Sharon James will be leading the Church History track at the FIEC event Rising Lights, 6–10 April 2026 in Torquay. She will be speaking about four individuals (including Auguste Hermann Francke) who experienced personal renewal and then an increased passion for revival in their church, their nation, and the world.
The year was 1687, and Auguste Hermann Francke was due to preach in the leading Lutheran church in Luneburg, Germany. Aged 24, he had studied theology for seven years, read the Bible in the original languages, and set up Bible study groups for students.
But the more he pondered his text, John 20:31, the more he was troubled. Did he himself believe in the Son of God? Did he know Christ? He became convicted of the awful truth. After early professions of piety, he had lapsed into worldliness.
He later wrote: 'For twenty-four years I was nothing better than an unfruitful tree… I loved the world, and the world loved me… I grasped heaven with one hand and the earth with the other, I wished to enjoy fellowship with God and the friendship of the world at the same time, and could hold neither properly.'
