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Public Conversion at Revivals

According to Paul E. Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium, ch. 5: Pentecost, “New Measures” (bold emphasis added):

[In the context of Protestant salvation, since the Reformation, after reformers had severed the institutional link to God,] Protestants face God across infinitely lonely space. They bridge that space through prayer. * * * Conversion had always ended in prayer and humiliation before God. But ministers had explained the terms of salvation and left terrified sinners to wrestle with it alone. Prayer was transacted in private between a man and his God, and most middle-class Protestants were uncomfortable with public displays of humiliation. As late as 1829, Rochester [New York, the neighbor town to Palmyra, NY,] Presbyterians had scandalized the village when they began to kneel rather than stand at prayer. More than their theological implications, Finney’s revival techniques aroused controversy because they transformed conversion from a private to a public and intensely social event. The door-to-door canvass, the intensification of family devotions, prayer meetings that lasted till dawn, the open humiliation of sinners on the anxious bench: all of these transformed prayer and conversion from private communion into spectacular public events.

According to Revival Library fetched November 2025 (bold emphasis added), some of Finney’s innovative and controversial (and very effective) New Measures included:

Public prayer for individuals by name: Finney’s prayers often included direct addresses to individuals by name, sometimes publicly acknowledging their sins and urging them to repent. This personalized approach intensified the emotional impact of his sermons and fostered a sense of accountability within the congregation.

Mobilizing the entire community through groups of workers visiting homes: Finney organized teams of individuals to visit homes throughout the community, personally inviting people to attend his meetings and extending the reach of his revival efforts beyond the church walls.

Public Conversion in Mosiah ch. 4, ch. 6

Mosiah 4:1–3 describes the public conversion experience of the multitudes after king Benjamin finished part of his outdoor sermon:

And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth [presumably on their knees (or prostrate?)], for the fear of the Lord had come upon them. And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.

And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.

This also reflects Mosiah 6:1–2:

And now, king Benjamin thought it was expedient, after having finished speaking to the people, that he should take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments. And it came to pass that there was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ.

This focus on public accountability, including taking names, reflects this innovative aspect of Second Great Awakening Revivalism, active in the 1820s in the area. Public conversion experiences involving immediate, demonstrative profession of faith before a gathered community represented a significant departure from the private, introspective conversion process that dominated mainstream American Protestantism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While earlier revivals (First Great Awakening, frontier camp meetings) had featured emotional public elements, Finney’s New Measures—particularly the anxious bench, immediate public commitment, praying for people by name—systematized and intensified the public nature of conversion in ways that proved highly controversial among established denominations. The transformation from private spiritual wrestling to immediate public profession marked a democratization of religious experience that was largely unprecedented in the Reformed Protestant tradition that had earlier dominated New England and western New York.

Conversion throughout the history of Christianity

Adult Baptism in Early Christianity (pre-400 CE) involved a public catechumenate process that lasted months or years, progressing to dramatic public baptisms at Easter Vigil with the entire community present, where everyone publicly professed the faith, renounced Satan, and affirmed the Creed. This general approach to conversion continued into the early medieval period in missionary contexts.

After infant baptism became universal (roughly 400-600 CE), there was generally no moment of adult “conversion” for most Christians in Christendom. You were born into a Christian society, baptized as an infant, raised Christian, and confirmed as a young person—public, but not a conversion because you were already a Christian. The very concept of adult conversion as a discrete event largely disappeared for the majority population in Christian Europe. There was religious instruction, moral formation, participation in sacraments—but no “conversion” in the revivalist sense. For Christian conversions to take place, you also have to have a supply of people who are not Christian, or people who have left the faith, or even a culture where believer’s baptism is the norm and infant baptism is generally condemened. This implies some sort of religious freedom which was not present in times and places under the thumb of state religion.

Mass public conversion events where large numbers of people make immediate, demonstrative commitments in response to preaching, with their names recorded as a distinct covenant community, were largely absent from the normative Catholic liturgical practice that dominated Western Christianity from roughly 500-1500 CE. While crusade preaching and some mendicant revival movements featured elements of public commitment, the systematic combination of: (1) mass preaching events, (2) immediate public profession, (3) recorded lists of converts/covenanters, and (4) emphasis on individual decision—as practiced in the burned-over district revivals—represented an innovation within the Protestant tradition that would have been foreign to medieval Catholic worship. (And again within a state religion, the list of believers is already equivalent to the census of all citizens, when dissent is not allowed.)

Conclusion

Althought there is marginal precedent—such as the Anabaptists in the early Reformation, or public vows taken by monastics, or medieval crusade preaching—as partial parallels, the aforementioned public conversion practices were absent from medieval Christianity, controversial when they came on the scene in late 18th century established churches, and innovative in the specific time and place JS Jr. lived. These practices emerged in specific historical moments of religious innovation and fervor, and the text of Mosiah ch. 4 and ch. 6 reflects exactly such a moment with numerous details.

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