Dear Small Church Pastor,
Many pastors schedule a yearly “revival” during a particular season. Some contact an evangelist, possibly the same one each year, to have that person come to encourage and motivate the congregation. Others bring in two or more speakers for a series of worship services that will hopefully challenge the congregation to spiritually walk closer to God. Unfortunately, a few rely on revival services to bring in new attenders who they hope will stay connected after the revival. They get the new people to attend by inviting well-known speakers who have dynamic ministries established in other geographical areas.
With such a variety of reasons for scheduling revivals, a couple of serious questions need to be asked before one is scheduled: First, “Why have a revival?” Second, “Who should dictate when the revival needs to occur?”
The simplistic answer to question number one is that what seems to have died out spiritually needs to be revived, renewed and rekindled, like a physical fire that is only glowing embers needs to be rekindled with fresh fuel in order to burn brightly again. The Holy Spirit anoints people to be evangelists for the sake of encouraging, motivating and challenging the body of Christ. These special ministers are one of the people gifts given to the assembly of believers in Jesus by God. Their function is to do that rekindling of the fire of the Holy Spirit in a congregation. And thank God that He has anointed individuals to do this very service for the sake of the body of Christ.
What about that second question above? Who should initiate a revival, whether it is set for one service, three nights, a week, two weeks or open ended to last as long as is needed. (Those last two durations do still occur in other countries, just seldom in this country nowadays.)
Allow me to give a couple of examples of revivals that were started in the past as a point of reference to the answer for question number two.
#1—The story is told of a pastor who was impressed by the Holy Spirit while preparing for a Sunday morning service to simply read the entire book of Ephesians to his congregation and then to open the altar for prayer. The following Sunday morning, when it came time for the sermon, the pastor asked everyone to open their Bibles to Ephesians Chapter 1, Verse 1 and to read along silently as he read aloud. When he completed the final verse of Ephesians, he said it was time to pray and that the altar was open to anyone who felt it necessary to talk to God to make sure a right relationship existed between them and God.
The altar filled with weeping, groaning, repentant people who were revived spiritually through the public reading of the letter to the church at Ephesus. The repentant attitude among the congregation lasted for weeks as the Holy Spirit revived His fire in their hearts. (This is not fiction; it actually occurred.)
#2—My wife’s best BFF ever, who has since this story passed into the presence of her Savior, related that once their pastor had announced he was stepping down from his ministry at that location. The church leadership began a search for a new pastor, but a new pastor had not been chosen when it came time for their current pastor to leave. They assured him the congregation would be okay with his leaving and continued the pastoral search process.
That process included having prospective pastors minister for one or more Sunday services, while the leaders handled the remaining services and activities of the congregation. During the process, through no planning by the congregational leaders, the members or the prospective pastors, a revival among the members broke out, flowing from week to week in every service held, regardless of who was leading it. The revival spirit remained in the congregation for several months, with the congregation increasing in number and spiritual maturity, even in the absence of having a definite pastor. When the new pastor was selected, he arrived to a congregation in full revival mode.
Now, for my answer to question number two–It is my opinion a revival should be set up when the Holy Spirit indicates it should be. The only way I know of learning when to schedule a revival is to pray, talk to God, listen intently to His voice and be open to opportunities for revival to arrive through God’s timing, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and, when appropriate, God’s evangelists. It has been my experience that a “Holy Ghost Revival” that is initiated by the Holy Spirit will do wonders for the spiritual, and possibly physical, growth of a congregation.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor