Why do churches do revivals?

Why do churches do revivals? This is a question that came to mind today when a preacher mentioned it at a church I was visiting today. He said that the Lord's supper is a good introduction to a revival. I was kinda confused by this statement. He said some other stuff that was confusing too, but I'll get to those later in another blog.

Ok back to the revival thing. I've grew up in church since I was very young. I've been in many different kind of churches, but most of them have a revival in common. A revival for those that don't know is this. There is a few days (up to a week) where a service is done everyday. Usually a pastor from somewhere else comes in, preaches a whole series, and there is more time given for each day (usually no limit). A revival is used to create a fire under people's butts. That is it's intention, to put people on fire for God. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't

So the question is "why do churches do revivals?" Honestly I have no idea why churches do this. It's been my experience that mostly older people go to these and most people don't make it every night of this extended event. I once had a professor named Dr. Ergun Caner. He knows more about church history than I could ever learn. Once he talked to our class about revivals. He said that "no substantial revival has ever occurred that was not started amongst the students of that area." Holy Crap!! That means that revivals that change lives and history start with the passionate students. So why do churches use programs like a revival that targets the older people? Do they really think that if they schedule in a revival that God will jump on board and say yeah I'll show up on that day or during that week because you say so? That's stupid!

Churches use revivals to try and create passion amongst people who don't have it. As my wonderful wife put it, "they try to create that mountain top Camp experience, because they won't go to camp." Wouldn't it just be easier to go to camp? Sounds to easy. Makes you wonder why the pastor doesn't try to create or at least want to create this type of experience all year long!

Ok so what's the point? Well in a purpose driven society, what's the purpose of the revival? I believe that everything we do in ministry should have a point and should meet our goals in one form or another. This doesn't really fit in. If we use the idea behind the simple church we'd have to cut this out. If we use the purpose driven idea we'd cut this out. So why is it that so many churches refuse to cut this out. Is it because it works? Is it because they know a revival will do what they haven't been able to do during the year? No! They do this because they always have. That disgusts me.

Ok, so I probably won't make churches even think about dropping this most scared cow. So my next question is...why do we target the older people? Most pastors have been to seminary right? This means they've taken church history and have learned about all the great revivals. Surely they've learned they've all started with the students who have the passion and the guts to do it. Then why do they overlook this? Why do they just patronize students instead of using them? Do a revival that reaches out to this group. Get a service where the students come, bring people, and are real. Authenticity is key with students and there's a lot of churches out there that are more fake than most of the girls that Hugh Hefner hang out with.

Also, this shouldn't be a once a year thing. This should be a weekly thing. Sure it's going to take a lot more work. It's going to take a person who cares more about God than making people happy. It's going to take a daily revival in the people's lives to whom are going to create an environment that creates a revival in everyone else at least once a week.

Revival in most churches today isn't needed. It's directed at the wrong audience and used for the wrong reasons. Why can't people just rely on God and become real enough to be a revival daily? It's almost like a contest to whom can can get best speaker. Do they really think God's loving this tradition? The question is, how long will he allow this slap in the face from fake people?

Praise God for real people who want to have a daily revival with God at the center. It'll start with students. It always has started with students. Some pastor's have forgotten. God hasn't ever forgotten. Praise my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! God Rocks -- Jtw