Revival preachers in their 20's?

For about 11 years I have studied historical accounts of revival and men who have studied it as well...and one thing I have noticed is how many preachers that were part of real revivals in the past were young....some were older but alot were in their 20's.
I have some reasons why this is...but it seems the older we get the less fire there is within. Is it because of to much knowledge?
Is it harder to maintain ZEAL with age or knowledge? I'm not sure?

Hi Brent,

You have posed an interesting question!

Yet, just today I was commenting to my wife, upon overhearing an elderly gentlemen praying in a resturaunt, how nothing quite touches deep unto deep, and spirit unto spirit, as the prayers of a veteran who has walked with God.

Having observed this many times first hand I wouldn't be so quick to assume that age and knowledge are cooling agents in Christians. It is my experience, that to run the race, discipline has more usefulness then passion. (Not that you would want one and not the other...)

When analyzing this trend, you might consider more basic factors. Younger men, generally speaking, have the physical advantages of youth as well as less domestic responsibilities to hold them back. We know that serious spiritual work can be very demanding physically and often requires single minded commitment.

I'll be curious to see what others have to say here.

MC

Well, when Caleb had victory in his old age.

Old age is no excuse to be useless. John Piper preaches a good message on this how the American dream is to retire and go gather sea shells for the rest of your life. And it is a lie "devil".

But, the Church is to teach faithful young men that will be able to teach others also. So, it is likely that the Lord anoints young men for they will have years to continue.

I also thought of why it is said that most people are converted to Christ at a younger age. And, I think I have concluded that it is much because the older people have already had their hearts worked on by the Lord but they have refused and grown even harder. Possibly that is with older Christian's too?

I do not want to become too much of a philosopher though. Things are much of the time simple but we make them complex. Error is much of the time subtle so simple things seem complex.

Very interesting thought there. I personally believe that the problem does not lie with age but with the mind. I have watched and have seen that tragic vacant look of an older saint who feels as if their time has passed. I myself have been there that place where you constantly long for your younger days when your zeal was young and fresh and you had more energy and strength for God, you feel like you can never be or do anything significant for God. But over the years I have come to realise that the problem lies not age but in the mind, I believe the devil loves to impress a sense of expirey to the call of seeking revival till we give up on it and seek a slightly lesser alternative such as evanglism (not that i object to it all) we witness, preach and testify but revival is not a plausible goal for us just save who you can. We must remind ourselves that all God seeks is a willing vessel age is not an issue, revival is God sent not human engineering what does the scripture say "I am the Lord and I do not change". Just a thought.

Brent,

Don't you know that young people are supposed to go to bible college and seminary and then work for 20 years as an assistant pastor or a youth pastor before they can ever get their feet in a pulpit... that's just the way things are done in America.

How can you expect anyone under 50 years old to have any spirituality?! (Sarcasm)

I see it so much even today with friends of mine who are pastors...when they were and are in their 20's they were and are a blaze of fire...

I'm 35 yrs old now...when I pastored in my 20's I was a fire ball...and now I confess I struggle with zeal...but I can preach about revival with alot of knowledge now.

I know christians who are older and are walking bibles but with very little zeal. This is history of revival preachers...but what was the secret of those older saints who maintained a FIRE within all throughout??
These older saints think your just young and immature if you have TO MUCH ZEAL AND FIRE for the LORD!! These 20 yr olds had an intense desire for ONE thing GODS GLORY...to see reivial.

I'm 25, I couldn't get a pulpit anywhere because I've never had a formal Christian education... I've been feeling that maybe I should make the street my pulpit, need to find out the legal issues for Seattle though.

I was recently in a meeting and the speaker said the majority of salvations in America happens when in their early teens. Very small percentage of adults are saved after 25 yrs old.
He said the southern baptist convention stated in the next couple of decades there will be no southern baptist denomination with the present course of little number of salvations in the USA.

The speaker was from England and he couldnt believe when he got to America because of all the "christian materials" we had...books in the super markets, christian radio, churches everywhere, but couldnt believe the lack of evidence of christianity in America.