What Would Happen If...?

New York City is a truly incredible place. The diversity is unreal. NYC is a melting pot of every nation on the planet. We heard so many different languages and saw so many different people. I knew that about NYC before we went there but it was even more than I expected. It made me think missionally, “What if we (the Church) put more effort in reaching the 8 million people in NYC? How far would the gospel spread from there? How many different nations would be impacted by something that started in NYC?” It’s happened before. Let me explain:

We walked to the intersection of Fulton and Williams Streets while we were there. I wanted to stand at the intersection where a great spiritual awakening began and have my picture taken. (I would post it, but it’s still in Bailey’s camera.) In September 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier started a series of prayer meetings at a Dutch Reformed Church that once stood at this intersection. He passed out handbills and flyers advertising the first meeting at noon on September 23. His intention was to meet the spiritual needs of businessmen in the financial district of New York City during the lunch hour. After waiting alone for a half-hour, six men finally came and joined Lanphier. The next week that number doubled. Week after week the numbers grew. When the stock market crashed later in the year, panic set in. People began to pray.

Within six months, 10,000 people gathered to pray at noon in New York City. This was the beginning of one of the most significant revivals in history. The movement swept up and down the eastern seaboard to cities like Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore. It went south as far as New Orleans and Mobile. It spread west to cities like Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, even to the West Coast. The New York newspapers created a daily column to report “the daily progress of revival.” Ships that ported in New York City left with changed men and the effects of the revival swept through Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

It happened once. It can happen again. What if we started praying fervently for NYC everyday? Pray for NYC.

PS - To see a video about the Fulton Street Revival, look at my September 14, 2007 post.