1956 Article
1989 Update

Revival, a term commonly used to refer to renewal and intensification of spiritual life in an existing religious congregation, denomination, region, or country, without implying a doctrinal or organizational change or a basic reform. Revivalism has come to mean a technique by which emphasis is placed upon frequent religious renewal through specific methods adopted to produce a mass religious response on a smaller or larger scale, largely through special meetings with considerable appeal to religious emotions and definite personal commitment.

"Revival" as a descriptive term is not applied to movements of renewal or religious stir in Roman or Greek Catholicism, although certainly such renewals have taken place at various times and places in Christian history. Even for Protestantism the term is usually limited to revival movements since the 18th century, beginning in Germany with Pietism (1670-1750) including Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf and the Moravians (1722 ff.), in England with the Wesleyan Movement (1738 ff.), and in the American Colonies with the Great Awakening of Jonathan Edwards and others (1734-44). This article will focus on the revival movement in North America as it influenced Mennonites or developed among Mennonites themselves.

Nowhere else in the world has revivalism had so wide a spread and so powerful an influence as in the United States, beginning early in the 18th century and continuing into the 20th. As W. W. Sweet explains in his excellent survey Revivalism in America, its origin, growth and decline (New York, 1944), this was due primarily to the specific religious situation in Colonial America produced by the great migrations of generally lower-class European peoples to the New World, the freedom and individualism of American life especially on the frontier, and the extreme weakness of organized religion. As late as 1760 not more than 8-10 per cent of Americans were members of any church, and in the middle colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, probably not more than 5-6 per cent. Not only manners but morals were crude, culture was low, educated leaders were scarce, and formal religion had little power. Under these circumstances only a powerful emotionalized, personal religion had much chance to convert America. The conversion was a slow process but it was gradually accomplished, largely as the result of revivalist methods. Those denominations which operated on this level were the greatest beneficiaries of its results, hence the Methodists and Baptists and related groups have become the largest and most influential religious bodies in America.

The first great revival, called the Great Awakening, began in the 1720s with Theodore Frelinghuysen in New Jersey, a pietistic Reformed immigrant preacher, followed by the Presbyterian Tennents in the same area. With the great Jonathan Edwards at Northampton, Mass., it broke out in full power (especially 1734-36) in New England, where 60,000 and more new members were swept into the Congregational and other churches, and the old members greatly revived. George Whitefield, the Calvinistic Methodist from England, made seven journeys to America in 1738-70, becoming the great over-all unifying revival preacher, building up all denominations open to the movement. Thus German Pietism, English Methodism, and New England Calvinism all played a role in this tremendously significant Colonial revival movement. The Moravians in their own way (arrived in Pennsylvania 1738) made their contribution, particularly among the Germans. "Colonial revivalism brought religion to the common man" (Sweet).

It is not clear how much the Colonial Mennonites in Eastern Pennsylvania were involved in or affected by the Great Awakening and its side effects. The claim that they influenced Frelinghuysen or shared in his movement, made by some reputable historians, is unsubstantiated. But that the Mennonites were influenced by Pietism, both before they left the Palatinate (1707 ff.) and in America, especially by pietistic literature, is beyond question. It is highly doubtful, however, that they adopted the revivalist preaching techniques or doctrinal and emotional emphases. They resisted the Moravian influences. The German Tunkers (Dunkards or later Church of the Brethren), who arrived in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1719-22, being themselves Pietists, joined vigorously in the revivalist movement and profited greatly by it, winning many Mennonites to their membership.

