Every spring or fall, area churches have a traditional series of services called revival. These meetings feature special music, a guest speaker, and/or covered dish meals that would put any restaurant buffet to shame. The purpose of these services is to renew the spiritual fervor of the congregation, as well as to reach out to the unchurched within the community. Hymns are sung during this time, asking God to stir the people’s hearts toward seeking those who do not know Jesus Christ, as well as igniting a fire within the congregation to serve the church more passionately.
Tommy KellyWhile most people think of a revival as a big outpouring of people surrendering to do God’s will, history describes the birth of the great revivals as starting small and growing beyond what the original participants ever thought they would become.
One example would be Jeremiah Lanphier from New York. Lanphier felt the need for a prayer meeting in New York City. He placed an ad in a local paper, scheduling a weekly prayer service at noon. On Sept. 23, he started praying alone. After 30 minutes, he heard footsteps. Six men attended that historic prayer meeting. The next week, 20 gathered for prayer and by February, 10,000 were engaged in prayer on Fulton Street in New York. These prayer meetings have been linked to more than 1 million conversions and spawned similar prayer meetings in Chicago and Cincinnati.
One evangelist conducting a revival asked participants to take a piece of chalk as they entered the sanctuary. As they sat through the service, they wondered what the chalk had to do with revival. The minister instructed the congregation to go home, kneel in prayer and draw a circle around themselves with the chalk. As they prayed within the circle, they came to realize that revival cannot begin within the church, community, state, nation or world without it starting in each individual church member.
For a great awakening to grip the world, it must start with each Christian. For revival to start in a church, it must happen in the life of each church member. For families and other institutions to be restored, it must begin with mothers and fathers. An old hymn that many churches sing during revival states, “And let it begin in me.” Revival cannot, and will not, happen without first starting in the heart and life of each Christian.