Revival meeting
Arevival meetingis a series ofChristianreligiousservices held to inspire active members of achurch bodyto gain newconvertsand to call sinners to repent. Those who lead revival services are known asrevivalists(or evangelists). Nineteenth-centuryBaptistpreacherCharles Spurgeonsaid, "Many blessings may come to the unconverted in consequence of a revival among Christians, but the revival itself has to do only with those who already possess spiritual life."[1]These meetings are usually conducted by churches or missionary organizations throughout the world. Notable historic revival meetings were conducted in theUnited Statesby evangelistBilly Sunday[2]and inWalesby evangelistEvan Roberts.[3]Revival services occur in local churches,brush arbor revivals,tent revivals,andcamp meetings.[4]
Meetings
[edit]
A revival meeting usually consists of several consecutive nights of services conducted at the same time and location, most often the building belonging to the sponsoring congregation but sometimes a rented assembly hall, for more adequate space, to provide a setting that is more comfortable for non-Christians, or to reach a community where there are no churches.Tentswere very frequently employed in this effort in the recent past, and occasionally still are, but less so due to the difficulties in heating and cooling them and otherwise making them comfortable, an increasing consideration with modern audiences.[citation needed]
Ben M. Bogard,from 1909 to 1914, conducted revivals full-time in seven southern states. In 1924, he founded theAmerican Baptist Association,theMissionary Baptistdenomination, still based inTexarkana, Texas.ABA churches have traditionally held revivals usually once or twice a year.[5]
The length of such meetings varies. Until the last quarter-century they were frequently a week or more in duration, especially in theSouthern United States.[6]Currently they may be held for three or four days. EvangelistBilly Grahamplanneda week-long crusadeinNew York City,which ultimately extended from May 15 to September 1, 1957. More than two million people went to New York'sMadison Square Gardento hear him preach.[7]
Most groups holding revival meetings tend to be of aconservativeorfundamentalistnature, although some are still held byMainlinegroups, which formerly conducted them with a far greater frequency. Similar events may be referred to as "crusades", most especially those formerly held by Billy Graham andOral Roberts.
Along withcamp meetings,the holding of revival services is an integral part of theMethodisttradition, in which they serve to offer individuals theNew Birth(first work of grace) andentire sanctification(second work of grace), along with callingbackslidersto repentance.[8]Revival services are often held for a week at least once a year in Methodist churches.[9]
Conservative Mennonitescontinue to hold and promote protracted revival meetings of usually seven or eight days duration at least once per year in a given congregation. The visiting evangelist is chosen from among their own or related congregations.
Many revivals are conducted by nondenominational community churches, most of which are conservative intheology.
In popular culture
[edit]This movement has been portrayed by directorRichard Brooksin his1960filmElmer GantrywithBurt Lancaster(who received theAcademy Awardfor this film) andJean Simmons,adapted fromSinclair Lewis'eponymous novel.
TheStephen Kingnovel,Revival,features a major character who is a revival meeting faith healer.
There is a revival scene in the 1997 filmThe Apostle,starringRobert Duvall.Duvall's portrayal of an evangelical minister earned him anAcademy Award for Best Actornomination.
Cormac McCarthy's novelBlood Meridianbegins with a scene set at a revival meeting.
The Academy Award-winning documentaryMarjoereviews the career of child-evangelistMarjoe Gortner,giving a behind-the-scenes look at revivals he promoted as an adult.
Neil Diamond'sBrother Love's Traveling Salvation Showdepicts a revival meeting.
The music video forOneRepublic'sCounting Starsdepicts a Christian revival meeting.
Laura Ingalls Wilder'sLittle Town on the Prairiedepicts a week of revival meetings at theCongregational churchinDe Smet, South Dakota.
Remembrances of revival-meetings attended as a youth were the inspiration for the second movement ofCharles Ives'Orchestral Set No. 2,The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting.[10]
See also
[edit]
- Camp meeting
- Charles Grandison Finney
- Christian revival
- New York Crusade (1957)
- Smithton Revival
- Tabernacle (Methodist)
- Tent revival
References
[edit]- ^"What Is a Revival?".Archived fromthe originalon 2002-06-14.
- ^"Billy Sunday Biographies - Christian Biography - Wholesome Words".www.wholesomewords.org.
- ^"Welsh Revival".www.welshrevival.com.
- ^Marberry, Mark (2 May 2019)."Brush arbor revivals are still around".Daily Journal Online.
- ^"Benjamin Marcus Bogard (1868–1951)".encyclopediaofarkansas.net.RetrievedAugust 2,2013.
- ^Black, Daryl (2003)."'The Excitement of High and Holy Affections': Baptist Revival and Cultural Creation in the Upper-Piedmont Georgia Cotton Belt, 1800-1828 ".Georgia Historical Quarterly.87(3/4): 329–358.Retrieved19 February2018.
- ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-11-10.Retrieved2012-04-26.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^Oconer, Luther Jeremiah (12 October 2017).Spirit-Filled Protestantism: Holiness-Pentecostal Revivals and the Making of Filipino Methodist Identity.Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 4.ISBN9781498203609.
- ^"Rev. B.N. Miner Conducts Annual Winter Revival Series, Pastor of Free Methodist Church in Baltimore, Md".Houghton Star.3 February 1944.
- ^Ives, Charles E. (1973)Memos(ed. Kirkpatrick), Calder & Boyars, p. 92
