REVIVAL: Every night or Regular Service Nights?

Okay, folks... it came up on another thread and I thought it would be good to have an 'overall' view of how people do revivals these days.

While I've Pastored for many years now I used to Evangelize full time for 8 years. We did 'old fashioned' revival with services most every night. Yep, the whole Tuesday through Sunday with Monday only as 'rest nights'... IF we were lucky!

What is the general schedule your Churches utilize for Revivals. I, as a Pastor, would like to know just to have a view of how others do it.

[chseeads]

None of the above.... Thursday - Sunday. But all of those are regular service times except Friday being thrown in the middle.

Originally Posted by chseeads

None of the above.... Thursday - Sunday. But all of those are regular service times except Friday being thrown in the middle.

Back in the 'day', when I was in your neck of the woods, they had revivals EVERY night from beginning to the end. I know what it's like as a new convert to go to Church EVERY night for 9 weeks in a row with NO rest nights.

I sometimes think the meetings were more life changing than what some of us do now.

[Scooter]

Our Church has two revivals a year one spring, one fall. Tuesday - Thursday and Sunday. Very, Very Very Seldom more than one week.
Usually, DIfferent Preachers for them. However last year we had Bro. Gary Legg from SD for Both. He is one of the greatest preachers in our movement.

[StMark]

S'fast,

when i was very young, we had revival EVERY NIGHT! Then, they started giving us monday night off and worried that we might backslide between sunday and tuesday LOL LOL
NOW you can't hardly get folks to one mid week service let alone a weeklong revival.

some of our revivals lasted for months. i do not know how we did it but we did and the people loved it - those were the good ole days

[Joelel]

Originally Posted by StMark

S'fast,

when i was very young, we had revival EVERY NIGHT! Then, they started giving us monday night off and worried that we might backslide between sunday and tuesday LOL LOL
NOW you can't hardly get folks to one mid week service let alone a weeklong revival.

some of our revivals lasted for months. i do not know how we did it but we did and the people loved it - those were the good ole days

Yes the pastors,if they have to preach more then three times a week now they think there working to hard and they need double pay if they have to knock doors.

[MawMaw]

Originally Posted by Steadfast

Back in the 'day', when I was in your neck of the woods, they had revivals EVERY night from beginning to the end. I know what it's like as a new convert to go to Church EVERY night for 9 weeks in a row with NO rest nights.

I sometimes think the meetings were more life changing than what some of us do now.

I remember fondly those weeks long revivals. The longest one I can remember having was for 6 weeks straight, my pastor back then did not believe in "rest" nights LOL

The church I attend now holds it's revivals from Sunday to Tuesday nights usually.

I really miss how it used to be.

[Sweet Pea]

I remember the days when revival went for weeks with no "rest days" (and then sometimes MORE weeks) Some of the less fortunate women had a problem with their hair - I can even remember women coming to church on Saturday nights with their hair newly washed, rollers in it and a scarf tied around it. That was before the days of blow dryers, etc.

In those days, it was also common for nearby churches to visit when a revival was going on. We might have weeks of revival with an evangelist and a nearby pastor had brought his saints to our revival, like what he heard and booked the evangelist to come to his church. We would then visit his church and hear the same evangelist. I agree with whoever said that networking and fellowship was part of the key. Seems like there isn't much of that anymore. Too much diversity in what neighboring pastors want their saints to hear. Evangelist would also be at Fellowship Meetings and Youth Rallys. Given a few minutes to speak - then the Holy Ghost could deal with whatever pastors were present, if that evangelist was someone who could be a help to their church.

To answer the question: at our church now, it is never the same schedule. I guess it depends on the evangelist's schedule or even what is going on at the church. This past summer we had "revival" when it was only Sundays and Wednesdays. We've had it Wednesday - Friday and then Sunday. We've had it Sunday - Wednesday. To say the least, our services don't follow any traditional old time Pentecost schedules.

Originally Posted by Sweet Pea

I remember the days when revival went for weeks with no "rest days" (and then sometimes MORE weeks) Some of the less fortunate women had a problem with their hair - I can even remember women coming to church on Saturday nights with their hair newly washed, rollers in it and a scarf tied around it. That was before the days of blow dryers, etc.

In those days, it was also common for nearby churches to visit when a revival was going on. We might have weeks of revival with an evangelist and a nearby pastor had brought his saints to our revival, like what he heard and booked the evangelist to come to his church. We would then visit his church and hear the same evangelist. I agree with whoever said that networking and fellowship was part of the key. Seems like there isn't much of that anymore. Too much diversity in what neighboring pastors want their saints to hear. Evangelist would also be at Fellowship Meetings and Youth Rallys. Given a few minutes to speak - then the Holy Ghost could deal with whatever pastors were present, if that evangelist was someone who could be a help to their church.

To answer the question: at our church now, it is never the same schedule. I guess it depends on the evangelist's schedule or even what is going on at the church. This past summer we had "revival" when it was only Sundays and Wednesdays. We've had it Wednesday - Friday and then Sunday. We've had it Sunday - Wednesday. To say the least, our services don't follow any traditional old time Pentecost schedules.

Those were 'the days', weren't they? Instead of a 'revival when we can' it was more of a 'revival until God's done'.

[Sweet Pea]

Also - I don't mean to be cynical, but how many pastors are scheduling shorter revivals because evangelists expect a certain honorarium per service preached? Don't get me wrong, I believe that pastors, evangelists, etc etc SHOULD be paid well, but an evangelist can do pretty good if he is holding two revivals simultaneously. And I have seen it done. (Sunday - Tuesday at one church; Wednesday - Friday at another.) The two churches might share the cost of airfare even. Maybe they felt that they had to do it this way to make what they needed to.