A Historian's Perspective

 

 

 

Michael Marcel (a historian specializing on UK revivals - website www.ukwells.org) said,

“As far as the ‘quiet revival’ is concerned, I know very little about it in the UK. I find it frustrating that there is no ‘centre’ where one can go and receive and take it out. I am going to one of the places? (the only one I know) in four weeks to see if I can see what is happening. It is clearly amongst Gen Z, but that is all I know. My big concern is what will happen to the new young believers as many churches are not in a good place, in my opinion.”

Michael Marcel is a leading expert writer and historian specializing on this topic and I recommend checking his videos and his site out. It will give you a greater understand of how revivals work and progress. Who God uses, how fast it spreads, basically what has happened in the past. His material is very accessible and, I think, accurate. He deserves greater recognition for his work.

Historically, politics has often influenced revivals. I’m in danger of becoming so boring and tedious here once again by referring to the way in which the quiet revival is under threat from political and nationalistic forces. I am, of course, talking about the far-right appropriation of the Christian flag and banner, Tommy Robinson et al.

My response is pretty predictable, as a lefty. But hold on. You may be assuming too much here. Remember, my conviction is that a revival should be inclusive. For everyone, including you, whoever you are and whatever your political persuasion. There is certainly historical president for a joining together of liberal and conservatives.

 

Let’s go right back to when this all started. That’s over 2000 years ago. A time when there were miracles, and signs and wonders. A time entrenched in political intrigue and patriotism. The first revival ever is said to have taken place in Israel after St Peter gave a sermon and thousands responded to it, after the death and revival of Jesus Christ. But before even that, what was happening? This man, Jesus, who this is all centred around, like Robin Hood, drew a rag-tag company of 12 men to him. The disciples. These men, these leaders, were of vastly differing political inclinations. Some were called zealots. They wanted their country to be free from Roman occupation. They had found the Messiah and they were extremely patriotic. You might even call them conservative right-wingers. Nationalism being the last refuge of the scoundrel, they were jealous for their country. It used to be their home and they wanted it back. Others, you might call them… somewhat critical of their own country. They were tax collectors. They were considered traitors because they actually worked for the Romans in collecting money from the Jewish citizens. They were considered the lowest of the low. And Jesus liked to eat and talk with them.

He included this whole spectrum, from left, to right wing in his disciples. St James, who could be said to have displayed inverse snobbery by disliking the rich. Very liberal of him, despite his emphasis on personal responsibility. At least he understood that most of the problems people faced were caused by outside forces, by rich and powerful groups.

My point is this. Just as today the Church is made up of conservatives and liberals (and everything in between and outside of this) - both sides need to work together. Neither side should attempt to usurp what God is doing for their own agenda. Can Christian liberals and conservatives ever be reconciled? Well, there is some common ground. At heart, both sides agree on and believe the same basic thing. That Jesus is God and that he is the true king etc. It remains to be seen. It is ongoing. But if Jesus ever gets his prayer for unity answered - if you believe that the prayers of Christ are efficacious, then it is going to happen one day.

For now though, we are actually divided, I believe, so much that we are not just arguing with each other. We are killing each other. Maybe not in the UK so much as in some other countries. This must stop.

I will end with one question. There has been much bloodshed, historically. We live in the most brutal of times. There has been much blood, shed both to, and sadly, from Christians. So how much is required? If a revival requires even more martyrs to the point of death, then hasn’t it failed completely? And if we are the ones getting violent, then we’ve all lost.

I am unsure if God and I agree on this point. He allows too much. But I hope we agree that a revival should alleviate suffering, not propagate it.

 

2025

 

The street preachers continued to preach on the streets of the Midlands to only a trickle of interest. Little seemed to have changed on the surface. 

