What To Do When the Revival Comes

Hint: When it rains, you build reservoirs.

Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the twenty-first-century context. In these newsletters, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.

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1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off

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It feels like a fitting moment to recall Walter Hollenweger’s incisive dictum from the early 1990s: “British Christians prayed for a revival. When it came, they did not recognise it because it was black.” Whenever I quote this brilliant line, I find it necessary to add, “and Pentecostal” — they did not recognise it because it was black and Pentecostal. It was too immigrant, too culturally unfamiliar, too theologically inferior, and too easily overlooked to be noticed by the very people who had long been praying for renewal.

Now, of course, this remains the case today, more than 30 years after Hollenweger published his statement. This quiet revival (awakening, openness, whatever you want to call it) has been clearly stated as not a migration thing. The report states, “[T]he growth in churchgoing among young people is seen at scale among young White people. While these could all be migrants, at the scale we’re seeing, it seems highly unlikely.” This is quite an interesting observation, especially as Joseph Ola has pointed out, there is a strong possibility of migration being at play here. I wonder whether this is a conversation yet to be had. I hope it is not simply a result of the invisible presence of migrant Christians in the research.

I say this because I grew up in a revival — a huge African revival — and I know that the openness being spoken about in this quiet revival cannot happen without prayer. As far as I can see, migrant Christians contribute quite significantly to the prayers being made in the UK (and in the West) today. Maybe, this “white revival” is, in part, an answer to the prayers of many black and brown Christians in our countries. Is there a way to determine this?

Having grown up in a revival, I spent my university years (between 18 and 21) reading revival histories (in addition to studying mathematics). I memorised Leonard Ravenhill’s Why Revival Tarries and travelled with Colin Whittaker’s Great Revivals where I went. I fell in love with the story of the Herrnhut and the Moravians long before I found myself in Europe. The first time I visited the UK, as a fairly young man, I found my way to Loughor to see the epicentre of the Welsh Revival. At some point, I tried to re-enact Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

Like many, I find this "quiet revival” fascinating, partly because I am not aware of any uptick in prayer around the country. But yes, there is no denying the fact that there is an openness across the country — and it is an openness to spiritual everything. Islam is growing. New Age spirituality is growing. And, of course, the “spiritual but not religious” groups are also growing.

This should say a lot to Christians around the country.

When a revival happens, two critical things should be on the minds of every Christian leader: leadership development and church planting. Today, I will focus on leadership development.

Revivals grow churches. They bring fresh life to churches, drawing many into faith and renewing the spiritual vitality of communities. Yet for churches to grow—not merely in numbers, but in depth, resilience, and witness—they require new leaders to emerge and be equipped. Growth inevitably brings complexity: more people to disciple, more pastoral needs to address, and a greater diversity of gifts and challenges within the congregation.

It is therefore time to re-emphasise theological education and ministerial training as central to sustaining the fruits of revival. Revival without formation risks shallowness; growth without leadership risks collapse. For churches to flourish, they need leaders who are spiritually mature, biblically grounded, and contextually wise, ready to shepherd growing communities and navigate the complexities that come with growth.

Healthy revivals call forth new leaders—men and women who sense God’s call, step into ministry, and are prepared to guide others faithfully. Investing in theological education is thus not a secondary task but an urgent priority if the fire of revival is to become a steady light, transforming lives and communities for generations to come.

At a time when many are considering closing theological institutions, we must remember that this is not the time to shut down centres of theological formation. On the contrary, as God grows the church, there is a greater need for places where future leaders can be trained, faith can be deepened, and the church can think carefully about its mission in the world. Closing theological institutions now would risk extinguishing the very light that revivals seek to ignite, leaving churches without the leadership they need to flourish.

Plug: do get in touch if we can help you with leadership development.

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2. Resources I am Enjoying

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A simple one, this week.

Can be found here: https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revival

Hope you enjoy.

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3. Quotes I am Pondering

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• In a spontaneous burst of energy, a new breed of charismatic religious figures emerged to fill the landscape, with throngs of acolytes and sympathizers mobilized in their wake. They did not fit the standard missionary demographic mold of primary schooling in a mission station organized by uniform drills and exercises as part of catechetical formation on the path to baptism and membership in the church. The new converts were not cut to pattern in that way, and, defying official constraints, they grew and spread without set design. They took the story to the next and most ambitious phase of Christianity’s development in Africa. In the course of the twentieth century African conversion became a commanding theme of the religion’s worldwide expansion. — Lamin Sanneh. "African Christianity: Historical and Thematic Horizons." In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Christianity, edited by Lamin Sanneh and Michael McClymond: John Wiley & Sons, 2016, p. 485.

• If theological education in sub-Saharan Africa is to decolonise, I suggest the application of an anticolonial prism to understand this dynamic and what can be done. Anticolonialism is an action-packed framework that has emerged from postcolonial discourse but with the aim for revolutionary change in the postcolonial settlement. It critics colonial vestiges in the postcolonial settlement as informed by African/Africanist scholars in the scholarship and other critical anti/postcolonial theorists. - Yonah H. Matemba, “Towards an Anticolonial Agenda for Decolonising Theological Education in Sub-Saharan Africa” (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354640891)

• [T]he relationships, the hierarchies, and the values of the society are alike disturbed. People are left in confusion— they face conflicting obligations, and ambiguities strew the path of proper conduct. Frequently in Africa, the adoption of Christianity has been a means of adapting to burdensome and potentially dangerous situations. The search for a new key to life, a yearning to be able to make assured choices with a good conscience, is surely a thoroughly religious motive, even if it is not the one to which missionary preaching has been primarily addressed. — Andrew Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, Orbis Books, 2015, p. 91)

I pray that you will be faithful to the work God has for you this week. And remember, each day offers us a fresh opportunity to live in ways that decolonise our minds, practices, and communities.