The Toronto wave: holy laughter is contagious - Toronto, Canada - Column - Cover Story

Christian Century, Nov 16, 1994 by Gene Preston

In January the Vineyard Fellowship Church launched a four-day revival meeting in a warehouse building located just beyond the Toronto International Airport. During the first evening of worship, waves of "holy laughter" swept the congregation and many worshipers swooned in the spirit. The laughter and swooning have continued at packed, nightly worship services, making the church the "in place" in charismatic evangelical circles.

The ecumenical spirit of my congregation, Union Church in Hong Kong, and my own eclectic approach to spirituality prompted my pilgrimage to Toronto last August. Union Church, the oldest church in Hong Kong (founded in 1844), is nondenominational, attentive to the scriptures in the Reformed tradition, evangelical, but not charismatic. Yet when I returned to Hong Kong, I found that "the blessing" from Toronto was bursting forth among key leaders in the Hong Kong congregation.

In Toronto my wife and I stood in line with 600 or more Vineyard charismatics from across Canada and nearby New York State. The large number of British pilgrims - 50 to 60 attended each of four worship events - has put Toronto onto the broader stage of ecumenical happenings. One Anglican minister told me: "The blessing is ravishing our churches at home. I had to come and be blessed myself."

But you don't have to go to Toronto to get the blessing. It works like apostolic succession: someone who has been there can pass it on. Tens of thousands now trace their blessings back to Toronto, and refer to them as part of the "Toronto wave."

One of the first to pass the blessing to London was Ellie Mumford, wife of a former Anglican vicar who now leads a Vineyard church in London. Her testimony tape is the hottest cassette in evangelical congregations. When Mumford returned to London in May, she promptly began to pray for all her friends, including Nicky Gumbel, curate of Holy Trinity Brompton, the largest evangelical Anglican congregation in London. One of the most quoted church leaders in the UK, Gumbel has popularized an adult Christian education course called Alpha. His ministry has reached thousands of London yuppies, including tabloid favorites like Samantha Fox. When Gumbel got the blessing from Ellie Mumford he started passing it on. Gumbel said that this was the turning point in his ministry. "We've been talking about the Holy Spirit for several years at HTB. But now we're getting the Spirit."

The evening I returned to Hong Kong, Gumbel was at one of our church meetings. He called to invite me but I was weary from my London pilgrimage. He asked if I objected to his praying with some of my people. I did not. My congregation is largely affluent expatriate banker types, cool and emotionless. I didn't expect much would change after a visiting preacher had had his say.

My phone rang through the next morning as members called to report that our leaders had been "fainting in the Lord" and laughing their heads off half the night. I had arranged for Gumbel to discuss his Alpha course at a local ecumenical meeting and preach twice on the weekend. We quickly added a third worship service in anticipation of crowds. They came. I presided like a benevolent doubting Thomas as Gumbel invoked the Spirit at four separate worship occasions within 24 hours. I identified with an Anglican minister, himself charismatic, who grumbled, "I've been praying 20 years for my people and no one fell down. Nicky comes here for three days and half the parish has fallen over."

For my part, I smiled and chuckled more than I ever have in worship. I doubt I was blessed with holy laughter, but I felt the contagious laughter which unlikely circumstances provoke. Who expects to laugh in worship? The mind attaches to the silliness of it, but then one relaxes and the laughter becomes special and wonderful. I felt extremely hot and flushed; several times I dropped to my knees because of an intense experience of the holiness of God. Overall, I felt very good about the worship. I have asked those familiar with charismatic worship about these experiences. An associate minister in Toronto who has eight months of this intensity behind him said, "We don't know, but isn't it grand that God wants to make his believers happy." Gumbel himself was similarly unhelpful: "Not a clue, but isn't it wonderful."

English Christians are eager for encouragement from any source. After talking with a dozen English vicars in Toronto, I concluded that pastors in England are so depressed with the church that they can't afford to be skeptical of charismatic gifts. In Hong Kong Anglican pastors were deeply affected by Gumbels prayer ministry.

The worship format in Toronto and Hong Kong includes an hour of carefully crafted and professionally led praise singing. By then, many people are in tears, on their knees or in semitrances. The second hour is teaching time. At Toronto John Arnott, the Vineyard senior pastor, asked for volunteers to witness how the Spirit had touched them. At Hong Kong three of may deacons who had been touched in small groups a day or two earlier sprang forward to give their first testimonials.