I don’t have a tremendous amount of experience with revival, but I remember once when Bill McCloud came to preach at a church I attended years ago. What a godly man! Afterward, there was such brokenness, surrender, and joy among the people; it seemed the people just floated around with radiant countenances, basking in the glory of God. There were such testimonies of conviction and surrender! That revival changed my life and I’ll never forget it.
So, I need help determining if I am being discerning or critical concerning the “revival” meetings in progress this week at my church. First of all, the speaker is the same man who has been invited for the past 30 years and he’s always the same. He’s funny, animated and at times entertaining, but it seems there is very little depth to his preaching. (We realize that it is God that brings revival, not the man, though.)
I realize that not all churches believe in altar calls, but ours does. One thing that bothers my husband and I about this man is the way he “manipulates” them. What I mean is this: he presents the invitation in such a way as to force people to come forward. For instance, he will preach on “Success in the Christian Life”, then say, “Everyone bow your head and close your eyes. Now raise your hand if you want to be a better Christian.” (Now, who doesn’t want to be a better Christian?) Then he’ll say, “If you raised your hand, you need to come down here to the altar and do business with God”. It’s frustrating because you want to resist the man-generated pressure to respond, yet it seems wrong when there “appears” to be a movement of God (because everyone else went forward) and you are the only two people still in your seats.
We live quite a distance from the church we now attend, and it costs us considerably to attend revival meetings each night. We’d be more than willing if we were to actually hear from God, but this seems more like a show. It is so very different than our limited experience with “real revival”.
So, are we being discerning or critical?
