Christian History Magazine

02/14/2025

How do Christians align with God in the work of revival?

CH spoke with George Otis Jr., author, producer, and founder and president of the The Sentinel Group, a Seattle-based Christian organization dedicated to helping revival-hungry communities to that end.

"We have seen God move in big cities and village contexts. We’ve seen him move on campuses. We’ve seen him move in prisons. So wherever there is a community, wherever there is desperation, wherever people will abandon themselves to the process, those people tend to get what they are seeking."

"And the stories are amazing"

Read some of George's stories and more from this interview in "The moving cloud of God's presence" linked below:

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-interview

02/12/2025

“Do in us today what we are reading about in the early church.”

Can you imagine the implications of praying such a prayer? A group from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh PA, didn’t care and prayed it anyway, sparking a revival that spread through the Catholic Church in 1967.

Read “Perpetuating Pentecost” by Ralph C. Martin using the link below:

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-catholic-renewal

02/10/2025

The emergence of new groups in the 1900's exploring miraculous gifts of the Spirit seemed to many like a continuation of the book of acts, leading many to coin the 20th century the "century of the Holy Spirit."

Find out more about the rise of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement of the 20th century in Connie Dawson's article linked below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-century-of-the-spirit

02/07/2025

Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ being held in this image was the approved text during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Yet, despite official opposition, the Chinese church outlasted both Mao and the Cultural Revolution. And John Sung (1901-1944), the most famous revivalist in Chinese history, helped lay the groundwork for the church to survive— and continue to survive— persecution in China.

Discover the life and ministry of John Song in Daryl R. Ireland’s article “ A durable spirituality” linked below:

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-china-john-sung

02/05/2025

Dora Sabiti returned home from school in western Uganda rather puzzled. Her teacher had asked the class to name their tribe, clan, and clan taboo. She had no idea what this meant. Her parents told her, “Your tribe is Born Again (Oweishemwe), your clan is Salvation (Okujunwa), your clan taboo is Sin (Ekibi).”

Dora’s parents were East African revivalists, and her father, Erica Sabiti (c. 1903–1988), would become the Anglican archbishop of Uganda in 1966.

The East African revival was a movement that emphasized confession, forgiveness, and fellowship, energizing believers from Uganda to Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and other areas throughout that region. It’s impact was and is worldwide.
Emma Wild-Wood’s article “Your clan is salvation” is a ‘must read’. Find it on our website using the link below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-east-africa

02/01/2025

Willis Collins Hoover, the founding pastor of the Church of Chile, recorded his stirring account of the 1909 revival in Chile:

“That night, February 20, 1909, an all-night meeting was held in a small room of the church. About 30 people waited for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And what happened? Perhaps the most that happened was to discover how empty and needy we were. By daybreak we had moved to the altar of the church, and having ended the meeting, we just sat there, in no hurry to leave.
The pastor began to pace in front of the altar, wondering whether anything had been gained. He began to sing a hymn in a low tone. His voice soon broke and, unable to continue, he began weeping and shaking. At the same time, he felt himself filling up to the tip of his toes with an indescribable sweetness. In the midst of his weeping these words came out: “My Savior! My Savior!” The weeping lasted a long while, and when it ceased the pastor continued walking. . . . Another interruption was not long in coming. This time, a laughter so strong and uncontrollable that he had to sit and give free rein to it, unable to suppress it. After some minutes the laughter subsided and we separated.”
Read more using the link below:
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-chile

01/28/2025

From her humble Canadian beginnings and surrender to Christ at age 17, to her heights of influence and notoriety in Los Angeles during the 1920s to 1940s, Sister Aimee’s life embodied the best of healing revivals, church planting, compassion, and creative expression of the gospel.

Read more about her ministry, as well as the life and ministry of other revivalists from the 1800’s and 1900’s using the link below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-gallery

01/26/2025

The Vélez Sarsfield soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a long and storied history. Home of a beloved football team, the stadium has hosted FIFA world cup games, concerts and more. But in 1966, the stadium hosted a more important event. And that event may or may not have to do with mass conversions, dramatic expressions of deliverance, and fresh forms of worship and unity to a tumultuous nation.
Find out more about this revival in Mark Shaw’s article “God in Villa Miseria” linked below:

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-latin-american-revival

01/25/2025

In every issue of Christian History Magazine, we seek to bring the story of the church to the people of the church. We are committed to capturing the imagination through unique images and vivid storytelling in our printed materials, professional video productions, and internet resources, grounded in the best contemporary scholarship.

Subscribe today to get the next printed issue of Christian History Magazine which will tell the inspiring story of Oswald and Biddy Chambers, author and publisher of "My Utmost for His Highest."

Follow the link below to explore our website, further resources and a link to subscribe to our print magazine!

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/subscribe

01/10/2025

Where did the Pentecostal movement begin? Was it Charles Parham’s street preaching in Kansas? Or was it his protege William J Seymour— a humble, devout, Black man from the Louisiana bayou— who led the famed Azusa street revival?

Either way, their stories are awe inspiring as told in CHM’s article “Crossing Barriers” by Gaston E. Espinosa OR in 's documentary “Azusa Street Project.” linked below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-asuza

https://watch.redeemtv.com/videos/azusa-street-project

01/09/2025

It started with two elderly women praying twice a week. In 1946 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, an archipelago off the western coast of Scotland, these two were concerned about their church, especially its lack of young people. They sensed a spiritual drought in their community, so every Tuesday and Friday they spent much of the night in prayer, asking God to “pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground” (Isa. 44:3). They convinced the church elders to pray as well.

