Forgotten Power: The Significance of the Lord's Supper in Revival

Bill DeArteaga's latest book is his most enjoyable to date. In a comfortable narrative supported by copious endnotes he reviews the ebb and flow of revival in history, making a persuasive case that the spiritual results of revival are likely to be both richer and more enduring when sacramental content, especially Holy Communion, is included. The point is illustrated by detailed descriptions of the Scottish communion cycles, echoed on this side of the Atlantic by the Great Awakenings . In modern times the altar call seems to have displaced the Lord's Supper in revival, which marginalizes the sacramental dimension of faith for new Christians. The book is full of historical minutiae and portraits of some of our more colorful past preachers. The mid-eighteenth century comes alive with the likes of William "Mad" Grimshaw of Haworth, England, contemporary of the Wesley brothers, whose church experienced such growth that he devised a scaffold at a window so that preaching could be heard not only by a thousand people inside, but two thousand more in the courtyard outside. The account of a famous sermon by George Whitefield at this church and the effect that it had on the multitude that came to hear him preach is worth the price of the book.Forgotten Power is entertaining, but a more serious thrust of the book is to prod the reader to imagine ways that the twenty-first century revival (the Third Great Awakening) will benefit by becoming more intentionally sacramental. Mass communication is accelerating the pace of the spread of the Great Commission, but absent the nurturing that derives from sacramental practices today's Christianity promises to become a river that may be miles wide but inches in depth. This book suggests ways to prevent such a dilution of our faith.