Just another website of sermons? That could be the case but here is the reason behind this group of sermons.
Many Christians were encouraged and challenged by news of what God was doing in East Africa during the 1930’s in bringing revival. In England, a group of returning missionaries began to tell how this revival message of walking with Jesus afresh day by day impacted their lives. As Africans whom they were supposed to help shared their testimony with them and asked “well what is Jesus doing for YOU today?” a new daily reality of fresh repentance and receiving God’s grace and power revived their walk and witness. This was a shock to many English Christians used to a more reserved approach!
In 1947 a small group of missionaries spearheaded by Dr Joe Church & Bishop Lawrence Barham, determined to spread the news of this wind of the spirit to the church in England and with the involvement of Roy Hession, a small revival fellowship was begun. This was initially sharing with Christian leaders and then to a wider audience, firstly at home and then across Europe and wider a field.
Roy Hession was a tremendous driving force, and with the team began regular revival conferences, sometimes called Grace Abounding. At their peak in the 70’s and 80’s in England these would run for some 400 a week over four weeks of the summer. Today there are still summer camps, occasional day conferences and weekends. The three leaders of these main conferences, selected by the team, were Roy Hession, John Collinson and Eric McLellan.
Following the death of the two most recent I was struck by the huge impact that these and other brethren had on my life. As a child I went to one of the early conferences 1948 (in a carrycot!) and grew up with this openness of spirit and the reality of walking with Jesus in repentance and faith day by day in the home.
The spiritual insights shared over many years have been a blessing to many. It is my hope that these sermons of Grace will continue to challenge and encourage Christians today.
Over the last 60 years there have been numerous speakers at Grace Abounding conferences.
I have tried to track down as many as I could find, taking recordings from a pre-digital age and transferring them where possible to a digital format. I will continue into 2013 but even so, this archive will not be complete. My apologies for omissions.
- Ian McLellan