In early August 1801 as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people gathered at Cane Ridge Meeting House in Bourbon County, Kentucky, for a revival that became the defining event of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Western Great Revival period.((Source: www.caneridge.org; accessed July 12, 2023.))
Waynesburg Christian Church is a part of “The Restoration Movement” that was born under the leadership of Barton W. Stone in the aftermath of the Cane Ridge Revival. My wife, Gretchen, was the administrative assistant there for a time, and one day while enjoying lunch with the pastor, his wife, and Gretchen, the pastor asked me, “What do you do when you go to a church?” I did my best to explain what I do in the context of a revival. I spoke of the cleansing and empowering work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. The pastor said, “Our people need to hear that message.”
So, I was invited to speak at the men’s breakfast several weeks later. Subsequently, I was invited to conduct revival services at the church. The revival services were scheduled for February and began a “50 Day Spiritual Adventure” that would conclude on Easter Sunday.
I graduated from Atlanta Christian College, a Bible college in East Point, GA (now Point University located in West Point, GA). It is supported by Christian Churches of The Restoration Movement, so I knew there were differences in our theology. However, I saw the invitation as an opportunity to share the message of holiness.
The people came. The people listened. The people responded. In the words of one of the members, “The fire has come!”
The following week, the worship leader at the church wrote the following article for the church newsletter:
“This past Sunday night may in fact be the first time I really died. Pastor Loman preached at the revival, and somehow the message I have received my entire life, and obviously never fully made sense, was incredibly clear. All of a sudden, anything I was confused about in life could be dissolved by referring to a simple truth: I had to die! The irony is delicious—I feel so revived and yet now I am dead, and it has been one of the most freeing, glorious, and, in fact, terrifying ordeals of my life. I can remember that I had sat in that pew, having heard the message that I had to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and put Him on the throne of my life, and just thinking about all the ways I really hadn’t died. I was still self-centered… I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t as close to God as I wanted to be despite the fact that I may very well have been saved. I still hadn’t gotten off the throne. And, in many ways, just like I was doing in the pew that night, the lingering remnants of carnality were still clinging to me for dear life. Satan whispers, “You can’t give EVERYTHING to Jesus.” The weirdest thing happened in that moment. I knew I should go forward and surrender to Jesus, exchange my life for His. But I knew if I did, I couldn’t go back without full knowledge of what was expected of me. Before, it was almost as if I didn’t fully understand what it meant to surrender, so I could still keep some parts for myself and plead ignorance. But now that it was perfectly clear as it never was before, I knew it was either dive in or completely and deliberately ignore God and the sacrifice Jesus made for me. I had no excuse anymore. So, the question became, “Do you want to follow God or not?” It was simple. So, after pausing for a few long moments, desperately fighting the tempter in my ear, I went forward and died!”
Gretchen and I had dinner with Matt (the author of the article) and his wife a few days after the revival. During the meal, his wife, Jenna, said, “As we go through the day, I often look at Matt and ask, ‘Are you still dead?’” The smile on his face gave us the answer.
The message of holiness is still making a difference, even in churches that historically have not been exposed to its liberating truths.