When Heaven Touches Earth
The Holy Spirit, the Sacraments & Revival
by William L. De Arteaga
On a fall Sunday in the mid-1980s, the rector of a suburban church gave one of his usual renowned sermons. The church had a reputation not only for superb preaching, but also for being the most charismatic Episcopal church in the Atlanta area. The Sunday services blended traditional liturgy, lively contemporary worship music with occasional “word gifts” breaking out among the congregation. The assistant rector, an internationally respected composer of Christian music, led the music.
The rector’s sermon was on loving one another. In a moment of inspiration, the assistant rector suggested in response to the sermon that the congregation take time to visit, pray with, love and affirm one another.1 The rector suggested a modification: during communion, members should follow the Spirit’s lead and do those things at the communion rail.
So at communion people hugged, loved, prayed, laid hands for healing, and reconciled, in a way that was both spontaneous and awe-inspiring. Words of wisdom, encouragement and prophecy flowed. The same format was followed the next Sunday.
Complaints filtered in, however. Mistakes had been made: someone laid hands on someone “imprudently.” Someone else prayed too loudly. Several in the congregation missed their periods of “recollection” with the Eucharist. To correct these “errors” the altar prayers were restricted to the trained intercessors of the church’s healing teams. A few months later one of the intercessors hovered over a young woman at the altar who had been molested by her father and recently raped. She was in terror of any touch, and became unhinged by the intercessor. So the intercessors were moved to the front side of the church where the communicants would go for prayer—a practice now quite common in renewed churches. Everything was in proper order again.
Theories of Revival
Only God can count how often this type of grace breakthrough (and retreat) has occurred among the liturgical churches in America. Research on the great Scotch Presbyterian revivals of the eighteenth century and other revivals in the past has shown similar intensely graced Communion services.
Although many liturgical Christians have understood the charismatic renewal as an opportunity to regain an appreciation of liturgy and the sacraments, there is little understanding of the role of sacraments in either initiating revival or having a central place in revival. This is largely due to the current understanding of revivals derived from two principal sources that little noted the sacraments.
The first is the revival theology of Charles Finney in the nineteenth century that especially influenced Pentecostal theology. Finney’s Revivals of Religion forcefully presented the case that God moves among his people as a result of the intercessory prayers of a remnant of faithful Christians. Thus it is the revivalist’s responsibility to organize prayer intercessors so that evangelistic preaching bears fruit in a true revival (i.e., the conviction and conversion of unbelievers).
The second is an earlier theory of revival, suggested by Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century. America’s most famous revival theologian, Edwards believed the onset of revival was largely a matter of God’s sovereign will and mercy, and that it comes during periods of decline and formalism in church life. Significantly, his first work on revival was entitled A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God at Northampton. In Edwards’s view the minister must preach the gospel of sin, repentance and grace, as a setting for the possibility of revival, but the initiation of true revival is beyond man’s domain.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
19.10—December 2006
Workers of Another World United
A Personal Commemoration of Poland’s Solidarity 25 Years Later by John Harmon McElroy
31.4—July/August 2018
Labels & the Ecumenism of Discipleship by James M. Kushiner
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
on Abortion as a Matter of National Welfare by W. Ross Blackburn
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