However, in April 2025 the Bible Society published a set of figures which basically showed that much of Generation Z really was interested in faith issues and that there had been an increase in church attendance, especially among young people. The narrative of decline, or the ebb of the sea of faith, had been so long-running that a lot of people were surprised and the study itself (questioning over 13000 people) was fairly robust and compared with a similar study done in 2018. The Bible Society called it a ‘quiet revival’ in the UK (although it seemed also to be happening in other countries in Europe). The study found that the Church of England continued to decline but that Catholics and Pentecostals were increasing in number. They stated that nominal Christians (as shown by the census) were decreasing but that the new believers were relatively active in their faith. And that the new believers, though largely young, were from all ethnic minorities. Similarly, there were reports of an increase in the sales of Bibles.

I was unsure of what to make of it. I wanted to believe it was true but there was a lot of criticism from both inside and outside of the Church. Some called on the Bible Society to retract their whole study.

Meanwhile I was having my own problems, having to increasingly care for my mum who had Parkinsons and dementia (and other personal problems including health and the loss of my dad in 2025). All the time still grieving for my brother. This became all-consuming and I was in little position to investigate further. However, I did attend a meeting in which I questioned Justin Brierley concerning his announcement of a revival.

“Hi Justin. Historically, any past revival has always been accompanied by a seemingly atmospheric outpouring of God’s Spirit. If there is the start of a revival or rebirth now in the UK (which I hope there is) - where is that supernatural change in the atmosphere?”

 

Justin Brierley:

“All great revivals have evidently had a move of God, a supernatural move of God. I’ve hesitated to use the R word ‘revival’ for it because I think revivals are a very specific thing, often things you can only see in hindsight anyway. Where there was a supernatural dimension to what was happening and you see real fruit from it. I think the word I have heard for what’s happening at the moment is a ‘quiet revival’, there are stirrings if you like. I think it is being accompanied in a certain respect by a spiritual outpouring, especially in the younger Gen Z circles. I would say that the Asbury awakening of 2023 was an interesting example of that happening where the spiritual thirst and hunger is bubbling up and pouring out, manifesting in these young people getting on their knees before God. And I’ve seen other instances of that happening. I think there is also a move towards the supernatural that I’m encountering among a lot of people after a long period of rationally and skepticism, I think people are open to that again. I still am not using the word ‘revival’ about what we’re seeing now. It could become that, who knows, but as you say it has to become something a bit different and something that will be noticeably a move of people repenting and getting right with God.

We’re inevitably comparing our time to very different times, the Welsh revival, various revivals which have happened both here and over time. They’ve all been very contextual and I don’t know exactly what a revival would look like right now in the technological age we’re living in, but I do sense that the conditions are right for people to return to God now, they’re desperate enough, I think they’ve been so let down in our culture by the false promises of secular modernity that I think it’s bubbling up in this spiritual hunger. I don’t know exactly how that will be disseminated. Where I am seeing it happen is that it’s trickling down from these online influencers, those seem to be the people who are the trend-setters now and so those are some of the people I’ve been focusing on in my book (The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God). They are changing the atmosphere about the acceptability of talking about God and religion and Christianity. So, I think it is starting in that place and being met by this spiritual hunger bubbling up from the ground as well.”

Brierley, a well-known podcaster, broadcaster and writer in Christian circles in the UK went on to continue to speak about the events which were happening.

Heralding the Quiet Revival

 

On the 30^th March 2024, a headline in The Spectator read: ‘A Christian revival is under way in Britain’. 

It was written by the writer and podcaster Justin Brierley. Well, there was some debate at the time on whether he had written the headline or some sub-editor had. Either way, he ran with the story. He spoke more of a spiritual rebirth and resisted the word ‘revival’ in his article. In fact, it is likely neither the Bible Society or Justin Brierley or the Spectator sub-editor get the kudos of heralding it. There was also the little-known college newspaper reporter of Asbury College in the US.

But the article caused a stir and was the most read Spectator online story of 2024. Brierley’s evidence for the revival was that a number of intellectuals had become Christians and that there seemed to be a shift in the whole landscape with even Richard Dawkins saying he was a ‘cultural Christian’. Justin Brierley felt that new atheism had received a backlash and people were questioning the deepest issues such as the meaning of life, God, and what happens after we die. He had seen first-hand a number of famous people moving from agnosticism, atheism and Islam into Christianity.