For about a month and a half, these prayer meetings continued twice a week, the two women in their home and seven church leaders in a barn.

One of the two women had a vision of someone standing at the church pulpit, a man she didn’t know. She urged the minister to invite a guest preacher to come and shepherd this impending work of God. After several attempts the parish of Barvas on the Isle of Lewis welcomed a missionary pastor from Edinburgh named Duncan Campbell (1898–1972).

The night he arrived, Campbell preached to about 300 people at the church and the revival continued for five weeks with the same high energy.

Find more encouraging details from this Scottish revival in Randy Petersen’s article “Pour water on the thirsty” linked below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-hebrides

01/04/2025

Azusa Street revival proved to be one of the most influential localized Christian revivals to take place anywhere in the world during the twentieth century. This issue of Christian History Magazine has several articles covering Azusa, but first enjoy this eye witness account of what happened there.

The meetings begin about ten o’clock in the morning and can hardly stop before ten or twelve at night, and sometimes two or three in the morning, because so many are seeking, and some are slain under the power of God. People are seeking three times a day at the altar and row after row of seats have to be emptied and filled with seekers. We cannot tell how many people have been saved, and sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and healed of all manner of sicknesses. Many are speaking in new tongues, and some are on their way to the foreign fields, with the gift of the language. We are going on to get more of the power of God.

Many have laid aside their glasses and had their eyesight perfectly restored. The deaf have had their hearing restored. A man was healed of asthma of twenty years standing. Many have been healed of heart trouble and lung trouble. . . . A brother who had been a spiritualist medium and who was so possessed with demons that he had no rest, and was on the point of committing su***de, was instantly delivered of demon power. He then sought God for the pardon of his sins and sanctification, and is now filled with a different spirit.

12/25/2024

"They all were looking for a king to slay their foes and lift them high; Thou cam'st, a little baby thing that made a women cry." — George MacDonald, hymn, "That Holy Thing"

Christ has come! Take Joy!
Merry Christmas from us to you!

12/20/2024

Maybe you are familiar with parachurch organizations like Alpha, Prison Fellowship or Compassion International. But do you know how they all began?

David W. Kling’s article “A new model for missions” outlines the roots of societies and organizations that gave birth to modern missions as we know them today.

And you and your family can dig deeper into the lives of missionaries like Adoniram and Ann Judson— the first missionaries in Burma— William Carey— often deemed the father of modern missions— and the organizations that backed even these early missionaries by watching the following titles on RedeemTV:
Adoniram and Ann Judson: Spent for God
Candle in the Dark: The Story of William Carey
Torchlighters Series: William Carey
Torchlighters Series: The Adoniram and Ann Judson Story

Adoniram and Ann Judson were American missionaries who sacrificed enormously to bring the gospel to the people of Burma. As the first missionaries sent abroad from the United States, Adoniram and Ann served in Burma (present day Myanmar) for decades. Suffering resistance, persecution, imprisonment,....

12/18/2024

Can you imagine if the businessmen of wall street started a prayer meeting right in the midst of the stock exchange? It might be hard to picture. But what if the market crashed? If that happened, you might find more than one businessman on his knees.

Randy Petersen, author and guest managing editor of this issue, tells the story of this very thing happening in 1857 when America faced its worst financial crisis to date.

Read “A Prayer Meeting that Went Viral” using the link below.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-viral-prayermeeting

12/14/2024

This issue of Christian History covers a wide range of spiritual awakenings that occurred all around the world in the 1900s. And there were many more revivals we didn’t have room for. Using this map, read the short descriptions of what happened in each corner of the globe and follow the helpful page numbers to the corresponding issue article.

Moving west to east, we begin with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California (p. 18). Events in Topeka, Kansas, and Houston, Texas, helped prepare for Azusa, and we could also point to Van Nuys, California, and Duquesne University near Pittsburgh as key US sites in the Charismatic movement of the 1960s. The Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, was part of a Third Wave, along with Canada’s Toronto Blessing (p. 48).

In South America we find Colombia’s spiritual transformation documented by George Otis Jr. (p. 53). Despite political and social upheaval, Argentina has witnessed the working of the Spirit (p. 34), and its neighbor Chile experienced an awakening in 1909 (p. 37).

The 1904 revival in Wales had en­or­mous influence on many other spiritual movements around the world (p. 23). The region of East Africa (including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Congo, Tanzania, and South Sudan) went through decades of spiritual transformation midcentury (p. 38).

In the East, John Sung preached revival effectively in China (p. 41); Korean believers met in Pyongyang in 1909, confessing and unifying (p. 44); and Christians in Indonesia saw the Lord do amazing things in the 1960s (p. 45).

Seeing it mapped out like this, and acknowledging God’s work in many other countries, reminds us of the biblical promise that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).

12/10/2024

How can you know when the spirit is moving?

This issue goes back through the last century or two, tracing spiritual revivals and awakenings that have transformed the church. Most of these events ignited controversy when they happened, and some still do.

In light of these sometimes sensitive topics, we asked our issue advisor, Michael McClymond, who has taught extensively on this subject, to give his thoughts on how to discern the movement of the Spirit.

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-limitless

12/07/2024

Does the vitality of a religious revival come directly from God, apart from human efforts, or is revival fervor channeled through the human efforts of preachers or seekers? Christians have sought to answer this question through the lens of Calvinism or Arminianism. Michael McClymond sheds light on this in his sidebar “Fiat or partnership?”.

Read it using the link below:
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ch153-fiat-or-partnership