One of the many things that I know little about and would like to understand better is the East African Revival of the mid-twentieth century. I was very grateful that a Rwandan brother recently corrected me in personal correspondence on a blog post below in regard to Rwandan ‘Christian’ names as a testimony of the parents’ Revival faith. Apparently the background to these God-related names is more often found in Catholic mass proselytism (the king Rudahigwa Mutara III converted in 1943 encouraging a wave of baptisms) or in pre-colonial traditional religion.
The question remains though – have there been problems in the passing on of the EA Revival heritage to the second and third generation? It does seem that there were wonderful features of the Revival that are lacking in many of our churches in the region today – features we would do well to recapture. Wes, on the a mission-driven life blog (which is well worth a look) posted the following on one of the leading figures of the Revival, the Ugandan Festo Kivengere:
John Senyonyi identifies three emphases in Festo’s preaching: (1) the Cross of Jesus; (2) the Love of Jesus; and (3) the Holy Spirit. Festo became an international advocate for the love of Christ, exemplified in the cross. The Cross is where the love of God is exemplified, in that Jesus paid for sin. At the cross, all sinners are seen equally. The love of God was demonstrated in the cross because that is where Jesus died on behalf of sinners. The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus through the word. It was Jesus who went to the cross to conquer sinners’ sin. Rather than preaching “Revival” or about the revival, Festo preached Jesus. Senyonyi argues that this is where Festo excelled over the revival, in that he focused so much on the love of God through the cross. The revival message was not that revival had come; rather, the revival message was that Jesus had come, died on the cross for each sinner, and raised from the dead. The revival quickly matured because of this christo-centric focus. This also led Festo and other revival leaders to fight against splinter movements within the revival that tried to add another step in the gospel, such as the “reawakening” movement. That the revival leaders took these steps without outside intervention demonstrated the maturity of the revival.
You can listen to Kivengere preaching on the glory of God (climaxing on the cross of Christ) at the Sermon Index site (which has got lots of other very useful stuff on it).
East African brothers – please help me to learn more on this. In particular:
a) What are the important stories we need to hear? Tell them to us or point us to where we can hear them.
b) What were the strengths of the Revival that we need to return to?
c) What were the weaknesses or lessons to learn?
fidelnyikuri
iServe Africa Webmaster
Utumishi Blog 
There are some lessons of the revival that we can learn from. I suggest the following:
1. Repentance- This was part and parcel of the believers in Christ during this times. Actually, they not only used to repent to God alone but to fellow human being when they have wronged. I remember reading Festo Kivengere’s biography and he gives a scenario where he clashed with his wife because of where to place a jug. And actually they had a clash which ended in silence. Later on, he understand the place of repentance due to selfishness and asks the wife to forgive. This is very much lacking today.
2. Evangelism- They were very strong on evangelism and missions. Believers in Christ used to go and pitch camp in a village and preach the gospel with all means possible. That is how the revival was able to spread to Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
3. They were not ashamed to proclaim the gospel even when in trials and suffering. They had resolved.
Thanks very much for this James. Those are great challenges. Any weaknesses to learn from?
I personally David Yateesa thank God for this revival. many things have changed in my life. The testimonies have helped me a lot, always asking my self that whom am I not to be like those who won. stilling died completely for sure now i can not even pick money which i find on the way b’se its not mine. currently am at university where there is a lot of freedom but for ladies i look at them as my sisters and am very free with them, i balance fellowships with studies in order not to give devil chance, walk in light, put right sins and repent to all those i may wrong un intentionally. what i like from this revival is that whatever worldly event which is full of temptations is ignored e.g politics my end with a person hating the other which is not Godly, conforming to the patterns of the world especially ladies in appearance and dressing, not changing their skin color, un healthy competitions are all ignored. That self esteem in the revival has kept it burning spiritually. My message to all people is that let us put competition aside and yearn for truth, let us put shame aside we search for heaven. praise the lord.
THANKS TO GOD WHO SAVED US, LET US KEEP AWAKE UNTIL WE REACH GOD’S KINGDOM
Once i wondered about the verse in the bible that is it possible for a person really to cut off his hand b’se its causing him or her to sin or a leg or any part of the body? well, But for sure this verse does not only imply parts of the body only but also worldly events that may cause sin like politics, women in reawakened revival do not make hair, they avoid loans, they put aside many worldly events. Like me have been in school for the last 17 years but even if all my colleagues are cheating for me i don’t.
Welcome to the discussion and thanks very much for your comments David. It’s great to hear your personal testimony of the ongoing impact of the revival in Uganda. It does seem that the complete renunciation of sin was and continues to be a very important aspect of the revival and a continuing challenge to us all to take seriously (if not always literally as you point out) Jesus’ words on sin. Could I ask a few more questions? (1) Did/does the EA Revival movement emphasise turning to Christ and union with him as strongly as turning from sin? (2) How did the movement deal with the constant human tendency to focus on rules and outward appearance rather than on matters of the heart and grace? (3) To what extent did the EA Revival and the movement(s) that followed teach the possibility of Christian perfection / complete victory over sin?