One of those, although perhaps not considered an intellectual because of his accent, was Russell Brand - who, that year got baptised by Bear Grylls in the River Thames. With Russell Brand remaining a controversial figure after the allegations of sexual assault, he received a mixed welcome from the UK Christian community. Brand asserted that he had been cancelled by the legacy media and that the accusations were untrue. Some believers felt he was using Christianity as a kind of last resort. Others, including Brierley, gave a cautious welcome. But Brand went from liberal to conservative, possibly so as not to alienate his large US audience. He also lost followers because of his new faith.

At the time there was also some evidence that Generation Z were a lot more open to talking about faith issues than was believed. Some said that there was a revival among young people. It was hard to know for sure, but I saw little sign of it on the university campus where I worked. But I wasn’t digging particularly deeply and, after Asbury, it really did seem like young people were having these discussions and that some were turning to Christ. It is said that the late teens and twenties are a significant time for young people in settling on their faith positions. I had become a Christian at university aged 20. It seemed possible, but the evidence was threadbare and, in many ways, things were as they always were. If this was a revival - it was a bit disappointing. Crime had not decreased and the atmosphere seemed as heavy and oppressive as ever.

 

As ever, people put their hope in a political solution - with the general election replacing 14 years of Conservative Government. But just as with Brexit, the promises of freedom simply remained promises. Perhaps it was all a distraction. People were certainly agitated enough about political issues for it to be another major change. But the talk, as before, was about ‘fixing’ a ‘broken’ Britain - if you even acknowledged that anything was wrong at all.

I wanted Justin Brierley to be right. But I saw few signs of a revival and, even on a personal level, felt little personal revival. I had published a short book ‘The Parables of the Cold Island’ with a half-concealed metaphor for an awakening and it had flopped. It had done spectacularly badly. I think I sold a handful of copies at the most in the first few months and most of them I gave away.

It was a year of loaves and circuses - the circuses of the major sporting events and the general election and the steady bread of incessant bad news. Well, maybe it is unfair to say that politics is a distraction - being as it influences so much of our daily lives. And maybe, just maybe, God was doing something quietly behind the scenes and ‘Aslan really was on the move’ as some liked to say.

Everything is a distraction to somebody or other. It remains my conviction that one of the healthiest and most necessary things that anyone can do, at almost any time, is to bawl their eyes out (preferably at a convenient time and location).

 

Pentecostal Perspectives

 

The Pentecostal church in the UK largely comes under two denominations - The Assemblies of God (AOG) and Elim. I’ve attended both and my background is of going from attending AOG to Elim (there really is not that much difference between the two in my experience). I also spent a long time between churches. These days I attend a Church of England church and feel I’m a lot less religious than I used to be when I first became a believer.

Below are a few views from Pentecostals (the denominational name of which I feel sure that many think sounds too much to them like the word ‘pentagram’ - drawing up images of sorcery and sacrifice).

“We want to see a revival in Britain. I’m not a healing evangelist; I don’t heal people but I know someone who does. I don’t believe my ministry of healing is of healing to Christians, I believe my ministry of healing is to unbelievers. Your burden should be for England, for Birmingham - if any place needs God it’s Birmingham. I want you to change Birmingham.”

David Hathaway - popular UK Christian evangelist preaching in Birmingham

“I believe revival is going to come to the UK. But there could also be persecution.”

Pastor David Owen

 

“I am so fed up with it always raining on someone else's patch! I rejoice and celebrate with all that is happening worldwide, I really do. But my deepest desire is to see it all here, and now. I do believe the atmosphere is changing over our beloved nation. I guess we all need to sharpen our spiritual antenna to become more conscious and understanding.

There has been a major change since Brexit. We must press in to not allow the enemy and his ignorant human tools (by that I mean they do not know they are puppets in his evil anti-God plans) to prevent the fullness of that happening.
There have been shoots popping up all over the place showing that God is on the move afresh…

Let's take the Kingdom by storm, in the violence that the gospel speaks about.” 

