Prominence or Significance?

If an alien landed in one of the villages, towns or cities of Wales (bear with, stranger things have happened!), they could be forgiven for thinking that we are a nation of devout Christians. Church and chapel buildings punctuate our streets, hymns resonate around our sports grounds as we cheer on our football and rugby teams, and believe me, many a prayer has been offered in the stalls of our stadia.

Wales is known as a land of revivals, at least seventeen are recorded in our history books, yet many still talk of the 1904/05 revival as The Welsh Revival! Perhaps one distinctive of that particular revival was the prominence of a leading figure, Evan Roberts. But how many people have heard of Florrie Evans, the young woman credited with starting that incredible revival?

Florrie Evans first encountered God at a conference in West Wales in February 1904 where she heard Joseph Jenkins, a Methodist preacher preaching on 1 John 5:4, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” By the following Sunday, she was able to say, “I love Jesus Christ with all my heart,” and such was the power of the Holy Spirit behind her declaration, that others in the room wept under His conviction.

Florrie, her friend Maud Davies and Joseph Jenkins soon travelled extensively, preaching, singing, testifying and spreading revival fire across Wales. It was Florrie and Maud who actively encouraged Evan Roberts to ‘bend’ to the Lord before His powerful encounter with God at a chapel in Blaenannerch.

Christianity, like broader society in the twenty-first century has become obsessed with celebrity culture, often favouring fame over faithfulness, prominence over significance. Consequently moves of God and significant church growth are often attributed to an individual with the ‘power for the hour’. This of course, is nothing new. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul warned against saying, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos” and so on, before devoting much of chapter three to explaining that when it comes to Kingdom growth, “the Lord has assigned to each his task.”

What if our task in life is to be significant rather than prominent? Clearly, one needn’t preclude the other, but what if the posture of our hearts was more inclined to serving rather than success, to humility rather than visibility, to promoting others rather than ourselves?

Florrie Evans’ name might not be as familiar across the globe as that of Evan Roberts, but her significance in the spiritual history of Wales is immense. Oh that we would become leaders of such calibre that we esteem significance, godliness and faithfulness in the Kingdom far higher than the trappings of platform and applause.