Over forty years ago a teenager, I attended an Apostolic revival. I was not raised in church. They were in their third week of almost nightly services (they took Monday off), and a number had already received the Holy Ghost. After a week of praying I received the Holy Ghost and was baptized. If I remember correctly, the revival continued another eight weeks and over forty received the Holy Ghost. It transformed that home missions church.
Not long ago such revivals were common. Churches typically had two, three, even four such revivals a year. Are the days of old-time Apostolic revival over? Hopefully not. Growing churches will still have two or three revivals a year, lasting five to ten days.
Here’s a few things to help make these revivals more successful:
Witnessing Training. Teach your people how to be a witness and invite people to church. The success of the revival partly depends on unsaved guests. The result of this training should be a large percentage of the congregation committing to bring one or more people to the revival. Visiting past guests and inviting them to the revival must also be a priority.
Pre-Service Supper. People work and getting your family fed and ready for church can be challenging. Many find having a dinner before church will ease the strain. Hotdog night, hamburger night, chili night, etc. keeps it easy, fun and brings guests out.
Revival Promotion. The best promotion is word of mouth. But a few things will make this even better: A good revival brochure. Mail out invitations to all past guests and prospects. Large lawn posters. Multi-media announcements. Canvas key neighborhoods. Doing this builds excitement.
Visitor Reception. Lot attendants, door keepers, hostesses, and ushers make guest reception more effective. Every guest should feel welcome. Hostesses fill out a guest card on every visitor and provides them a guest packet.
Altar workers. Trained altar workers are like gold. Bad altar workers can grieve the Spirit. Gather those with this burden and train them. Many good courses are available.
Challenge testimonies. Encourage your saints to stand and commit to bring someone to the revival and then challenge another saint to do that same. “Bro. Mike, if you will bring a guest I will treat you and your guest to a steak at Texas Roadhouse!” “Bro. Ron, I’ll accept your challenge and I want to challenge Bro. Jones, etc.