Elfed Godding, Evangelical Alliance Wales General Secretary; Dan Boucher, former EA National Assembly Liason Officer and Kevin Adams, a former member of the EA Wales Council and former pastor of Ammanford Evangelical Church, look at the impact and legacy of the Welsh Revival.
This information is taken from the Winter 2004 edition of the Evangelical Alliance Wales Bulletin, which went out to all members of the Alliance living in Wales in early February 2004.
From the General Secretary
No records were kept, but 150,000 is a very conservative estimate of the actual number converted during the first six months of the 1904 Welsh religious revival. Wales again had become a God-fearing nation. Not only were individual lives changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also entire communities, transforming Welsh society.
Public houses emptied and crime levels dropped drastically: so much so that in many instances magistrates came to court to find there were no presented cases. The work ethos in the coal mines was transformed: not only did the colliers put in a better day’s work, but also the dark tunnels underground in the mines echoed with the sounds of prayer and hymns instead of curses, coarse jokes and gossip. People who had been careless about paying their bills or settling debts, paid up all they owed, and longstanding interpersonal feuds were settled.
But what sort of legacy resulted from the revival?
Many Christians today attribute the quality of their own pilgrimage to the prayers of grandparents affected by the 1904 revival. My own paternal grandmother, a young woman of 25 in 1904, was touched by the revival and prayed for her offspring. She died giving birth to my aunt in 1920, but the legacy of her faith remains, in part, in my own life. The revival storm that hit the hills and valleys of Wales in the dying months of 1904 soon became a hurricane that affected the world. Visitors from France, Turkey and the USA, to name but a few, came to participate, and as they caught the flame, they passed it on to new countries. Welsh communities throughout the world felt the impact, and news of God’s powerful work soon had many other churches praying that God would visit them as well.
The Khasia Hills in India is one outstanding example of answered prayer. Even though the public excitement over the revival had died down by 1906 - Evan Roberts went to Leicester to recuperate; the newspapers went back to politics - for many, the honeymoon of these two years developed into a lasting relationship with a risen Christ that continued a lifetime.
Wales has a rich spiritual heritage. A revival occurred somewhere in the nation every 10 years between 1735 and 1904. But does the Wales of today realise this? To remind us how much there is to gain from Wales’ most recent revival, the following events are being planned in this centenary year.
For more information, visit www.04.org.uk or www.cardiffnetwork.org.uk
Dan Boucher offers a social and political perspective on the Welsh revival
‘The material conditions of this country will not improve until there comes a spiritual awakening, and I charge you ministers with the responsibility of promoting and fostering such a revival.’
Rt Hon David Lloyd George MP
The 1904 revival had significant social and political implications for Wales. Most people will have heard the stories about the pit ponies, the lack of cases for magistrates to try, and a dramatic drop in drunken behaviour (see Kevin Adams’ story below). Other benefits were seen in the termination of industrial disputes, and in the demise of the damaging community divisions that existed between unionists and non-unionists. As the National Assembly reflects on the challenges facing Wales in 2004, it would do well to remember the words of Lloyd George and consider the social impact of the 1904 revival.
Viewing the revival from our politically correct age it is fascinating to note one of the most poignant testimonies to the impact of the revival comes from the NSPCC. One inspector stated that the homes under his observation had ‘undergone a complete transformation through the parents having been brought to a better life through the revival.’
While preachers of the time were happy to consider the positive social benefits of revival, however, they believed that Christian ministry should be narrowly ‘spiritual’. They celebrated the withdrawal of people from politics, the arts and sports - footballs were even burnt!
Given this posture, it is interesting to note that as soon as the revival was over, Welsh non-conformism swung dramatically to the ‘social gospel’ - almost as a reaction against the spiritual ‘other-worldliness’ of revival. Under the influence of this theology, churches began investing their energies in social and political activity, completely losing sight of the need for repentance.
In light of this unfortunate development, it is interesting to reflect on the work of the Sentinel Group, the producers of the Transformations videos.
This demonstrates that the revivals that have long term impact, bringing genuine ‘community transformation’, are those that deliberately seek to engage with the whole of the culture, instead of having a narrowly ‘spiritual’ focus. One wonders whether the 1904 revival would have had longer lasting affect had the revivalists adopted a more ‘holistic’ approach.
There is no doubt that the 1904 revival was a great blessing for which we must thank God. During this centenary year, however, as we seek God for a fresh movement of His Spirit, we must remember the lessons of 1904. If (and, in faith, when) He moves, we must respond by holding the ‘other-worldliness’ of the Gospel in tension with its ‘this-worldliness’, thus sustaining a more authentic and, therefore, more powerful Christian witness.
For more information on the social and political impact of the revival, read The Welsh Revival and Social Action: A Centenary Perspective by Daniel Boucher, which is available from Evangelical Alliance Wales. Email wales@eauk.org for more information.
Kevin Adams considers the causes for celebration...
This year is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Welsh religious revival, an event which will not only be celebrated by Christians in Wales but by Christians in nations all over the globe, many of whom will make a pilgrimage to revival sites such as Moriah, Lougher and Blaenanerch Chapel near Cardigan. The question occurs: why? What exactly is there to celebrate 100 years on, where church and chapel attendance in Wales has taken a nose dive?
Over the course of this year, we will probably hear a number of answers. As for me, it is a celebration of what God has done and can do with thousands of individuals.
The story of the Welsh revival is a story of tens of thousands of changed people - changed not for a period of a few months alone, but rather for a lifetime. They would look back to the events of 1904 as a time of new beginnings. A few of these stories are comparatively well known – especially the experience of the young ex-collier Evan Roberts, who became the name most connected with the revival. Others, though unwritten, also left their mark in the years following.
I have always been impressed by the stories of the miners who responded in droves to the Christian message of new life. Many were dramatically changed: the story about the pit ponies not being able to understand the ‘swear-free’ language of the converted miners is an interesting example. It was also reported that management and workers seemed to get on better, although there was some concern that enthusiastic prayer meetings might eat up valuable work time.
The effect was also felt in the home. For many mothers, it meant father’s beer money became housekeeping money. It may not have been as spectacular as water into wine, but beer into good food and better clothes was enough of a miracle. It also saw many chronic alcohol problems solved overnight, which although wasn’t good news to the publicans, who complained that sales were at an all-time low, was much appreciated by most.
For the police, the revival again was good news. Converts tended to see criminal activity as something limited to their past. Of course, police work did include some policing of a few overcrowded religious venues, but I am unaware of any arrests. A now famous cartoon in the Western Mail showed a magistrate being resented with a pair of white gloves - a symbol of no cases to try. The magistrate calls: ‘What’s the meaning of this?’ The clerk answers: ‘Revival, sir.’
Quite a few businesses profited. One medical practitioner said that the revival had done him a lot of good. When asked if it had meant more patients, he said no, but he had received £23 due to him, which he had written off the books as hopelessly bad debt. People were being changed into honest citizens.
The message of the revival was the possibility of inner change and complete forgiveness (political change wasn’t high on the agenda at the time). By giving birth to puritanical honesty, a positive work ethos and personal lives free from the popular addictions of the time, the revival continued to influence Church and society positively for years to come.
