This year sees the centenary of the last major evangelical revival on the British mainland.
Among its converts was the father of Stanley Griffin (1930–2004), who went on to write the definitive account, A Forgotten Revival (DayOne, 1992). Drawing from it, let’s go back to 1921 to see what God has done…
On 7 March Douglas Brown, minister of Balham Baptist, south London, arrived in Lowestoft, Suffolk – the UK’s most easterly town. It was a busy fishing port, like elsewhere still recovering from the Great War and a global flu pandemic! Brown was coming to preach for five days at London Road Baptist where, for some time, an average of 90 people had met regularly to pray that God would show his power in their town. Having been ill Brown brought a colleague along in case he could not get through the week. Little did he know that he would preach 370 times in the next three months!
Why I no longer pray for the ‘good old days’ of revival
William P. Mackay, the Scottish doctor and Presbyterian minister, penned one of my favourite hymns. It begins: ‘We praise thee, …