Revival Conference success

‘PART of your destiny is to be found in your history!’ I heard this faint whisper in my heart a number of years ago. So began a journey of reflecting on our spiritual heritage, especially in terms of God moving in revival.

Remembering who God is and being thankful for what He’s done are spiritual disciplines we’re in danger of neglecting in our day. The Hebrides Revival Conference came out of a desire to honour these disciplines.

What is revival? Here’s a helpful statement made by one of the main speakers at the conference, the Rev Dr RT Kendall: ‘By “revival” I do not mean a planned, orchestrated series of meetings. In America, we hastily use the word “revival”; the word “mission” is preferable. Why? Because true revival is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. So it was in the Hebrides in 1949 and the next couple of years. The Holy Spirit was the architect and sustainer of this extraordinary event’.

As a congregation Martin’s Memorial in Stornoway have held a number of conferences. For larger conferences it was our practice to have to travel to mainland Scotland to be part of events. The same God who had whispered to me about part of our destiny being found in our history, whispered again to say ‘Instead of you as a people always going to the cities of Scotland to worship with others and encounter Me there, you need to invite people from across the nation to come and gather in Stornoway to benifitt from the river of my Spirit that is l owing here!’ We knew God was calling us to host a national conference and the vision of the Hebrides Revival Conference was birthed.

I shared it with my Kirk Session and then the congregation.

We began to pray into the possibilities of what the conference would look like and were blessed in securing the services of our two main speakers, the Rev Dr RT Kendall and the Rev Kenny Borthwick, and chose Psalm 85:6 as an overall theme ‘Will you not revive us again?’ and began to get word out.

We set our capacity at 400. This was met with a week still to go. People came from all over Scotland and the UK – and the world. We had many who were disappointed that they would not be able to join with us. As a congregation we had a team of some 50 volunteers who worked tirelessly to make sure our conference guests received a warm welcome. The feedback we have received from many who came has been remarkable. For this, and for all who came we give thanks to God.

To honour our heart in organising the conference, and to do justice to what God did during the Hebrides Revival (1949-52) we invited four very special guests to be with us on the Saturday morning. Four individuals who came to faith in the midst of this movement of God’s Spirit. One of them, the Rev William MacLeod, was a serving Church of Scotland minister for over 50 years. He is 92 years of age and he still preaches from time to time. He shared part of his coming to faith story and then prayed for all who were at the conference. It was a rich and remarkable moment.

Both RT and Kenny and many of those who travelled to be with us for the Hebrides Revival Conference spoke of it being the most significant and spiritually rich conference they had ever been part of – and we are still receiving reports of people being revived in faith and in hope. For that, for our conference, we say to God be the glory – great things He has done, is doing, and will yet do. 

For conference downloads and future conference updates please visit www.hebridesrevivalconference.com