Revival Is New Again
Asbury University
Likely, you have heard about the revival that has just concluded after two weeks of near continuous worship at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. What began as a routine chapel service February 8th turned into days and nights of prayer, praise and power. The assistant soccer coach who also works with the school’s mission team lead a chapel talk about love in action. A handful of students stayed behind after service and just kept praying and singing. They reported “an unexplainable surreal sense of peace” enveloped the room. Soon more students, faculty and locals drifted back in. Friends told friends and ultimately 50,000 people found their way to Wilmore, KY (a town of 6.000) to see, feel and participate in what (or Who) was happening in the 1500 seat auditorium.
This reminded me of a revival in Franklin that I’ve heard about.
Franklin’s revival, though over 150 years ago, sounds very similar. To quote the Republican Banner, October 5, 1867, “ A revival altogether unprecedented in extent, is in progress at Franklin among the Methodist. Up to last Thursday evening there had been one hundred professions and eighty-six additions to the church. The Franklin Review of yesterday says, with regard to this revival:
‘On last Sunday the services were conducted by Dr. A.L. Green and after one of the most powerful sermons ever delivered by this eminent divine, the doors for reception of members were opened. Forty-two joined. Taken altogether it was the most solemn and impressive service ever witnessed in this town. Doctor Green has gone, but still the meeting goes on under the supervision of Reverands E. McKendree Bounds, A.F. Lawrence and others. The members have become almost exhausted by their labors, but still they work on. The entire community is permeated by the spirit and influence of this meeting.” ‘
E.M. Bounds was serving as the minister at the Methodist Church at the time of this revival. This was not his first stint in Franklin. His first time to Franklin was as the Chaplain in General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee. On November 30, 1864 he ran headlong into the bullets and cannon balls with the confederates soldiers at the bloody Battle of Franklin. (He was, by the way, opposed to slavery.) Bounds was captured by the Union Army and forced to dig mass graves for the fallen after the battle. Ultimately he was released and went home to Missouri, but he couldn’t forget about the heartbreak in Franklin. Bounds asked to return as the minister to the Methodist Church in Franklin. When he arrived he found the church in a “wretched state.” He gathered a small group of men who prayed on the Square every Tuesday night for revival in the Church and in Franklin. And then it happened. Revival came to Franklin and the church grew from a few members to over 500. (Remember only 900 people lived in Franklin then.) According the local papers at the time, the entire town was transformed by the revival.
There’s a lot more to E.M. Bounds that I’d like to share with you. As promised, these are pocket stories so we’ll stop with that for now. Hint: I think he might be the forgotten hero in the Carrie McGavock story.