Experiencing the Welsh Revival

Is it necessary for the experiential and the objective aspects of Christian faith to be opposed to one another? It seems so often that those who are most fervent for a direct encounter with God that excites the emotions and moves us to devotion are those that take no stand on or have little understanding of doctrine and its implications. Similarly, it can often appear that the most strictly orthodox believers have little grasp on the importance of experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. Does it have to be this way?

Thankfully not. I have seen few better examples of what it means to have an experiential encounter with God that is based firmly on objective work of Christ than in William Williams' little book, The Experience Meeting. Williams was a hymn writer, poet, and leader of the Welsh revival of the 18th century. He became an authority on how to organize and conduct the "experience meetings" that came from Methodist style spiritual societies (though Methodist in style, the doctrinal foundation of these believers was thoroughly Calvinistic). As Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says in his introduction, these societies were most concerned with providing, "a fellowship in which the new spiritual life and experience of the people could be safeguarded and developed," and placed a great emphasis "on experience, and the experimental knowledge of God and His love and His ways." When expressing the affect that these meetings have on those who regularly attended, Williams said this:

[Their growth can be seen in] their growing awareness of their need of a Mediator. This poor view of themselves mentioned above has made Christ, and all that pertains to Him, very precious - His righteousness, His sufferings, His power and His wisdom. These people, today, want to look to, to think of, to study nothing but the mercy, the bounty and the gentleness of the Messiah; the suffering on Calvary's hill is what they sing about. This is the subject of their talk and of their study; and they never look inwards (into themselves) except in order to compel themselves to lean more on Christ and to believe more on Him.

As Williams goes on in the book to discuss the specifics of how the experience meeting should be conducted and what should take place, it is wonderful to see how he lays out the joining of a clear and biblical knowledge of the work of Christ with the warmth and excitement that an encounter with God always provokes. Williams never even raises the question of whether the two things can or should be separated from one another. Rather, he takes for granted that a true experiential encounter with naturally flows from a revelation of God as revealed in Christ. May we all enjoy the wonder of shared experiences in God as we see more clearly the depths of our own sin and the unthinkable provision of Christ's righteousness on our behalf.