As the popularity of revivals continues to wane, evangelists must hold out faith that God will provide, their leaders say.
In 25 years as a vocational evangelist, Rob Randall has witnessed a steady decline in the number of churches holding revivals. While it once was common for churches to hold two revivals a year, some congregations now have one every five years at best, Randall said. Countywide revivals are increasingly rare.
The number of Southern Baptist evangelists also is down. There are about 500 on the mailing list of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, down from more than 700, according to Benny Jackson, president of the group. Consistent work is difficult to come by for an evangelist, and some have picked up part-time jobs or found other full-time positions to support their families, Randall said. Even when a revival opportunity comes along, the evangelist is at the mercy of a congregation’s love offering for support.
“The evangelist has to live by faith,” Randall said. “He doesn’t have a regular check. He doesn’t have a large support base usually. He is out there to sink or swim based on his own ability to raise money.”
Some observers say the decline of revivals reflects a change in how churches view evangelism.
Continuous evangelism
The paradigm has shifted from an event-oriented task to a continual process, suggested David Hughes, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston Salem, N.C. Rather than holding revivals, his church participates in efforts such as Rick Warren’s “40 Days of Purpose.”
“We’re in a different day,” said Hughes, who has not held a revival during his 12-year tenure at First, Winston Salem. “The need for people being spiritually revived is constant. The way churches meet that is different because the world is different.”
Rather than being the main attraction, revivals have become part of a multifaceted evangelism approach, according to Terry Hamrick, leadership development coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta.
Revival meetings were best suited for a homogeneous “churched culture,” he said. In a postmodern world that is diverse and often not familiar with church life, several outreach methods must be applied. “We can no longer afford the luxury of a one-size-fits-all approach to evangelism,” Hamrick said.
However, Randall is unconvinced any other event focuses the church like a revival.
“Practically speaking, the revival meeting is the only thing I’ve seen that puts all the energies of the church to win the community for Christ,” the evangelist said. “Here’s the dilemma: If someone will tell me the substitute, I’m for it. I’ve not heard it.”
Many church leaders, especially younger ones, do not understand the role of evangelists and hold to preconceived notions, said Jon Moore, president of the Conference of Texas Baptist Evangelists.
Stereotypical images and well-publicized indiscretions also have hurt evangelists. “A lot of young men have heard the horror stories and do not know any evangelists, so they assume certain things,” Moore said.
Smaller churches trying to copy the programs of megachurches have reduced the number of revivals, added Jackson.
“They say the big church doesn’t have revivals, [so] they must not work anymore,” Jackson explained. “But what happens is they don’t do anything.”
In Randall’s view, the effectiveness and purpose of revivals is not where churches take issue, but with the message.
“The bottom line is we are in a time of convenience. We go to church when we want to. We don’t go to church when we don’t want to. The seeker-sensitive church is designed to be non-confrontational. We don’t want to call people to repentance. We don’t want to hurt people’s feelings,” he explained.
“Paul says the preaching of the gospel is an offense. If you are not offending people, I would wonder what you are preaching,” Randall said.
David Hughes, the North Carolina pastor, agrees preaching the gospel from the pulpit is necessary, but a confrontational method of outreach turns off more nonbelievers than it attracts.
A conversational style of evangelism is proving more effective with unchurched people, he said.
“Communication has changed. The way we communicate has changed,” Hughes said. “What we respond to is different.”
A successful revival effort must be bathed in prayer, publicized and allowed to work, Randall added, but the priority of convenience keeps that from happening.
While revival meetings remain effective, they take a lot of energy that many congregations are not willing to give, he said. Whereas revivals used to run several weeks, they usually last a couple of days now.
The gospel message evangelists deliver is badly needed in churches, Randall argued. “There’s a newness and a freshness to the evangelists’ message,” he said, “and the church needs to hear that.”
The gospel is needed, Hughes agreed, but the way evangelists deliver it in the future may be different. He noted even Billy Graham and Franklin Graham have altered their approach slightly, choosing not to call their efforts crusades and changing the music a bit.
“I don’t think there will be anything that will replace the man of the pulpit — a real man to love the people,” Jackson concluded. (ABP)
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