Thanks a lot bother andyharker for your concern. The lamb of God is still and will continue taking away sins of many sinners who turn away from their evil ways and turn to him as their personal saviour. For me am in uganda now. Brother you may come and visit us at kawempe Kilokole zone for our national monthly meetings on the first sunday of every month and witness. Giving answers to the questions above (1) It is jesus who takes away the sins. No man can stuggle on his or her own to remove sins from him or her self with out Jesus christ. Like me i confessed with my own mouth after accepting from the bottom of my heart. There is nothing we do or can do with out christ. (2) As the holly spirit is dong such a wonderful work, the devil has not relaxed. But constant repentence, putting right sins, walking in light and prayer has kept brethrens burning in christ. Even not engaging our selves in the worldly events however much they might be paying like politics, organisations involving borrowing money, even some jobs like working in bars etc has also helped us to walk burning in the way. According to me, whatever we do is for God’s sake i dont understand the laws being talked about. (3) Recently God revealed to me a sin of anger and helped me to repent it. To me i thought there was no problem with quarolling with animals and over beating them for any mistake but God relealed it to me that anger had not died in me. I thank God for that i feel changed after repenting it. When brethrens walk in light, others get to learn and also repent off once convicted. Its said in the bible that since we have many witnesses, let us get rid of any burden that may interfere with us. With this christian perfection will highly accomplished.
Thanks for continued discussion and kind invitation David. iServe Africa has growing links with UG and we look forward to meeting one day. Allow me to add to and clarify my questions above: (1) There are three ‘tenses’ of salvation – Jesus HAS saved me from the penalty of my sin, he IS saving me from the power of sin, and when he returns or calls me home he WILL save me from the presence of sin. Which of these is most important to you personally and to the EA Revival movement? A further question on this – is there a danger of a ‘holy pragmatism’ where salvation is seen as centred on dealing with sinful behaviour rather than salvation AS Christ himself (Gal. 2:20; John 17:3). (2) There seem to have been a number of ‘laws’ kept by the Balokole, some of which you mention above: non-involvement with politics, not taking loans, men not having beards, women’s dress and hair. Is there not a danger in putting on people’s disicpleship things beyond Scripture? We may do things ‘for the Lord’ and that is right (Col. 3:17) but it is possible to be zealously ‘committed’ and miss the heart of the gospel (Col. 2:20-23; Rom. 10:2). I’m sure of better things in your case but please clarify the motivations for these things for us. (3) Thanks for sharing so honestly that great testimony David. Please God may I have such a tender conscience to my sin. What was behind my question was that the EA Revival seems to have been heavily influenced by a theology (coming from the UK in the 1960s) that rightly called for confession and consecration but tended to end up suggesting that we could have a breakthrough into a victorious sinless life (something even the apostle Paul didn’t attain (Phil. 3:12) and treating sins as discrete, singular ‘things’ that you willfully do rather than a corruption of the whole nature (Rom. 3:9-20) that stains all our works (Isaiah 64:6), a darkness of the soul which will continue until Christ returns (2 Pet. 1:19). Surely we must be continually repenting but the question is: am I now basically a sinner justified in Christ or a perfected saint who ocassionally stumbles and backslides? (Sorry for such a long comment!)
GOD SHOULD STRENGTHEN THE REVIVAL
I thank God for this revival.i got saved in 2006 and re-awoke in 2008 and since then i do not regret .God is on my way whenever satan comes on my way.I was a theif,fornicator,nick-namer,liar,e.t.c but God showed me all that ,that i had to repent and put right.Currently i am completing University without a girl-lover but it has been really God’s grace.(Titus:3;5)GOD IS MY SAVIOR Praise God.
thanks a lot brothers for all the efforts done to know the truth, but the issue of laws is that some one controlled by the law is the one who refuses to do something because it is in the bible and is some thing is not written any where in bible even if it hurts some one not for the sake of God, this person will continue doing it even if the holly spirit is convicting him/her will only belief if he/she reads it from the bible. Jesus left the holly spirit to convict us and put us right with God. this does not mean that the laws in the bible are wrong or not necessary, they are equally important just as before but ever since Jesus left us physically our immediate helper is the holly spirit. praise the lord.
Yateesa david
Thanks very much for your comments and testimony Geofrey and David. Certainly it is the Holy Spirit who writes God’s law on our hearts and gives us a new delight in His law and begins to work obedience in us. And I agree that a key work of the Spirit is to soften and tenderise our conscience so that we are sensitive to anything that might be against love of God and neighbour (even if not spelled out in Scripture) and equally to ‘find out what pleases the Lord’ – an inclination not simply to do the bare minimum of avoidance and duty but to actively seek out what fulfils the law of love even where all the possibilities are not spelled out.
Law is key as the fence and seedbed of good works but it requires the Spirit and love to fulfil and properly extend this law into all of life.
Another thought. It may be helpful to mention the three forms of sin found in passages like Romans 14-15 – 1) Sin against God’s explicit commands; 2) Sin against your conscience (even where your conscience might be mistaken on some secondary matter); 3) Provoking a brother to sin against God’s law or against their conscience. (The difficult thing to work out is whether you are a stronger brother or a weaker brother in different cases…)
Paul’s definition of sin here is very helpful: whatever is not of faith is sin. So, as John Piper points out, we fight sin by the Spirit by correcting our unbelief in Christ and turning afresh to his present and future grace towards us.