the year 1976 a revival meeting was convened at Mokohung and Rev. Rikum was invited as the speaker. It was here that the great revival explosion took place. Many were filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues. This resulted in mass conversions throughout Nagaland. Some of the astounding miracles were raising of the dead and many people were reported missing. No one has any clue to what happened to those missing, but all assume that they were taken to heaven alive.
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1960 -April: Van Nuys, North America (Dennis Bennett)
The outbreak of charismatic renewal in denominational churches in America is usually identified with the ministry of Dennis Bennett (1917-1991) at St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California, because of the national press coverage generated there, Bennett’s subsequent national and international ministry in renewal, and the huge sales of Bennett’s 1970 autobiographical book Nine O’clock in the Morning, and his subsequent teaching books, especially The Holy Spirit and You.
During Bennett’s ministry as senior priest at St Mark’s from 1953 to 1960 the church had grown with the population in the area and maintained a staff of four priests and office assistants. Respected lay people had been baptized in the Spirit and began holding home meetings for those interested, Bennett and his wife Elberta among them. Soon many were experiencing this renewal, including many of the youth. Renewal meetings introduced increasing numbers to this experience, and people learned to pray naturally for one another for all needs, including healing.
Bennett was cautious, sensing possible problems in the parish, but initially received wide support from parishioners, even those not directly involved. Bennett reports how a neurosurgeon, the husband of the Altar Guild directoress who was involved in the renewal, commented favourably:
“Oh, by the way, I see what’s happening to my wife, and I like it!”
I did a “double-take”: “You do?”
“Yes,” he replied. “You’re going to have a hard time explaining this ‘speaking in tongues’ to some people, though.” He paused a moment and then added casually:
“Of course, I understand it.”
I was so surprised that I simply said again: “You do?”
“Sure! You see, the speech centers dominate the brain. If they were yielded to God, then every other area would be affected, too. Besides,” he continued, “I think about God sometimes, and I run out of words. I don’t see why He shouldn’t give me some additional words to use.”
Others disagreed, and found it threatening or inappropriate. Bennett’s second assistant publicly threw his vestments on the altar at the end of the second of the three morning services on Passion Sunday, 3 April, 1960, saying “I can no longer work with this man!” That Sunday Bennett had told his testimony of being baptized in the Spirit five months previously and urged openness and acceptance of this transforming experience now common in the parish. A small but volatile group erupted in open opposition, including a vestryman who urged Bennett to resign, which he did that day, to avoid a parish split.
Bishop William Fisher Lewis in Seattle invited Bennett to ‘bring the fire’ north and offered him the run down church of St. Luke’s, Seattle, which rapidly became a nationally known charismatic Episcopalian church, and model for hundreds of other denominational churches.
Typically, charismatic renewal disrupts established congregations, and is usually expressed in renewal home groups in the church or in a renewal service during the week or on Sunday night. However, it is often an uneasy partnership. Many people shift toward independent congregations or Pentecostal assemblies for a fuller expression of this dynamic renewal, as is examined in chapter nine: charisma and institutions.
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1960 – May: Darjeeling, India (David Mangratee)
A revival broke out in Darjeeling in 1960. God used David Mangratee. Born into a Hindu family, he had a wonderful birth. His father died in the year 1933, and was to be taken for burial. People had made everything ready. He was kept inside the coffi