Thereafter the Mennonites resisted and rejected the revivalist influences and example until late in the 19th century. The second Great Awakening (1793-1810), the Charles G. Finney revival of 1824-27, the revival of 1853, and others of the first half of the 19th century had little influence upon the Mennonites except to tear large numbers of sheep from the folds of traditional staid Mennonitism. The newer revivalist German denominations such as the United Brethren, founded in 1800 in Eastern Pennsylvania by the former Reformed preacher Otterbein and the former Mennonite bishop Martin Boehm of Lancaster County (who was followed by other Mennonites such as Newcomer), and the Evangelical Church, also founded in 1800 in Eastern Pennsylvania by Jacob Albright, gathered in many dissatisfied Mennonites in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and later in Ohio, Ontario, and Indiana. The Church of God (Winebrennerian), founded in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1836, had a similar attraction for Mennonites. Martin Boehm (1725-1812) is the most striking case of the revivalist impact on Pennsylvania Mennonites. Ordained preacher in 1753 and bishop in 1759, he came in contact with Whitefield in Virginia in 1761 and thus was drawn into the Great Awakening. In 1767 he participated in the famous meeting in Isaac Long's barn in the Conestoga Valley in Lancaster County, where he met Otterbein. His ever more extensive revivalist ministry outside the Mennonite Church and his general revivalist practices and beliefs led to his excommunication in 1777. In his later years Boehm greatly influenced the spread of Methodism in the Lancaster area, and his funeral sermon was preached by his friend, Bishop Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in America. The whole course of American Mennonite history in America might have been vastly different if Boehm had succeeded in "revivalizing" it in his day. The Brethren in Christ (River Brethren), who arose in Lancaster County about 1770, were a fruit of the revivalist impact on Mennonites.

Whereas the early revivalism largely took Mennonites out of the church of their fathers (or led to their expulsion), the revivalism of D. L. Moody and others in the 1870s and following more often had the indirect effect of setting revival influences going in the church itself. An outstanding case of this in the Mennonite Church group is John F. Funk ( 1835-1930), who came directly under Moody's influence in Chicago in the 1860's and was his associate in mission Sunday-school work there. Funk attributed a very strong influence from Moody directly upon himself, which motivated him in turn in his important progressive work in the Mennonite Church. The first Mennonite Church revival meeting was held by Funk and Daniel Brenneman in 1872. John S. Coffman was the great carrier of revivalism into the church 1879-99. By 1900 the church was won over to this method, although it was conservative in its use and did not promote the emotionalist emphasis and the Calvinism or Wesleyanism which often characterized it in general.

Solomon Eby

Daniel Brenneman in Indiana and Solomon Eby in Ontario did adopt this emotionalist method and emphasis and formed the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church in 1875, which has been deeply stamped by this point of view.

In the Amish Mennonite Church, Henry Egly (1824-1890) came under the influence of revivalism and founded the small Defenseless (now Evangelical) Mennonite group in Adams County (Berne), IN, and elsewhere in 1866. Out of this group later came the Missionary Church Association (1898 at Berne, Indiana, USA).

The General Conference Mennonites, whose major elements were the Oberholtzer group (1847) in Eastern Pennsylvania, Swiss Mennonites in Ohio and Indiana coming in 1818 ff. and 1838 ff., and Russian Mennonites in the western states and provinces since 1874, have undoubtedly also been influenced by Pietism and revivalism, although Gehman and his Evangelical Mennonites (formed from the Oberholtzer group in 1858) represent a revivalist influence which was excised from the General Conference Mennonite Church. Daniel Hoch (1806-1878) of Ontario (ordained bishop by Oberholtzer in 1851) left the group with his followers in 1869 to join the later Mennonite Brethren in Christ.

The Mennonite Brethren ( formed in 1860 in Russia; in the United States since 1874) represent the revivalist movement in a wholesome way and were joined in this by the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren ( formed in Russia in 1869; in the United States since 1874) and the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren ( formed from the General Conference Mennonite Church in 1889).

In general the revivalist influence has been wholesome in those groups which have remained Mennonite in basic and historic character. The groups which have left the Mennonite brotherhood have adopted a more emotionalized type of piety, together with general Wesleyan emphasis on "holiness" and the second work of grace or also entire sanctification or perfectionism. The "Camp Meeting" was adopted by the Mennonite Brethren in Christ from the earlier Methodist revivalism.

In the Mennonite Church (MC), as well as in the Mennonite Brethren Church and related groups, the general adoption of the revivalist pattern for securing new members led to the use of this method for bringing the children of the church into church membership in place of the older method of catechetical instruction and baptism at a traditional age of 14-18 years. The revivalist emphasis upon personal conversion and decision is in principle, so long as it is not pressed upon children at too early an age or induced by emotionalized pressures, in accord with the Anabaptist understanding of faith as personal, voluntary acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord. Apart from undesirable excesses revivalism may therefore be understood as a renewal in a sense of the central Anabaptist emphases. -- HSB

