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Contemporary Revival-Like Movements
Contemporary Revival-Like Movements
| WWW Links on Revival |
| Contemporary Revivals |
| Toronto Blessing |
| Alpha Course |
| Charismatic Renewal |
| Restorationism |
| Jesus People |
| Vineyard |
| Pensacola Outpouring |
| Lakeland Outpouring |
| College Revivals |
| Details of Models |
| Limited Enthusiasm |
| Births, Deaths & Reversion |
| Renewal |
| Details of Results |
| Summary of Results |
| Short Term Revival |
| Long Term Growth |
| Long Term Decline |
| Growth via Renewal |
| References & Bibliography |
| Mathematics of Church Growth |
| Church Growth |
| Revival |
| System Dynamics |
| Sociology of Religion |
| Epidemics |
| Social Diffusion |
| Publications |
| Articles |
Contemporary Revivals
Revivals are are an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes salvation in Christ, and the presence of God, real in the experience of people. It spreads in an epidemic type fashion because revived Christians are so changed that they "infect" others around them. Believers see more of Jesus than they thought possible and want the same. Unbelievers see what they look like in the sight of God and repent and believe. Either way a revived Christian attracts others. As John Wesley said "When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn."
Such revived Christians are one example of enthusiasts in the limited growth model of church growth. The rapid growth follows from the attention that the revived Christians have in their social networks. However there is a down-side, as revivals have opposition; people who do not approve of this behaviour. These people are often other Christians, and as such revivals are very controversial in church circles.
Of course with past revivals many of the controversies have faded and all that is remembered in any detail is the glory and the conversions. Read any book on the great awakening or revivals in Wales before 1904 and they will have widespread approval across most of the modern Christian church an approval they never had from their contemporaries.
However this rosy view of revival does not extend to those that have taken place in recent memory. Nor does it extend to those where the media has reported them extensively. For example there is more criticism of the 1904 revival in Wales, simply because there is more material to go on. It was reported extensively in the secular media. Likewise the 1949 revival in the Outer Hebrides and the Pentecostal revival from 1905 onwards are very well documented and also receive a certain amount of criticism within Christian circles.
Of course more recent revivals have both the double disadvantage of being in living memory and having their wares and opponents views broadcast over the Internet, the ultimate in media presentation. Thus they are subject to a large amount of criticism and often labeled false revivals or deceptions.
However from a purely modelling point of view all these movements are of interest because they exhibit "revival growth" phenomena. They are social movements whatever anyone thinks of their theology or origin. As this project's main aim is to understand church growth in a way that will assist the Christian church to grow and understand the dynamics of revival then it will attempt to study all candidates for revival type movements fairly regardless of the views of their opponents. Those battles are beyond the scope of this project.
Below are a number of candidates for revival movements from the recent church history, including some which are still current.
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This started in a church in Toronto in January 1994. Initially people traveled to the Airport Christian Fellowship to be blessed and take the blessing home with them. However by summer it came to the attention of the media and with the internet the spread of the phenomena multiplied rapidly. It was this phenomena that initially inspired the first Church Growth Model, when someone said to me “This is spreading like an epidemic”, and the author decided to see if an epidemic model could explain the pattern of behaviour.
The Toronto Blessing has proved very controversial. In the search engines the opponents heavily outnumber those in favour. Its influence on the church has been enormous, seen by a significant number as a revival movement. Numerous churches across the western world and developing countries have been affected and it gave a new lease of life to charismatic renewal. In addition it affected the church where the Alpha course started. Although not the influence it was the Toronto church is still packed with visitors for numerous conferences each year. In addition it has a network of like minded churches, those affected by the blessing. For further applications of the models to the Toronto blessing see:
- A Dynamical Model of Church Growth and its Application to Contemporary Revivals, Review of Religious Research, 43(3), pp.218-241, March 2002.
The Alpha Course originally started as an evangelism course at Holy Trinity Brompton, London. It is now used extensively in many churches across all denominations and most countries. The application of the models to the Alpha Course is discussed extensively in the references below. It has its critics among those Christians opposed to charismatic phenomena. It has also been accused by some anti-cult people of being an example of “Large Group Awareness Training”, one of who has used results from church growth modelling at support that view. The author states that no such conclusion can be drawn from the modelling work. This is discussed in the first of the following references.
- The Alpha Course - An Example of Church Growth Through Enthusiasts
- A Dynamical Model of Church Growth and its Application to Contemporary Revivals, Review of Religious Research, 43(3), pp.218-241, March 2002.
- A General Model of Church Growth and Decline , Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 29(3), pp.177-207, 2005
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This has been a movement from with the Christian church that has brought new life to believers and as a result growth to their churches. It is generally taken that it started in California with Dennis Bennett, an Episcopalian priest, being baptised with the Spirit. Though there had no doubt been instances of this in non-Pentecostal denominations prior to that date, this event was significant because it was in a high profile “establishment” denomination. Through the 60’s and 70’s it spread throughout non-Pentecostal churches, including the Church of England. It has brought about a massive change in the culture of protestant Christianity in the West, especially in the areas of worship, prayer and evangelism. Various smaller movements have kept the renewal going and it has benefited greatly from its contact with Restorationism. Although not as powerful as it once was it nevertheless continues to re-surface from time to time.
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In the UK this has been a parallel movement to charismatic renewal, lead by Christians outside the existing denominations. Although charismatic its primary aim has been to restore the church to its New Testament roots without creating new denominations. Initially they were called house churches but have since become known as new churches and refer to the different groupings as streams rather than denominations. They grew rapidly through the 80’s and 90’s although the last English Church Growth survey has shown their numbers have fallen back. Some of this is due to some streams changing their nature as leadership changes hands and some have refused to stay together and be a denomination. The largest stream, New Frontiers, continues to grow.
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The Jesus people or Jesus movement started in California among the hippy culture and was thus a predominately young people movement. It grew rapidly through the 60’s and 70’s until it became part of mainstream church life. With its emphasis on contemporary music it had an influence on Christianity much wider than the denominations that it spawned like Calvary Chapel.
The Vineyard Christian Fellowship owes its origin to John Wimber. It is included here as a possible revival movement not so much for its growth but for the impact it has had on church worship. This is discussed in:
- A Dynamical Model of Church Growth and Global Revival, Technical Report UG-M-00-4, presented at "The Annual Meeting for the Scientific Study of Religion", Houston, Texas 18-21 October 2000
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A revival started on Father’s day 1995 in the Brownsville Assembly of God with evangelist Steve Hill. Its effect on people was to draw visitors in, rather than set up a network. Like the Toronto Blessing the Internet proved an effective medium of communication, particularly to advertise its meetings as they happen. With leadership changes it is now over but probably lasted about 10 years.
More recently on April 2nd 2008 a revival has started in Lakeland church Florida. The evangelist Todd Bentley is conducting a healing ministry and again the Internet is being used to show people being healed. An interesting statistic is that it took nearly 2 months for the opponents to pass the supporters in the hierarchy of search engines. It also shows that the internet can be a mixed blessing for any potential revival movement.
The USA has a long history of short revivals occurring on campus. Asbury College 1970, and Wheaton College 1995 are two such examples. Although short-lived there is an intensity and spread very much along the lines of the limited enthusiasm model.