Abraham Lincoln once confessed half-jokingly, “When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees!” Raised by Baptists in the rural Midwest during the Second Great Awakening, Lincoln was no stranger to passionate preaching.
Now, 170 years later, this is still how many Americans conceive of revival: an animated speaker who captivates and converts large audiences from a stage. But a reviving work of God, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, cannot be confined to a pulpit or sanctuary, and the seeds of revival are sown long before sinners are born again. There’s always a revival before the revival: a previval.
Some Americans believe we may be witnessing just such a movement. For the first time in decades, young people are expressing a renewed interest in Christianity. Many churches have reported spikes in baptisms. Since Charlie Kirk’s death, Bible sales have surged. Talk of revival is in the evangelical air, we might say.
However, others contend that the optimism is premature and even misplaced. How can we assess whether this movement is an authentic work of the Spirit? With history as our guide, we should begin at ground zero for every spiritual awakening: the local church.
The first showers of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit appear much less extraordinary than most tend to think. Historically, revivals have been birthed from (1) a recovery of sound gospel theology, (2) the reading of Scripture, (3) the discipline of prayer, and (4) conversations among God’s people about sin and salvation.
In this sense, revival is always a “surprising work” (to borrow Jonathan Edwards’s phrase), but it’s never a spontaneous work. Extraordinary works of God in the local church—through ordinary means—have repeatedly led to widespread revival.
These shoots of revival generally don’t gain national attention and may even seem unimaginative to the worldly eye, but they’re nonetheless attended with supernatural power. On the fulcrum of gospel-centered preaching, spiritual awakening traditionally begins at the prayer meeting and the Bible study, not at the altar call and certainly not at the ballot box.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at The Gospel Coalition)
Obbie Tyler Todd is teaching pastor and theologian in residence at Cross Community Church in Beaufort, South Carolina, and adjunct professor of church history at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including Let Men Be Free: Baptist Politics in the Early United States (1776–1835) and The Beechers: America’s Most Influential Family. You can find Obbie at his website.