1989 Update

The word "revival" is commonly used in both the sense of renewal, or awakening, and to describe a technique developed during the Second Great Awakening (ca. 1795-1810) and its aftermath. This article is concerned primarily with the latter, but will give cross references to renewal movements as well. Revival meetings were a pervasive technique for evangelism and spiritual renewal in American Protestant churches for a century and a quarter, from ca. 1830 to 1955, although they both preceded and followed these dates. Revival meetings commonly consisted of consecutive nightly meetings, together with weekend services, which extended over a week or more. Emotional messages stressing sin and salvation called for repentance expressed by an individual response to a personal invitation to accept salvation. Gospel songs reinforced this message (hymnology). Beginning late in the 19th century, Mennonites widely adopted this form of revivalism.

In the 1950s mass revivals held in tents, stadiums, or large auditoriums became common throughout America. Mass tent revivals were begun in the Mennonite churches when George B. Brunk II, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary (Richmond, Virginia) and ordained preacher, joined forces with his brother Lawrence, who served as business manager and song leader for their campaigns until 1953. Their first series of meetings began in June 1951 at East Chestnut Street in Lancaster, PA, and continued for seven weeks. It was followed that summer and fall by campaigns at Souderton, PA; Orrville, Ohio; Manheim, PA; and, during the winter, in Sarasota, FL. The meetings quickly became inter-Mennonite. A spring 1952 campaign in Johnstown, PA, was followed by a July campaign in Kitchener, ON, cooperatively sponsored by the Ontario Mennonite Conference (MC) and local churches, including the Amish Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren, the Stirling Avenue and United Mennonite congregations (GCM), the United Missionary Church, and the Brethren in Christ.

A second Mennonite tent revival unit was sponsored in 1952 by Christian Laymen's Tent Evangelism, Inc. (CLTE), with headquarters in Orrville, Ohio. Howard Hammer, formerly a United Brethren in Christ minister, was the first evangelist, followed in 1955 by Myron Augsburger, when Hammer went to South America as a missionary. Andrew Jantzi, an evangelist from the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church, led a third organization which was largely confined to his own denomination. A fourth organization, Mennonite Evangelical Crusades (sponsored by the Virginia Mennonite Conference [MC]) held four campaigns in 1956 and one in 1957 with A. Don Augsburger as speaker.

Sunday night crowd  at George R.  Brunk's Winnipeg  Tent meeting in 1957. From  Revival fires in  Manitoba (1957)

In 1955 the Brunk Revivals, with Lawrence no longer a part of the team, went to Rosthern, SK. The series was initially sponsored by the General Conference Mennonite Church, but soon other groups were cooperating. In the summer of 1956 Brunk Revivals returned to Saskatchewan to hold meetings at Osler and Swift Current, followed by additional series in Dolton, SD, and Mountain Lake, MN. In the summer of 1957 tent meetings were held in southern Manitoba and sponsorship included the Mennonite Brethren, Evangelical Mennonite Brethren, Evangelical Mennonite Conference (Kleine Gemeinde), General Conference Mennonites, Bergthal Mennonites, Rudnerweide Mennonites (Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference), Blumenorter Mennonite, and two non-Mennonite groups, the Evangelical Free Church and the Emmanuel Church. In the summer of 1958 the Brunk Revivals went to British Columbia, with the meetings under the sponsorship of the General Conference Mennonite Church, Mennonite Brethren, and Evangelical Mennonite Brethren. In the late 1950s, under the leadership of Myron Augsburger, CLTE began holding meetings in large urban auditoriums as well as tents. Renamed Crusade for Christ, the operation elicited interdenominational sponsorship. The summer of 1958 began with a city-wide campaign in Harrisburg, PA, followed by another in Fort Wayne, IN, in August. A March 1959 series in Convention Hall, Hutchinson, KS, was sponsored by 70 churches in the city together with the Christian Business Men's Association, Youth for Christ, and the Gideons organization. In January 1959, the parent organization modified its name to Christian Laymen's Evangelical Association, since it was no longer holding meetings in tents, and the public name of the meetings became Augsburger Crusades. In 1962 the organization disbanded, the tent was sold, and the monies distributed to Mennonite missions. The last Brunk campaign was held in Landisville, PA, in July 1982, after which the tent and equipment were sold, and a foundation was formed to allocate the proceeds to continuing evangelistic work.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada delegate sessions in 1955 were held in Brunk's tents at Winkler, Man. prior to the crusade. From  Revival fires in  Manitoba (1957)

The mass revivals elicited widespread response in church periodicals from 1951 to 1953. Initial affirmative reports of the meetings were followed by articles endeavoring to associate the revivals with a renewed emphasis on evangelism in the Mennonite churches. By the end of 1953 it became apparent that although the meetings were stimulating renewal, they were not primarily evangelistic, i.e., reaching unchurched, non-Mennonite individuals.

