The Welsh Revival of 1904-1905

By Dyfed Wyn Roberts

"Mr Evan Roberts has lived to see the nation slip deeply into its former condition, and in some respects to a worse condition. He has lived to see the churches slip back into their old rut, wearing the same clothes, speaking the same language, in the same tone, without ardour or conviction."

This quote is by Rev Vyrnwy Morgan in 1909. Read why he thought this and whether it was a fair criticism or not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dyfed Wyn Roberts
• Release date: Apr 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301461929

Dyfed Wyn Roberts

Dyfed is a trained theologian and church historian from Wales, UK. He is passionate about issues of justice and peace and especially how the church can be positioned to be a world-changing presence within creation.He was trained at Bangor University, north Wales, and has a PhD degree in Welsh revival history. He blogs regularly and has plans to publish more e-books.He lives on the island of Anglesey with his wife Helen who runs the village post office. They have a springer spaniel, Ruth, who loves long walks on the local beaches.

Book preview

The Welsh Revival of 1904

What happened next: A Lesson from History

Dyfed Wyn Roberts

Published by Dyfed Wyn Roberts at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Dyfed Wyn Roberts

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Introduction

A chapel culture

A welcomed revival

Chapel life

Decline noted

Mission

Young people

Why the decline

Preaching

Emotions

New challenges

Conclusion

The Welsh Revival of 1904-05

What happened next - A lesson from history

Introduction

For Christians the Welsh Revival of 1904-05 is seen as a major move of God upon and through his church; a revival in which followers of Jesus were renewed and inspired and which won tens of thousands of new converts in Wales alone. It also proved to be an international revival with the fire spreading throughout many other nations.

Whilst many of those nations managed to hold onto that fire – Korea being a prime example – in Wales itself this did not prove to be the case. Decline soon set in and the leaders of the very church tradition within which the revival had first sparked were before long noting how the fire was dying down. Though many know it as the ‘Evan Roberts Revival’ the truth is that many dozens of other leaders – young and old, ordained and lay – believed that they were used by God to bless the nation under the power of the Holy Spirit. This book seeks to let those voices be heard. They were the ministers and lay leaders who had prayed for revival, had led revival, and then had to manage the decline that followed. We will hear them acknowledge what God had done in their churches and what difference it had made. But we will also hear how the torrent of emotion quickly subsided and how they felt they should respond to this turn of events.

A chapel culture

While the revival knew no denominational boundaries it is fair to say that it was within the Welsh nonconformist tradition – the chapels – that the revival had its greatest impact. This was certainly the tradition that saw the early sparks of revival. It was a tradition made up of four denominations – the Independents and Baptists who had their roots going back to the 17th century; the Calvinistic Methodists, born in