THE NECESSITY OF REVIVAL AND EVANGELISM
IN THE LOCAL CHURCH AND THE VALUE OF THE GIFTED,
GOD-CALLED EVANGELIST IN LEADERSHIP
By: Ron Herrod


As a pastor for 36 years, I had the privilage of pastoring some of America's most wonderful and fast growing churches. During those years, God gave a wonderful harvest of souls. In the process, every spiritual gift among God's people was employed and a variety of meetings, programs, formats, and strategies were used. In all of this variety, we sought to be saturated in prayer and led by the Holy Spirit. It was also very important to us that every strategy was Biblical and anointed.

I am convinced that results gained in ways that are not rooted in Scripture, prayer, and the leadership of the Spirit will not stand the test of time. Our desire must always be fruit that lasts.

I am deeply grieved that many modern church growth methods are man centered, fleshly, shallow, and entertainment oriented. This is in an effort to be user friendly and acceptable to the culture. In the process of this, we have departed from revival meetings in most churches, neglected the historic area wide crusades, and completely neglected to use the gifted, God called evangelists of our day. The modern church is making use of every gift to the church listed in Ephesians 4:11 except the gifted evangelist. Therefore the number of evangelists on the modern church scene continues to decrease. The numbers of churches having revival meetings and evangelistic campaigns is declining rapidly. The result is that a few mega churches are increasing in the numbers of baptisms and the majority of our churches report fewer baptisms every year.

My own personal experience continues to reveal that people will attend revival meetings, lost people are being saved in these meetings, and the church is stronger because of it and it is usually a lasting effect. This is because this approach is thoroughly Biblical when it is done under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and is given the appropriate preparation. There are a number of valid reasons for this.

Revival meetings in the church are Biblical in that they give the people of God an opportunity to be refreshed by concentrating on spiritual matters for a period of time.

History has proven that revival meetings have given people the occasion to get back on track and to once again make the main thing the main thing. The pursuit of souls for Christ is the main thing and revivals give us the fresh opportunity for that.

Revival meetings almost always include an altar call and invitation which is so needed in this day when the modern church has seemed so afraid to call for men and women to openly stand for Christ. This allows people to publicly express humility and brokeness before God and renew their committment to Him.

I discovered as a pastor that it was good for my people to hear a different voice and personality giving support to the truths I had been teaching them. I always tried to have evangelist and revival leaders who could use their gifts to give my people something I could not give them in the same way. This gave me a break from the pulpit and allowed me to be fed and enriched by the gifted one brought in for that special time.

My churches were always leaders in evangelism and baptisms and I feel this is one of the reasons. Churches that have revivals and use evangelists baptize more people than those who do not and are in the same size category. The exceptions to this are few. Churches should use other strategies, but these special meetings and the use of gifted evangelists are another hook in the water. These meetings are not the only strategy but they are surely a very effective one.

By abandoning revival meetings and not using evangelist, we are catering to the laziness and mixed up priorities of modern Christians. If they have time for T.V., the internet, newspapers, movies, and all that is in the modern culture, they have time to come to church for a few nights for real revival in their heart and home. They need to know that we do not buy their excuses and we refuse to acommadate them. The pastor is called to lead his people, not follow the culture. Let us return to Biblical revival through church wide and area wide spiritual emphasis and the use of the God-called, anointed, gifted evangelist who has the gift of drawing the net.

Our churches constantly plant seed, water it, cultivate it - now lets plan for, prepare for and call in the personnel to reap the harvest. You will be glad you did. Pray about it!

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