by Joel Southerland

It’s Revival Time!

Every year Southern Baptists publish a report where we continue to hear that an alarming number of churches baptized no one the previous year – no one!

LifeWay Research projects that if current baptism and membership trends continue, total SBC membership will decline by nearly half — from 16.2 million to 8.7 million — by 2050. That is a trend that desperately needs reversed. How can your church do that? There are several key things your church can do to stop that trend: have an evangelistic Vacation Bible School; teach personal evangelism to your church and have a regular outreach night; reach students with a vibrant children’s or youth ministry; or create an evangelistic Sunday School.
[pullquote]How, we ask, can a church that is charged with spreading the good news of Jesus Christ go 12 months – 365 days – 8,760 hours and not lead a single person to Christ?[/pullquote]

I want to focus on the easiest one to do – hold a revival! Revivals are the simplest way to reach people for Christ and baptize people. Revival is always a key tool to evangelism. But you can’t just “hold” a revival. There is more to reaching people than just thinking of a preacher and putting a date on the calendar.

Here are a few ways to make sure you have a successful revival:

1. The Preacher

Revivals are not about getting your friends to preach. You want someone to preach your revival that has the fire of God in his soul and the call of God on his life. He needs to be an evangelistic preacher – a harvest evangelist. Pastors are great preachers – but many do not have the giftedness of a harvest preacher – and they will admit to that. Get someone to preach your revival that people will listen to, come back to hear, and get saved. Ephesians 4:11 says the evangelist is a gift of God to the church – use him!

Where do you find a preacher? Ask your state evangelism office. Go to your state conference of evangelists website if they have one { COGBE }. Go to the national website { COSBE } or ask a fellow pastor who has had one. How do you know if a preacher is a harvester? Easy. When they preach people get saved!!

2. The Preparation

You have to prepare for a revival. That means a whole lot more than putting it on the calendar and in the bulletin. When I was a pastor our church spent weeks in preparation for the meeting. If our revival was in February, we usually put the date on the calendar a year before and started preparation about 4 months before.  No matter how great the preacher or church is a revival will not be successful if you don’t prepare. Get your hands on a good revival preparation manual from your state office (many evangelists have one as well) and follow it step by step.

3. The Prayer

No revival will be successful if the Lord is not in it. Henry Blackaby says, “The passionate, unceasing corporate prayer that is always present in revival is desperately lacking as well.”  We so often put all of our human hard work into a venture without ever asking God to be a part of what we are trying to do.

If you want to baptize more this year – plan a revival at your church. And, plan with the expectancy that God is going to do great and might things in your midst.