Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir. Zondervan, 2010.
Referenced in: Congregational Renewal through Spiritual Revival
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
In the broader work of congregational renewal, spiritual revival has in important place. As indicated in the Resource Guide on this subject, not all those interested in church renewal will wish or need to see their situation through the eyes of revival, but it is impossible to deny the importance of revival in scripture and Christian history. One important task in appropriating God’s work in revival, however, is to understand how revival has manifested itself in Christian history. Hansen and Woodbridge provide an excellent historical overview. It is similar to Mark Noll’s Rise of Evangelicalism on the First Great Awakening, and A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada on the Second Great Awakening. Noll places revival into the broader history of American religion, while Hansen and Woodbridge look at revival globally and write out of a longing for genuine revival phenomena.
Few things can spark hope more than reading the stories of how God has intervened in history to move the church to conviction, repentance, and renewed commitment. This is a substantive and inspiring historical overview of revival phenomena, interlaced with learned observations on the common themes and patterns.
The authors begin with a very thoughtful chapter on biblical foundations and theology of revival, followed by a substantive discussion of seven different periods of revival:
- First Great Awakening in North America, 1730s-1740s
- Second Great Awakening in North America, 1790s-1840s
- Prayer Meeting Revival in North America, 1857-1858
- Global Awakening in Wales, India, Korea, and North America, 1910s
- East Africa Revival, 1920s-1970s
- Henan, Manchurian, and Shantung Revivals in China, 1900s-1930s
- Evangelical Boom in North America, 1940s-1950s
From the Publisher
Is it possible we don’t see God working in mighty ways because we don’t ask him to work in mighty ways? Throughout history, God has used revival to build and renew his church.
God-Sized Vision challenges us to pray expectantly to see his work in our own day. God can bring revival again to our community, our country, and our world. Our faith grows stronger when we learn how God worked in the past. The historical stories of worldwide revivals in this book enlarge our hearts and expand our minds as we see God at work in human history with a power that is still available to the faithful today.
Here scholars Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge recount the fascinating details of world-changing revivals, beginning with biblical events and continuing through the Reformation, the Great Awakenings, the Welsh and Korean revivals, the East Africa Revival of the 1930s, and more recent revivals in North America and China. What did these revivals have in common? How can we prepare for—-and expect—-revival in our own culture? With accessible language and gripping examples, Hansen and Woodbridge explore these questions and more, strengthening our understanding of God’s work while deepening our faith in the possibility of revival—-right where we are.
About the Author
Collin Hansen (MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is editorial director for the Gospel Coalition. Formerly an associate editor for Christianity Today, he is the author of Young, Restless, Reformed and co-author with John Woodbridge of A God-Sized Vision. He has written for Books and Culture, Tabletalk, Leadership, and Christian History and Biography. He has appeared as a commentator on Fox News, and his work has been featured in Time magazine.
John Woodbridge (PhD, University of Toulouse, France) is research professor of Church History and History of Christian Thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he has taught since 1970. He was previously a senior editor of Christianity Today and is the author of Biblical Authority: A Critique of the Rogers/McKim Proposal and coauthor of Letters Along the Way. He is the editor of Great Leaders of the Christian Church and coeditor of works including The Mark of Jesus. Woodbridge is the recipient of four Gold Medallion Awards.
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