Revival Meetings

[ohio jones]

We don't generally call them revival meetings because it implies we are dead in between, but there's usually a series of meetings in the spring and fall. Twenty years ago it was common for both to be Sunday-to-Sunday, but more recently one or both are shorter. They also tend not to have as much aggressive emotionalism as in the past, which is mostly a good thing in my opinion.

He used the song "I never Promised You a Rose Garden" as part of his message, and it was a sort of memorized message, because I heard the same one from him at another time.

I've heard that George R. Brunk II had "six sermons for the road" that he would repeat each place he went. That may be slightly exaggerated, but as another evangelist says, if it's worth preaching once it's worth preaching to everybody. Some preachers do develop a "signature" sermon that they polish and present to multiple audiences.

[steve-in-kville]

When my wife and I were just married we attended Pilgrim's tent meetings. The guys I worked with really bragged up the evangelist. He was one that was pretty popular at the time and was booked like three years out or something. I was young and impressionable and was really taken back by the Charity-types that spent the entire service with their hands in the air, eyes glazed over and kept repeating "yes!" and "amen!" at random times, even when it didn't makes sense.

We never went back.

(... and here's your random Monday morning story from me )

[Ernie]

And here are a few thoughts and stories from me...

A few weeks ago, someone on Facebook wrote:
"What are revival meetings? The local Mennonite church is holding them this week."

I responded...
"If a Mennonite church is having Revival Meetings, they are typically a week long. Often an invitation is given at the end of the sermon while a song is sung. (sometimes the invitation is referred to as an "altar call" in more moderate conservative Anabaptist settings even though Anabaptists don't usually have altars in their meeting houses.) Anyone who has not yet committed their life to Christ can do so by raising their hand, standing to their feet, or coming to the front of the meeting room. (varies depending on the church or group affiliation). It is also a time for Christians to repent of sins, "drive a stake in the ground", "recommit their life to Christ", or acknowledge that they have "backslidden" in their Christian walk. Sometimes those who "respond" to the invitation will have someone come pray with them right there in the front of the meeting room. In the more conservative Mennonite churches, those who "respond" are taken into a side room immediately after the benediction and prayer and spiritual counsel is offered. Some "evangelists" can put a lot of pressure on adolescents and others to make a commitment to the Lord "before you go home tonight". The evangelist may call for more songs if he thinks that more time may result in more "responses". Others extend the invitation with little pressure or fanfare at all. There is a lot of lingo that goes with these meetings that only those who have been churched in this manner are familiar with.
Here is a story by way of interest...
About 25 years ago, a young man from Qatar lived with me for a few months. During that time he attended revival meetings at a very conservative Mennonite church. He sat in the "amen corner" not knowing that 17 year old's don't normally sit in the amen corners in some of these Mennonite churches. Not being familiar with the "invitation" expectations, he just followed the evangelist's directives based on what he heard. At the end of the sermon, the evangelist announced "if the Lord spoke to you during the message this evening, please stand to your feet while we sing a song." Normally a person who responded at such times would stand for a few seconds until acknowledged by the evangelist and then sit back down and they would not be singing during those few seconds. In this setting, people avoided taking a public stance like this as much as possible. Adolescents and teenagers did not like the publicity and baptized Christians did not want to admit that they were not doing well spiritually. My friend knew nothing of this culture, so as the song was being sung, he stood to his feet while continuing to look at his songbook. He didn't look at the evangelist nor at the congregation but continued to sing the rest of the song as he was told to do by the evangelist. When the song was finished, he sat down. (Based on the evangelist's actual instructions, most of us should have stood to our feet as well.) The pastors of the church were delighted that he "responded" and waited for him at the back of the church. After about a half hour, and with most people having gone home, and there was still no sight of the young man, they came looking for him. He was glad to oblige them and went with them to a basement room. He talked about how the sermon had convicted him, and that was all he had to say. The next evening the same thing happened. Again they pulled him aside after some time had passed to see if he was ready to make a commitment to the Lord or recommit his life to God or if something was troubling him. By the third night they realized that he didn't understand the culture. I'm not sure they ever realized that he was simply following instructions as they were given, and that he didn't really care what the rest in the congregation were thinking or doing.
All this to say that a lot is taken for granted by particular Christian sub-cultures and that people in that culture don't give a lot of thought to explaining the culture to those who are unfamiliar with it. So that is what I am trying to do here. "

I shared this post with the man this story was written about and asked him if he remembers this incident. He replied

"Very clearly. I had zero idea what was going on. Sincere though."

[mike]

And here are a few thoughts and stories from me...

Yes, I wouldn't really feel like inviting friends to revival meetings that weren't familiar with the culture. I've found it interesting that some conservative Mennonites have some cultural overlap with evangelicals in weird ways. Revival meetings with altar calls would be one of them. Another is the custom of having the preacher(s) go to the back of the church immediately following the service, where they greet every person as they leave. I asked our bishop about this, and he said he likes doing it because he likes to greet everyone by name and get to know them. I've always thought that evangelical churches do that because there is little fellowship after church and it's the pastor's only chance to get slightly acquainted with folks. Everybody just heads right out the door and goes home, where in Mennonite churches there is typically a long period of fellowship afterward.

