10 reasons why a church should have regular revival meetings and use revivalists and evangelists

1. Revival meetings in churches are a must because the Bible mandates it (Ephesians 4:11-16 and II Chronicles 7:13-16).

2. Revival in the church is needed because our communities have lost the ability to recognize sin and the church has lost its ability to weep over it. The revivalist is God’s spokesman calling the church to repentance and faith. The character of revived people wins the lost or draws them to the church. The evangelist as God’s spokesman exercises his unique gift calling the lost to repentance and faith.

3. Revival is the answer to so few baptisms among the majority of our churches. Revival is the experience of the church. Evangelism is the expression of the church. Revival in the church results in evangelism through the church. That’s putting the horse before the cart, where it belongs.

4. As maturing adults give birth to children, so also maturing Christians reproduce after their own kind. To quote W.A. Criswell, revivalists and evangelists are God’s “grace gifts” to the church (Ephesians. 4:11), supplementing, complimenting, and completing the pastor-teacher’s work throughout the year.

5. Living in a sin-soaked society contaminates God’s children as well as the world (John 13:8). Revivalists (“prophets” in Ephesians. 4:11) bring a God-given message for the cleansing of and revival in Christ’s church. Evangelists bring a God-given message drawing the lost to Christ Jesus through a revived church.

6. God’s way has always been “root before fruit” (II Kings 19:30). There is a reason the Bible says, “The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life,” and then continues with, “and he who is wise wins souls,” Proverbs 11:30. Revival meetings in the church prepares the way for the God-gifted “evangelists” and aids in bringing about continuing evangelism throughout the year. The church is thus enabled to reap a harvest year round.

7. Revival is necessary in the church because most of our churches fall within the descriptives of the church at Ephesus – busy and energetic, but had “left (her) first love” (Rev. 2:4); or the church at Sardis – has “a name that (she) is alive, but (she) is dead” (Rev. 3:1); or the church at Laodicea – lukewarm and near rejection (Rev. 3:16).

8. An oak tree grows only certain months of the year while it solidifies that growth the remaining months. So also, the church while adding numbers to the kingdom of God throughout the year finds the ministry of the pastor-teacher and the revivalist prepares the fields for the harvesting work of the evangelist.

9. Revival in the church is needed because it begins with and always leads to prayer – prayer that calls down heaven, binds Satan’s power, pulls down strongholds, and liberates the lost.

10. Revival in the church is desperately demanded because it issues forth in the love of God in the hearts of His people. That love propels the saints to the lost, the last and the least.