Earnest (Pentecostal believer)


When the quiet revival started it was the Catholic and Pentecostal churches which saw the initial growth in numbers. By contrast, according the report by the Bible Society, it was the Church of England which was losing congregants.

If My People...

2024

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

Seems clear enough, doesn’t it?

Except there are some problems here. Firstly, the fact that this was written thousands of years ago to Israel is a problem and ammunition for those who don’t believe in revival. (As for the ongoing Middle-East problem, peace process or not - as I’ve said before - a blessing on both their houses.)

Some say, “In context, this Bible passage is talking about Jewish people. That is the context and that is what is being referred to here.”

Except we know that in this case, this verse is not only talking to Jewish people. It is talking to gentile nations too. We know this because there are historical revivals all throughout the world. Presumably the conditions had been met. Had they?

It tends to be agreed that a revival comes through prayer. But this verse suggests that it may be down to other things as well as simple, humble, honest prayer. Basically, this verse says that before there can be a revival, Christians need to repent. Not other people, but Christians. And we are to seek God. Three specific conditions.

But there is a problem even with that. No matter the level of need (which is great), even Christians cannot repent without some kind of intervention from God. The spirit of repentance is a gift from God. It is revealed in our actions. So here are the problems - not only can we not repent without some kind of individual revival but we are also disinclined to change our ways. I get that. Besides which, ‘repentance’ can take time - it can be the journey of a lifetime. Some of us are never so right as when we say ‘Sorry’. Welcome to the ‘good news’.

 

And, of course, for there to be revival, we all need to repent, believer and not-yet-believer. Say there is some sin I should repent of. Then I’m not inclined to change my ways, am I? Why should I? I may know it is wrong, and that’s a start, but I have no power to change without some help from God. So, I’m stuck in a vicious circle. Without a personal revival, I literally cannot change my ways, and if I do not change my ways, I will get no revival of any kind. Oh, what a wretched man I am and blah de blah de blah…

At such points there is only one thing to do - call on the name of the Lord. Literally ask Jesus for help through prayer. To ask him to help me to want to change my ways from the latest sin I’m indulging in. “Lord, please make me willing to change.” And I guess say sorry, as God is often rooting for an apology.

It is very difficult to change others and not much easier to change ourselves. I can go around all day calling for repentance from all and sundry, but they are likely to say: “Sure, you first though.”

We wake up each morning with our same set of prejudices and temptations.

Hopefully God understands this. And, repentance is the journey of a lifetime. Part of the endless fun of being a believer.

However, in the context of revival, this is a huge problem because according to this verse, providing it applies to Christians as well as Jewish people (and I cannot say if it extends further), we have to collectively repent to get a full-blown revival.

I’m not going to go further into the definition of repentance. All I will say is that I believe that actions speak louder than words, but words are a start and are still significant. Some cliches are cliches because they are true. If we feel we have nothing to repent of, we are probably in a very precarious position with God. But I think a ‘sorry’ in prayer is hugely significant and valid even when our actions don’t marry up with our words. Saying sorry is an action, but it may be the only thing we can really do if we want to ‘get right with God’ as the preachers like to say.

Historically then, did believers always collectively repent before a revival came? Seemingly not, but it is still agreed that Christians were praying for a revival for a long time.

Most significantly, the country was often in a very bad place, morally and spiritually before any past revival. There are reports of things getting so bad with violence and crime and all kinds of wild behaviour. There is currently a revival in drug use. That’s a problem. It’s dark and it’s not good and people die over it all, one way or the other. I’m not talking about cannabis so much as the hard drugs, LSD, heroin, cocaine etc. We ‘should’ tackle the big sins in our lives. I had to stop taking drugs and keep not taking them before God sent someone into my life to give me the true gospel (which, in a nutshell is still found in John 3:16).

 

But even if you have fallen out of the whole story of history, the metanarrative of the world, you are still in the story. Even if you think that you are not relevant to the destiny of the country and you are in a place of little influence, a wasteland, or desert where it feels as if you have been rejected and isolated or are invisible, you are still, probably, relevant. Outsiders often get used by God.

