Qaeda calendars also hung lopsidedly on his clay walls. The interpreter worked fast. The second chief had planned to leave his hut at 12 noon to attend the weekly tribal court, but God’s power felled him to the earthen floor; he didn’t know what was happening. With our knock on his door, the chief was able to stand up and come outside. Then I and two colleagues shared the good news of Jesus - the first missionaries to visit his compound in its 100-year history.
Like the first chief, the second chief urged me to travel with him to meet another chief: the Paramount Chief with authority over 10,000 people. The day continued like this.
Within less than a year, a new church was planted among an unreached people group.
Towards a theology of revival
Nothing had prepared me for this encounter - my theology degree lay exhausted in a darkened cloister. How should I conduct ministry after such a dramatic event?
What about my revival heirloom?
George Muller opened orphanages in Bristol without sustainable resources other than a prayerful reliance on God. Later, a young believer from Ulster, James McQuilkin, read his Narratives and decided to pray like Muller. Muller picks up the story: "By this time the great and mighty working of the Spirit, in 1857, in the United States, had become known, and Mr McQuilkin said to himself, 'Why may not we have such a blessed work here, seeing that God did such great things for Mr. Muller, simply in answer to prayer.'" [1]
James McQuilkin’s prayer meeting was foundational to Ireland’s 1859 Revival.
Meanwhile, on the eastern seaboard, revivalist Charles Finney challenged popular presbyterian inaction towards preparing for revival, “... The connection between the right use of means for a revival, and a revival, is as philosophically sure as between the right use of means to raise grain, and a crop of wheat." [2]
While I agree in principle with Finney’s causality argument, today’s "Quiet Revival" [3] (and indeed my African experiences), suggests God brings about revivals when the church is asleep. Prayer is ordained by God to effectuate revivals; however, due to prayerful negligence, revivals are not always dependent on the church’s prayer.
This failure to pray is often ignored by Christian leaders - or whitewashed over by upcycling the doctrine of God’s sovereignty into a theological caveat to justify a lack of blessing - Finney’s point, essentially.
Prayer
Four years prior to my courtroom visit, the Paramount Chief had a dream. Jesus was walking on serene, sunlit water, telling him to repent and believe the gospel or he would perish. And Jesus also said missionaries would come. The second I stepped into his courtroom was the moment Jesus’ promise was fulfilled.
It is no coincidence that several years before meeting the Paramount Chief, I started to pray in the pattern of Muller and McQuilkin. Through prayer, I stepped into a revival which the church knew nothing about.
Revival heirlooms are spiritual roadmaps!
- Compiled by A.E.C. Brooks, (circa 1895) Answers to Prayer from George Muller’s Narratives. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 79
- Charles Finney, (2005) Lectures on Revivals of Religion. Vol 1, 2005, Fenwick: Alethea p.26
- A variety of content on the "quiet revival" can be found on en's website, by searching the term
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