The General Council of Mennonite Church [MC] General Conference adopted "A statement of concerns on revivalism and evangelism" in April 1953. The statement was basically supportive of the mass revivals, but concerns were also in evidence, including the primary-junior age of baptism that was becoming common. The concern over child evangelism prompted a formal study beginning in 1953, and a subsequent statement, entitled "Position on the nurture and evangelism of children." It was adopted by Mennonite Church [MCI General Conference in 1955. Additional revivalist emphases that made Mennonites uncomfortable were: (1) the prominence given to the confrontation of the individual with the devil and to the theme of the wrath of God; (2) the focus on the individual; and (3) conversions that did not result in church membership. Mennonites traditionally believed that God's love, not his wrath, shaped his relationship with mankind. Furthermore, although the cooperation of local community churches was solicited for the mass campaigns, the setting essentially removed the experience from the congregational context. Whereas traditionally conversion and church membership were closely associated, in revivalism the individual's relationship to the church was considered secondary. Revivalism, its critics charged, aimed at crisis commitment to faith in Christ, while giving little attention to full discipleship.

Mennonites had always considered the new birth essential, but repentance and the will were held to be more important than experience or feeling. From its beginning phases in the First Great Awakening (1730s-1770s), revivalism caused divisions among Mennonites, drawing off its most enthusiastic supporters into new denominations. As the Pennsylvania German Revival climaxed in the late 18th century, it was responded to by Christian Burkholder in Nützliche und Erbauliche Anrede an die Jugend (Useful and edifying address to the young), 1804. A few decades later, during the Second Great Awakening, Abraham Godschalk wrote on Becoming a new creature (1838). In the late 19th century, during the Third Great Awakening, the influential leader John M. Brenneman published Hope, sanctification, and a noble determination. Both Brenneman and Godschalk presented the Mennonite understanding of obedience and commitment in opposition to revivalist teachings.

The Mennonite Brethren Church grew out of a pietistic revival in Russia, and itinerant evangelism has characterized this group in both Russia and America. Multiple lay evangelists served the church extensively from 1910 to 1954. With a decline in their availability at mid-century, evangelists from interdenominational organizations began to be used. Concern over this trend prompted the appointment of conference evangelists from 1954 to 1972. Among the persons serving in this program were Loyal A. Funk as chairman of the Board of Evangelism with Waldo Wiebe, David J. Wiens, Henry J. Schmidt (and in Canada H. H. Epp) serving as conference evangelists. Elmo Warkentine, as executive secretary of the board, implemented a church wide program of training for evangelism.

For the first six decades of the 20th century revivalism and resultant "quickening" in Mennonite churches was viewed positively by historians. Since the mid-1970s new scholarship has observed both that Mennonites had more interaction with the First and Second Great Awakenings than was formerly supposed and that revivalism altered Mennonite understandings of the Gospel (Schlabach, Sutter, and Hostetler).

William G. McLoughlin in his book, Revivals, awakenings, and reform, has closely associated widespread religious awakenings with profound cultural transformation. As areas of the Mennonite church embraced revivalism in the 19th and early 20th century, major adjustments were being made to American cultural patterns. Similarly, in the 1950s and 1960s the Mennonite Church [MC] was experiencing profound transformation in religious forms , structured programs, and cultural interaction. The mass revivals brought spiritual revival for many and the unleashing of energies which found expression in new programs.

Revivalism in the Mennonite churches waned by the late 1950s, although some tent meetings continued to be held. Many congregations discontinued revival meetings. Some of the functions of revival meetings were taken over by the burgeoning camping movement where fireside services often functioned as revival meetings, frequently with a very young age group. By 1970 the charismatic movement was also providing a base for renewal. -- BSH

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 308-310, v. 5, pp. 771-773. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

To cite this page: