More and more of our congregation at New Life would road-trip the 7 hours to the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.
The Revival in Brownsville has been well documented, but here is a short refresher synopsis:
In 1993, John Kilpatrick began speaking of “Revival” to his congregation, The Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola Florida. There were prayer groups, men’s groups, home groups praying for “Revival.” On Father’s Day, an itinerant Evangelist named Steve Hill Preached at the Brownsville Sunday Morning meeting. It is reported that those in the meeting “felt a mighty wind” at the end of the service followed by corporate weeping and repentance. Those types of meetings ran Wednesday-Saturday for the next 5 years with a reported number of 4 million people attending.
Here is a description from 1998 by Christian Author, Steve Rabey:
All told, more than 2.5 million people have visited the church's Wednesday-through-Saturday evening revival services, where they sang rousing worship music and heard old-fashioned sermons on sin and salvation. After the sermons were over, hundreds of thousands accepted the invitation to leave their seats and rush forward to a large area in front of the stage-like altar. Here, they "get right with God." . . . Untold thousands have hit the carpet, where they either writhe in ecstasy or lie stone-still in a state resembling a coma, sometimes remaining flat on the floor for hours at a time. Some participants call the experience being "slain in the Spirit." Others simply refer to receiving the touch of God. Regardless of what they call it, these people are putting the "roll" back in "holy roller."
We were singing songs from Brownsville on a weekly basis. We occasionally would see people weep or be “slain in the Spirit.” The congregation always participated in Worship and most would raise their hands. There was an openness and desire to worship birthed out of folks desire to experience Jesus on a heart-level and not just a mental-assent or a logic-level.
That is where I was at. I no longer trusted my iron-clad logic and theology to get me by. Logic and simple facts did not feed my heart. I had an emotionally draining job at King’s Daughters’ School. I had young children and a wife who needed more from me. My decisions seemed to have more weight. Quite frankly, I needed wisdom and direction of a specific kind, not just general principles from the Bible that I weakly or inaccurately apply. I, as well as most folks at New Life, desired experience…and we got one.
It started with laughter…
Weird stuff started happening. Stuff I was not prepared for or willing to embrace other than my whole, “Yes, bring it on” philosophy.
Folks started laughing…and not just giggling to themselves. I’m talking full-on gut-busting maniacal cackling, uncontrollable hysterics, laughter.
Often I would be on stage and I could see the entire congregation. Some folks would start laughing, and you could see a sort of panic come across their face like, “On no. Here it comes. What is happening to me?” and then BOOM. Some of the folks who laughed, I chalked it up to them just being predisposed to do that. They were open and felt a freedom to laugh and then the, “I’m not going to laugh so now everything seems funnier so I’m laughing more” factor would take over. But some of the “laughers” were not pre disposed to seeking attention or even laughing.
Here is a quote about the physiology of laughter and how it relates to the brain (from “The Secret Life of the Brain”):
Why do we laugh? What function does laughter have? Laughter is one of the most poorly understood of human behaviors. While we know, for example, that certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain functions and tasks, it seems that laughter cannot be traced to one specific area of the brain. Furthermore, the relationships between laughter and humor, or even laughter and mirth are not understood, despite their evident interconnection.
Analyzing the physiological manifestation of laughter reveals striking similarities to seizures and even some types of epilepsy.
Think about it; an external stimuli affects a person through their senses touch (tickling) visually (someone’s pants inexplicably falling down in public) auditory (“a man walks into a bar…” joke) and we have an uncontrollable response-laughter. It’s a peculiar response as well. It comes from the lungs out of your mouth, not quite like a cough and not controllable either. It utilizes your vocal cords, but not like speech. You really can’t stifle it or you will only make it worse by eventually spitting everywhere. It will happen at inopportune times (like in the middle of a drink) and it can be generally unpredictable. Laughter releases endorphins in the system and educes a calming effect when it’s over. We seek out situations where laughter will be provoked in us (movies, TV shows, comedy clubs, funny people.) Go to you tube and type in “laughing babies” and see how many postings and how many views they have. Laughing can be called “infectious” because it causes others to join in. We want someone to make us laugh. It is an activity that probably happens to us everyday. So why was there so much vitriol against the “Holy Laughter” at Brownsville that soon infected our congregation?
I have often used the example of “laughter” to explain the practice of “Speaking in Tongues” in light of Romans 8:25-27:
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
It seems that at times we are weak and the Spirit (who is called a counselor and a helper) comes in and helps…like making us laugh.
It was fun to watch and even “funner” to do.
It opened a gate to a word we prayed, sang, and preached on a consistent basis for the next few years.
That word was, more and more was what we got, ready or not.
chris
To learn more about “Laughter”:
To learn more about The Brownsville Assembly of God:
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