The great revivals of yesteryear
Here’s something interesting from the Sammy Tippit Ministries website: a collection of newspaper accounts of Christian revivals in early 19th-century communities! Eight different newspaper clippings describe scenes of prayer and conversion in different Welsh towns at the turn of the century. We tend to think of evangelism and revival as modern concepts ushered in by Billy Graham and other big-name evangelists–but American and British history are full of examples of revival happening on both the local and national scale.
If the topic interests you, the Christian History Institute has quite a bit more on historical Christian revivals. You might start with Jonathan Edwards’ words on revival in 1736, the unusual events at Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801, or CHI’s overview of the Welsh Revival referred to in the Sammy Tippit link above.
