Leslie Basham: At noon, Fulton Street in New Yorks financial district is a busy place with businessmen and women hurrying to restaurants and meetings. Some street vendors set up at the corner of Fulton Street and Williams, offering a quick lunch. This is about three blocks away from the site Americans have come to call Ground Zero. Of course, that area gets a lot of attention.But few of the people walking down Fulton near Williams Street realize the significance of this spot. Most of them dont know what happened here in September 1857. A small group of businessmen gathered to pray at the North Dutch Reform Church on Fulton Street.It was the beginning of a revival that would spread throughout the nation. This revival swelled church attendance. It changed peoples behaviors, and it inspired new missionary endeavors. But mostly, the revival inspired Gods people to pray.This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Thursday, September 30. For the last few weeks, weve made prayer for revival a priority on Revive Our Hearts, along with several other ministries and the National Religious Broadcasters. During this 40-day emphasis on prayer for our nation, were bringing you the story of a revival that was birthed in prayer.We originally brought you this story in 2007 before the financial challenges that have shaken our world. I think youll find it interesting to hear the story from this side of the recession since so much has changed since these interviews were recorded. Heres Nancy to get us started.Nancy Leigh DeMoss: The Prayer Revival of 1857 is sometimes called the Laymans Revival. Unlike some other historical awakenings, there was no well-known preacher at the center of this revival.Now to give you some context, the nation at this point was in the throes of the Industrial Revolution. People were making money hand over fist. Most people really didnt feel a great need for God or for prayer.Against that backdrop in His Providence, God raised up a layman who became burdened about the spiritual condition of people in New York City. I suspect this layman had little idea of how greatly God was going to use his life and his efforts in the great Prayer Revival.Jonathan Brownson is the prayer minister for the Reformed Church in America. He tells us about the background of this layman.Jonathan Brownson: Well, Jeremiah Lanphier was a businessman. He moved to New York City to start a garment business. He moved to a location that was in the center of Manhattan. He was converted in a church in Manhattan around noonwhich has significance to the later part of the story.After his conversion, he was asked by the consistory (or the leadership) of the North Dutch Church if he would serve as a lay missionary for them.Nancy: The church decided to hire this lay missionary because they were losing members.Jonathan Brownson: What was happening in the North Dutch Church is similar to what is happening in metropolitan areas todaybusinesses were moving into Manhattan and church members were moving out of the area.Lyle Dorsett: We see a decline in church attendance as early as the 1850s.Nancy: This is Lyle Dorsett, professor of Christian Formation and Ministry at Wheaton College.Lyle Dorsett: The growth of churchesthe growth (in numbers) of people going to churches had declined quite a bit. Our statistics arent completely reliable by any means from these eras, but we do know that.Nancy: As the pace of life increased, people seemed less attuned to spiritual things and disagreements over immigration and slavery created a deep sense of tension.Continues...http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php?pid=10661
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