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Global Awakening: Korea in the 1910s
Just as the famed Welsh Revival of 1904-1905 faded, a global awakening brewed. Militant nationalism spread, but revival forged ties across hardening political borders. News of revival in Wales encouraged laity and missionaries alike to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon their own lands. In 1905, revival spread across Scandinavia, visiting Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Travelers to China bore the exciting news and saw God work among them as never before. Indian believers welcomed an awakening they had prayed for and labored to see for decades.
A wildfire of revival
Local revivals sprouted up in several American cities, including: Atlanta, Binghamton, Pueblo, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Terra Haute. Large crowds flocked to Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1907 and experienced unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit. While political turmoil and mass-scale death loomed just over the horizon with World War I, the first decade of the twentieth century held great promise for advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ world-wide through revival.
Mountains of prayer
Following decades of missionary efforts by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, Christianity began to take hold among a Korean minority near the end of the 1800s. Missionaries persisted in prayer and Bible teaching in the hope that God would visit the Koreans with a powerful revival. But such spectacular results were not immediately forthcoming.
Be an example others will follow
Like so many other missionaries, Dr. R. A. Hardie was discouraged. The Canadian medical missionary met with six other peers in Wosnan for prayer and Bible study in 1903. It was a tradition for Korean churches to set aside one solid week every year for nothing but small group devotionals, and Hardie needed encouragement. He was responsible for talking about prayer, a difficult task for a missionary battling doubt. He read from Luke 11:13, when Jesus explains that his heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks for him. Profoundly affected by this promise, Hardie confessed his pride and explained how he was depending on his own efforts, not on the Holy Spirit. His honesty impressed and inspired the other missionaries.
Leaders who harbored silent jealousy confessed and reconciled.
Hardie shared the experience with his Korean congregation, and the example of confession spread to others. The Koreans testified to a fresh sense of the Holy Spirit and openly confessed their sins. Several made restitution with one another for past wrongs, and some even reached outside the community of faith to make up for what they had done. After hearing of this revival, missionaries in Pyongyang, Korea’s capital, invited Hardie to visit them in 1904 and share his experience. In Pyongyang and other Korean cities, the pattern of confession and restitution was repeated.
"Harmony of sound and spirit"
At Seoul in September 1906, missionary Howard Agnew Johnston shared about the revivals simultaneously gripping Wales and regions of India. The Koreans were further encouraged to expect God would work in powerful ways to revive their whole land. Indeed, the revival intensified during the opening week of 1907. Meeting in Pyongyang on January 6, 1907, about 1,500 missionaries and indigenous leaders persevered through momentary discouragement to offer expectant prayers.
At one point, Korean leader Graham Lee asked for prayer, and several people led out simultaneously. He responded, “If you want to pray like that, all pray,” so all 1,500 prayed out loud at the same time. Many wept over their sins as they realized their need for God’s grace and forgiveness. Leaders who harbored silent jealousy confessed and reconciled.
Lasting impact
“The effect was indescribable — not confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls moved by an irresistible impulse of prayer,” Presbyterian missionary William Blair remembered. The outpouring continued unabated until 2:00 in the morning.
When the meetings concluded and the men returned home, they took the revival with them. Other communities experienced the same movement of confession and repentance. This was not merely an emotional outpouring. God was steeling Koreans to withstand severe persecution under Japanese rule from 1910 to the end of World War II in 1945.
Revival still bearing fruit
Several distinct practices that began in this revival continue among Korean Christians today. Many still rise daily for 5:00 A.M. prayer meetings. They pray out loud simultaneously and evangelize courageously. Today, Korea sends more cross-cultural missionaries than any other nation except the United States.
Collin Hansen is the co-author with John Woodbridge of A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir.