Australia’s Revival History is ‘More Dramatic’ Than America’s

Watch the latest episode of the Great Southland Revival podcast series with Kurt Mahlburg and Jeff Stacey.

Jeff Stacey has made important contributions to Australia’s revival history. In 2003, he completed a thesis investigating the characteristic features of revival, comparing the revivals that took place under Jonathan Edwards with the events recorded in the book of Acts.

I recently caught up with Jeff to dig deeper on this topic. He shared some of the key learnings he took away from his thesis, along with his favourite events in Australian revival history and how Australia has been influenced by revivals elsewhere.

We also spoke about the possibility of seeing revival in Australia today, and what it would take to see a move of the Holy Spirit transform our nation.

One of the most fascinating insights Jeff shared came from an American professor. “When I was doing my thesis, I had a bit of contact with Professor Robert Linder, who is the co-author with Stuart Piggin of his two-volume history of evangelicalism in Australia,” Jeff told me. “He’s an American professor from Kansas State University.”

Jeff continued. “He said to me, ‘You know, you Australians have a more dramatic, exciting and inspiring revival history than America. Everyone knows about American revival history. No one knows about Australian revival history.’ That was coming from an American professor who is an authority on revival.”

Uncovering Australia’s revival history is the purpose of Canberra Declaration’s Great Southland Revival podcast series. Watch the full interview with Jeff Stacey here.

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For more articles by Kurt Mahlburg or to buy his book, Cross + Culture: Can Jesus Save the West? you can go to his website. This article was originally published in The Daily Declaration.