[Sudsy]

My experience regarding revival meetings was more in the evangelical type Pentecostal and Baptist church. But, for what its worth here is a brief explanation of those I attended mainly in Pentecostalism and a few other related comments.

Revival meetings (could go on for weeks) were meetings where a revivalist visiting preacher would preach to 'stir up' Christians to better serve the Lord and not be like the Laodicean church spoken of in the book of the Revelation. The messages were primarily geared to believers.

Evangelistic meetings also were held and visiting preachers came and stayed for a week or two with messages geared to preaching the Gospel to the unsaved. It was a time for the church members to bring in their unsaved friends to hear the Gospel preached and hopefully would 'get saved'. Often these evangelists had some special musical talents also as part of their ministry to draw in folks. Sometimes various churches would come together in an arena to hear an evangelist like Billy Graham, Barry Moore, John Wesley White. I so enjoyed singing in these choirs with believers from various churches. Made me feel a bit of what heaven might be like.

A third type of special meetings were held for week long periods by visiting ministers that specialized in certain areas such as eschatology or ways to evangelize. These too were geared to believers.

In my home church back then, our Sunday morning service was geared to believers and out Sunday evening services were primarily geared to the unsaved where 'altar calls' (began by Charles Finney) were always given. Both for those who wanted salvation and then for believers as a re-commitment to serving the Lord.

What I think were more extreme emotional appeals that I have witnessed have seen both good and not so good results. Some folks may weep over their sinful state and/or fear a hell fire destiny but can treat being born again as a one time formula that really has no change to their lives. Jesus was certainly not anti-emotional and most often when the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, emotions are affected. I have witnessed many who were extremely emotional when they first made Jesus their Lord and Saviour and went on to live a Christian life. I have also witnessed evangelistic preaching using some terrible sad stories in their appeals working on people's emotions and in my view it should be the facts of the Gospel that must be understood firstly. The extent of how these facts affect the emotions may differ from one personality to another. YMMV.

What is more concerning today to me, that was not the case in my younger years, is the lack of evangelism to reach the lost. In that sense I think we are in great need of revival as believers to have much more concern over lost souls and the part we play in this occuring. If unbelievers are not becoming believers in our local church and neighbourhood communities, then do we really care about the eternal destiny of others ? I ask myself this question and would love to have some threads here on have we lost an eternal perspective on the souls of mankind.

[cmbl]

And here are a few thoughts and stories from me...

Yes, I wouldn't really feel like inviting friends to revival meetings that weren't familiar with the culture. I've found it interesting that some conservative Mennonites have some cultural overlap with evangelicals in weird ways. Revival meetings with altar calls would be one of them. Another is the custom of having the preacher(s) go to the back of the church immediately following the service, where they greet every person as they leave. I asked our bishop about this, and he said he likes doing it because he likes to greet everyone by name and get to know them. I've always thought that evangelical churches do that because there is little fellowship after church and it's the pastor's only chance to get slightly acquainted with folks. Everybody just heads right out the door and goes home, where in Mennonite churches there is typically a long period of fellowship afterward.

I would note that some Evangelicals have these things and some don't. The more Fundamentalist churches would likely have these things; I was raised in the EFCA, which did not have revival meetings. In the EFCA, the minister would talk with people at the front of the church because that's where he sat during the service; just like anybody else at church would talk with people near where they sat. You could definitely go up there to talk with him, if that's what you wanted, but it wasn't expected that you would.

[Neto]

Another is the custom of having the preacher(s) go to the back of the church immediately following the service, where they greet every person as they leave.

This was the custom in the MB congregation where I grew up, at least in the summer. There, the visiting was done outside, especially on Sunday evenings, because it is hot in the Summer in Oklahoma, and there was no A/C in the church house. (In the early days, no overhead fan, either. That all came later.) The "foyer" was very small, so it was either inside in the heat, or outside in the heat, but at least there was always a breeze (or wind) outside. (Remember when there was a folding fan in all of the hymnal racks?)

[mike]

(Remember when there was a folding fan in all of the hymnal racks?)

No, I don't!

[steve-in-kville]

Revival meetings with altar calls would be one of them. Another is the custom of having the preacher(s) go to the back of the church immediately following the service, where they greet every person as they leave. I asked our bishop about this, and he said he likes doing it because he likes to greet everyone by name and get to know them. I've always thought that evangelical churches do that because there is little fellowship after church and it's the pastor's only chance to get slightly acquainted with folks. Everybody just heads right out the door and goes home, where in Mennonite churches there is typically a long period of fellowship afterward.

Maybe this is regional, but doesn't the Weaverland (Horning) folks get to church really early to fellowship and then leave almost immediately following the service?

[ohio jones]

(Remember when there was a folding fan in all of the hymnal racks?)

No, I don't!

Often supplied by the local funeral home, probably so everyone knew who to call in the event someone expired from heatstroke.