The Jesus Revolution Part III: Much Ado About Asbury
By Rev. Jonathan David Faulkner
To Study the story of American Church History is to study the history of Revivals. American Evangelicalism as we know it, finds its past in the revivals of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Claiming figures such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, Dwight Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and even Lonnie Frisbee as great historical revivalists who found themselves in the middle of a movement of God. Every Revival has had its detractors, every revival has had its excesses. One can look through the History of the World and see many renewal or revival movements. Times when the Spirit just shows up in a place and starts moving. Be that Northampton Massachusetts* or Azusa* Street or the religious movement that brought about the end of Apartheid* in South Africa.
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1. The First Great Awakening with preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield started in the Connecticut River Valley near Northampton Mass in the 1730s.
2. The Azusa Street Revival was started in the Black Church on Azusa Street and spread, it is considered the birthplace of modern Pentecostalism.
3. This movement was influenced by the rise of the Social Justice Movement in the 1970’s and included various religious groups.
Revivals usually occur in the places where we least expect them and usually among people in certain socio-economic situations. The First Great Awakening occurred as fears over attacks by Native Americans grew and a food shortage caused by unusually cool weather drove people to search for something more. Revivals also can accompany cultural movements, such as Abolition (as was the case of the 2nd Great Awakening) and Temperance.
Much ink has been spilled over the legitimacy of historical revivals. Controversies arose from each, whether it was The Old Lights and New Lights of Edwards* day, the Old School or New School debate between Finney and Hodge* or the Fundamentalist vs Evangelicalism* of the 20th century. We tend to want to explain or quantify what we should probably leave to mystery. Certainly the excesses of a revival need to be addressed and warned against for the next generation. We have preserved for us a wonderful example of this from Count Zinzendorf when the second Moravian Community at Gers-Hennigsdorf began getting out of control where he raises the specter of the massacre at Munster* to remind them what excesses can lead to. Still, in the immediate, both during and after, we should follow the advice of Jonathan Edwards: "That the fruit of a Revival must be that the inward reality of the movement of the Spirit must become outward fruit." (Edwards, Religious Affections).
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4. the Old Lights believed in a nurtured faith, a womb to tomb sort of faith. The New Lights believed in such, but also in later life conversions like those who were flooding their churches during The Great Awakening.
5. Charles Finney was the famous revivalist of the Pre-Civil War period, Charles Hodge held the Theology chair at Princeton University. Finney believed in converting people into Christianity, Hodge believed in nurturing people in the faith. It is almost an identical debate to that of the Old and New Lights.
6. Another similar debate to the Old and New Lights.
7. Munster was the center of the Anabaptist Reformation and was besieged by the Catholic Church in 1535. The leaders of the city believed it to be the new Jerusalem.
The Jesus Revolution is one of those revivals, or renewal movements in History. It occurred among a people group that felt oppressed and held back by a society adverse to change. It carries with it many of the marks of a true revival. An emphasis on repentance and confession, a renewed interest in religion, an openness to the spirit and the production of fruit of the spirit, and an emphasis on a renewed relationship with Jesus and Gospel preaching. It also saw charismatic healings, people being renewed of body and spirit, something that is reported in earlier revivals but not to the extent it has in the Pentecostal movements of the 20th century. In the movie, the first time it happens it is portrayed as strange even to Lonnie Frisbee. But it is a mark of historical revivalism that does not get discussed enough. That is, if the whole Gospel is being preached, a Gospel that includes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, but also the total restoration of all things through Jesus as a now-but-not-yet reality. Revivals like The Jesus Movement give us a glimpse of this full Gospel Renewal. Jesus is going to restore all things and is now restoring all things and that includes continued miraculous healings. We should expect that the spirit will continue to do the very things our ancestors reported from the time of Christ on.
