The Emergence of Spiritual Renewal
Introduction
In considering the Christian mission throughout history, two key elements are necessary for the mission movement to emerge. The first factor that contributed to the mission movement is Spiritual Renewal. How did God’s people who received the Call of God get the motivation to leave their comfort zone and go on a mission in difficult and dangerous places? The answer to that question is the desire that comes from spiritual renewal by the Holy Spirit.
The second factor is the mission structure, which provides and supports the missionaries and their work. We need to understand that the whole church is called to be involved in the mission, but not everyone is called to be a cross-cultural missionary. A healthy local church will always encourage and support those of its members who hear God’s call. Therefore, it is essential to have a Spiritual Renewal and Mission Structure to have a Healthy Mission Movement. In the remaining section of this article, I will present how important these two facts are to reaching the mission in Myanmar(Burma)’s barren soil.
The Emergence of Spiritual Renewal
In 1776, American settlers began the Revolutionary War to liberate themselves from British rule. The war caused emotional and physical damage to people. As a result, spirituality in Christianity was declining in America. On the other hand, Deism was gaining popularity among college students. Its doctrine of God is based on the evidence of reason and nature only and rejects supernatural revelation. Deism is also the belief that God did not care about the existence of the world after God created it and let the world run on its own according to the laws of nature. Also, Deism emphasized the goodness of human beings and their capacity for understanding the world through the use of reason. Moreover, Deism held the morality of the Old and New Testaments but denied the miracles of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and resurrection from the dead as myth.[1] In such a situation, the future of the church seems hopeless according to those thoughts. However, God continued to do His work through His people.
The Second Great Awakening usually refers to the wave of religious revivals that appeared in the United States from the late 1790s through the 1830s. A significant influence on the beginnings of the Second Great Awakening was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preacher named James McGready. He had his personal conversion experience in 1786, and he was licensed to preach in 1788. In 1796, he began pastoring three congregations - Red River, Gasper River, and Muddy River – in Logan County, Kentucky. In June 1800, 10 people of the Red River congregation were converted in a sacrament service by the preaching of James McGready, William Hodges, and John Rankin. Also, McGready witnessed people’s conversion at Muddy River church, so he planned to hold a sacrament service at Gasper River in July. The Gasper River meeting, America’s first revival camp meeting, was scheduled to be a three-day and 45 people were converted in that meeting. This set the stage for The Great Revival at Cane Ridge the following summer.[2]
Barton Stone, who was a protege of James McGready, decided to organize a second camp meeting at Cane Ridge after hearing about the Gasper River revival. Stone announced a sacramental service for August 6, 1801, and between 10,000 and 25,000 people attended the Cane Ridge meeting. This was a Presbyterian meeting, but many Baptists and Methodists were present, including preachers from those denominations. In that meeting, hundreds were converted for the first time in their lives and rededicated their lives. This Great Revival is generally regarded as the beginning of the Second Great Awakening. This spiritual renewal movement continued to move in the eastern part of the country in its second decade.[3]
Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, became the principal of Yale University in 1759. Timothy Dwight taught his theology to all students in three parts: a system of doctrines, a system of duties, and a system of dispensations. Timothy Dwight's ideas and teachings have had a profound effect. The revival of Yale began in the spring of 1802 with Timothy Dwight’s sermon “The Youth of Nain.” When the revival ended in August, only about a third of the students changed their lives, and many students entered the ministry. Such spiritual revivals continued to occur in other colleges. The movement spread throughout the southern United States and was a spark in the Second Great Awakening, a spiritual renewal.[4]
[1] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening and The Transcendentalists (London: Greenwood Press, 2004), 1-2.
[2] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening, 7-9.
[3] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening, 9-15.
[4] John A. Andrew III, From Revivals to Removal, (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992), 13-18.
In considering the Christian mission throughout history, two key elements are necessary for the mission movement to emerge. The first factor that contributed to the mission movement is Spiritual Renewal. How did God’s people who received the Call of God get the motivation to leave their comfort zone and go on a mission in difficult and dangerous places? The answer to that question is the desire that comes from spiritual renewal by the Holy Spirit.
The second factor is the mission structure, which provides and supports the missionaries and their work. We need to understand that the whole church is called to be involved in the mission, but not everyone is called to be a cross-cultural missionary. A healthy local church will always encourage and support those of its members who hear God’s call. Therefore, it is essential to have a Spiritual Renewal and Mission Structure to have a Healthy Mission Movement. In the remaining section of this article, I will present how important these two facts are to reaching the mission in Myanmar(Burma)’s barren soil.
The Emergence of Spiritual Renewal
In 1776, American settlers began the Revolutionary War to liberate themselves from British rule. The war caused emotional and physical damage to people. As a result, spirituality in Christianity was declining in America. On the other hand, Deism was gaining popularity among college students. Its doctrine of God is based on the evidence of reason and nature only and rejects supernatural revelation. Deism is also the belief that God did not care about the existence of the world after God created it and let the world run on its own according to the laws of nature. Also, Deism emphasized the goodness of human beings and their capacity for understanding the world through the use of reason. Moreover, Deism held the morality of the Old and New Testaments but denied the miracles of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and resurrection from the dead as myth.[1] In such a situation, the future of the church seems hopeless according to those thoughts. However, God continued to do His work through His people.
The Second Great Awakening usually refers to the wave of religious revivals that appeared in the United States from the late 1790s through the 1830s. A significant influence on the beginnings of the Second Great Awakening was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preacher named James McGready. He had his personal conversion experience in 1786, and he was licensed to preach in 1788. In 1796, he began pastoring three congregations - Red River, Gasper River, and Muddy River – in Logan County, Kentucky. In June 1800, 10 people of the Red River congregation were converted in a sacrament service by the preaching of James McGready, William Hodges, and John Rankin. Also, McGready witnessed people’s conversion at Muddy River church, so he planned to hold a sacrament service at Gasper River in July. The Gasper River meeting, America’s first revival camp meeting, was scheduled to be a three-day and 45 people were converted in that meeting. This set the stage for The Great Revival at Cane Ridge the following summer.[2]
Barton Stone, who was a protege of James McGready, decided to organize a second camp meeting at Cane Ridge after hearing about the Gasper River revival. Stone announced a sacramental service for August 6, 1801, and between 10,000 and 25,000 people attended the Cane Ridge meeting. This was a Presbyterian meeting, but many Baptists and Methodists were present, including preachers from those denominations. In that meeting, hundreds were converted for the first time in their lives and rededicated their lives. This Great Revival is generally regarded as the beginning of the Second Great Awakening. This spiritual renewal movement continued to move in the eastern part of the country in its second decade.[3]
Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, became the principal of Yale University in 1759. Timothy Dwight taught his theology to all students in three parts: a system of doctrines, a system of duties, and a system of dispensations. Timothy Dwight's ideas and teachings have had a profound effect. The revival of Yale began in the spring of 1802 with Timothy Dwight’s sermon “The Youth of Nain.” When the revival ended in August, only about a third of the students changed their lives, and many students entered the ministry. Such spiritual revivals continued to occur in other colleges. The movement spread throughout the southern United States and was a spark in the Second Great Awakening, a spiritual renewal.[4]
[1] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening and The Transcendentalists (London: Greenwood Press, 2004), 1-2.
[2] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening, 7-9.
[3] Barry Hankins, The Second Great Awakening, 9-15.
[4] John A. Andrew III, From Revivals to Removal, (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992), 13-18.
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