Liturgy 40.3: Revival

Issue 40.3-4 of Liturgy is entitled “Revival” and is guest-edited by Melanie C. Ross. What follows is an excerpt from Ross’ introduction to the issue.

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Revival is a charged word in the Christian lexicon. It evokes visions of new life, renewal, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the restoration of hope.

This issue of Liturgy celebrates revival in all its forms, and I am grateful to each contributor for the unique personal and disciplinary perspectives they bring to the subject. The first two contributions share a common theme, each parsing the “mysterious mingling” of divine and human agency that happens in worship. Starting with the First Great Awakening in the early eighteenth century, liturgical historian Lester Ruth traces how the emphasis on divine agency (“God gave us a revival”) and human agency (“We planned and scheduled a revival”) has fluctuated over time. He offers hints about what precipitated these historical shifts, and suggests how this history can be helpful for understanding twenty-first century worship developments. My piece similarly focuses on the divine/human balance in worship and critiques the contemporary fixation with having a “worship experience” in church. I explore the difficult pressures that manufacturing “worship experiences” places on leaders and suggest correctives for a more theologically robust understanding of how the Spirit works.

The next three articles look deeply into particular moments of revival. Ethnomusicologist Bo kyung Blenda Im discusses a pivotal moment in the history of Protestantism in Asia: the 1907 Great Revival that broke out in Pyongyang, now the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Noting that this event continues to shape Korean Christian self-understanding, Im asks what it means to feel nostalgic for a past that one has not lived. Through her analysis of the Korean worship song “Puhŭng” (“Revival”), Im identifies ways in which nostalgia for the 1907 Pyongyang Great Revival weds spiritual awakening and political longing in a way that shapes modern Korean Protestant desire.

In his piece, minister and musician Donté Ford offers a remembrance for the life, work and ministry of Bishop Carlton D. Pearson (1953–2023), a pioneering and controversial Pentecostal leader of the Black megachurch congregation, Higher Dimensions. Ford is particularly interested in Pearson’s Azusa Conference, a week-long revival that amassed thousands of attendees and brought together Black, White, and international Christians. After orienting Pearson’s Azusa Conferences in relation to their 1906 predecessor, Ford suggests ways that Pearson’s worship gatherings might serve as points of learning and models for worship leaders today.

Michael Jordan, a liturgical scholar in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, offers a close examination of the outpouring at Asbury University. He gives special attention to the “consecration room,” a small meeting space behind the main auditorium that was dedicated to the preparation of the hearts of those who were about to lead worship at the revival. Jordan suggests that many lessons from the consecration room about leadership, healing prayer, and worshiping across lines of difference can be fruitfully applied to ecclesial contexts far beyond the university.

The last two contributions look to the future, pointing toward ways the Church still needs to be revived. In her article, liturgical and political theologian Jan Rippentrop Schnell observes that “people are weary of the inauthenticity of having to appear pulled together when God knows we are not.” She suggests that specific trauma-informed practices such as acknowledging brokenness, nurturing connectivity, noticing God’s movement, and settling bodies for ease of receptivity can help revive our worship assemblies. Finally, Samantha Slaubaugh—who writes from her perspective as both a liturgical scholar and the parent of small children—draws attention to the youngest members of our congregations. She urges that Christian communities should prepare for liturgical revival that elevates, centers, and learns from the voices of children.

It is my hope that this volume will inspire, encourage, and challenge all those who long for the inbreaking of the Spirit, and that we might pray together in the words of the old gospel hymn, “Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory.

Revive us again.”