That brings me to the Asbury Revival, the most recent revival of religion in our nation. Once again coming to one of the spiritually driest areas in the country, Appalachia, where the Church attendance rate is worse than New England and decades of bumper sticker religion, the prosperity gospel's destructive influence, economic downturn and the opiate crisis have driven the area into depression. Growing up in South Eastern Ohio I saw this play out, and have continued to watch it play out, in the lives of the people I grew up around. Much disillusionment with faith and skepticism about religion in general can be found there. To say that the region was ripe for revival would be an understatement as it had more in common with backwoods 18th century New England than it did with modern America. If God moves in the most unlikely places, in the places we least expect him, the Appalachian region should have been where we were looking for His movement.
It is not my intention here to make a judgment as to the legitimacy of the Asbury Revival, that will have to be done by Historians 5-10 years from now. But it is soon enough to analyze the features of the Revival to help historians make the initial assessment. Unfortunately too many commentators have spilled too much ink explaining away or hyping the Revival and as others tried to drag the revival on, even as momentum slowed, we enter a period where excesses can historically start to pop up, in fact the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is trying to profit off the Asbury Revival, a move I find utterly tasteless as it monetizes shared religious experience even as the footage has been invaluable to me in researching for this piece. We must wait to see if that "new inward reality comes outward" as Edwards wrote.
It is already clear, however, that there are many similarities between The Jesus Movement and Asbury. Asbury has all those things listed above, but one thing commentators have been quick to jump on and use to discredit the revival has been the emphasis on the restoration of the relationship between people that has been a part of every revival to some extent, but which has been a feature of Asbury. We have also seen physical healings, which we should expect as part of Christ's total restoration, but we also have reports of emotional healing. I believe that reconciliation has been an intent of the Spirit in each Revival with it becoming a greater theme in every revival we have had. Asbury showed us what that can look like. The healing of emotional trauma points us again to a Gospel where everything, everything will be restored and redeemed.
The Asbury Revival is only a few months old, it has not been parsed out and cannot be parsed out until we see the fruit. But we can see now it shares similarities with The Jesus Movement and with other revivals throughout American Church History. I also do not think it is a coincidence that Asbury happened at the same time the "Jesus Movement" movie hit theaters. God's timing here reminds us that He is still moving and still working in surprising ways. He is constantly "Turning deserts into rivers" (Isaiah 49:19). He is constantly trying to draw us to himself and to one another and siblings in Christ. So may The Jesus Movement and Asbury remind us of the full Gospel, and remind us to be open to the things God is doing, so we can fling wide the doors of the church to everyone so that a new generation can hear the word of God from wise leaders who will speak the truth and we can see the restoration of all things now-but-not-yet.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, World without end, amen and amen!
Rev. Jonathan David Faulkner is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary holding Masters in Divinity and Church History, a pastor, musician and writer. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Christian Education & Administration with a concentration in Urban Ministry. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Spokane, Washington.
*Full Footnotes:
The First Great Awakening with preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield started in the Connecticut River Valley near Northampton Mass in the 1730s.
The Azusa Street Revival was started in the Black Church on Azusa Street and spread, it is considered the birthplace of modern Pentecostalism.
This movement was influenced by the rise of the Social Justice Movement in the 1970’s and included various religious groups.
The Old Lights believed in a nurtured faith, a womb to tomb sort of faith. The New Lights believed in such, but also in later life conversions like those who were flooding their churches during The Great Awakening.
Charles Finney was the famous revivalist of the Pre-Civil War period, Charles Hodge held the Theology chair at Princeton University. Finney believed in converting people into Christianity, Hodge believed in nurturing people in the faith. It is almost an identical debate to that of the Old and New Lights.
Another similar debate to the Old and New Lights.
Munster was the center of the Anabaptist Reformation and was besieged by the Catholic Church in 1535. The leaders of the city believed it to be the new Jerusalem.
A look at how the paradigm shift shared in 1st Timothy is needed to build better relationships with the opposite sex, a further step towards healthier Christian relationships.