So, without overcomplicating the instruction and conditions for revival it seems that this is what we need to do. Pray. Repent. Seek God. But as I say, it’s catch 22, we cannot do any of this without God’s help and we cannot seem to receive God’s help until we start to do those things. And anyway, isn’t this all ‘works-based attempts to go to Heaven and avoid hell’? Prayer is a work. I’m sorry, but it is. If you are going to pray, then don’t make the mistake I made which was to think I needed to pray all the time and every night through the night. That belief ended up with me in a mental hospital, getting injected with a drug which made it impossible to pray. And I learned, one way or the other, to be more balanced. We need to pray persistently, like the persistent widow in the parable, not literally continually. I’m probably one of the few Christians who will tell you not to pray continually. I don’t think it’s healthy and sometimes we need to put legs under our prayers. I practice what I preach in this when I say I do not pray that much these days. And when my brother died, I not only considered leaving the faith, being so angry with God, but I gave up prayer for over a year and blogged about it too. Prayer can be a treadmill. I’m not saying never to pray, just to keep it balanced. God is in Heaven and I am stuck on earth so I’m going to keep my words few, thank you very much.

 

There’s probably some other thing you might have noticed from the verse at the top of this blog entry. It seems to suggest that the responsibility, the blame even, for there being no revival is not the fault of God at all. It seems to say it’s our fault. All of the decadence, the Bohemian inclinations of us all, which we complain about, are our fault. Because of the excesses of the Christian community and the sheer evil of some of the bad apples. Great! Now we can’t even blame the devil (who, I can assure you, does not want a genuine revival and also happens to be the author of all our pain, one way or the other). But we are talking about a gift here, something that we are asking for. Grace. Is the responsibility for receiving a gift ours? Do we fail to receive it because we don’t ask for it enough? Who’s to blame if a gift doesn’t get given? If I see a homeless person and don’t give them something they need, then is the homeless person to blame? Because that’s the inference of this verse. I don’t think we are to blame. Let us blame the devil and his demons. The snake made us do it. Or blame God for allowing the devil and demons to oppress us so intensely. At least that is human.

What’s the solution then? How do we get a revival? How did people do it in the past? All the evidence says that Christians were ‘in talks’ with God over the issue no matter how evil society was around them at the time.

But I ask you this. Do you think that any of the many people (myself included) who write about revival or who are armchair revivalists (which are desperately needed), actually know how to get a full-blown revival? No. Not a single one of us does. We have a theory that more of us should pray and that we all need to repent and seek God. And that’s just theory. Not a single revivalist knows beyond this how to bring about a revival. Not one. Not the most famous writer or preacher on the subject. Do you know how I know this? Because there is no revival as I write this in 2024 (* or so it seemed). If we knew how to start one then we would have done so already, providing we cared. The only difference with me is that I admit I don’t know and give a slight damn.

All I know is that it is in the gift of God and I presume we have to ask for it. Again. And again. And again.

And how does this paint God? The need is so great, it is literally life and death. And still God will not give this ‘gift’? In the parable of the persistent widow Jesus temporarily aligns himself with an unjust judge concerning answered prayer. Honestly, it’s like getting blood out of a pebble - and if you even say something like that you will simply feel guilty or someone will give you a stern look. Can this generous and merciful, loving God really not give this desire of ours? Doesn’t he desire it too? Well, I’m sure he is more generous than the way I’ve often painted him, but I have an excuse. I’m a sinner.

We’re fighting for freedom. Freedom is intrinsically linked to revival. While there is a declension, true freedom is significantly diminished. So, if we ever get to see a revival, let’s make sure we don’t add to the, often arbitrary, laws, rules, constraints and cancellations of this present time. Some laws which we may break are not sins. (I cannot currently expand on this for legal reasons.)

 

In the meanwhile, let’s try not to get cancelled in a very real and immediate way. I mean, die. This is still, in a way, a survival situation, and if you don’t survive, I may haunt you.

Look, I’m doing it again! Making something so interesting, so tedious.