by Tom Wagoner – Pastor of Central Baptist Church, Dunn, NC
In the last three Baptist Bible Fellowship gatherings that I have been a part of, I have noticed that the meetings have turned to the subject of revival again and again. I have felt the heartbeat of our pastors as well as our leadership, in particular our current president, Mark Hodges, who has announced “Revival” to be the theme for 2010. It really appears that in the providence of God, the winds of revival are beginning to blow — not only in our churches, but also across our nation in various movements.
My personal pilgrimage in search of revival began in the February 2009 National Meeting when much was said about our need as a Fellowship to seek God’s presence and His glory. The Lord started speaking to me personally, so I began reading anything I could find on the subject and praying specifically for revival. A few weeks later, a close friend, Jack Lemmons, who is the pastor of McLeansville Baptist Church, sent me the biography Manley Beasley: Man of Faith/Instrument of Revival. This book so stirred my heart that I shared it with a few men in our Fellowship. No matter where I have been for the last few months, I have found that it has spread through several of our states.
Manley’s story is an interesting one. His heart and his passion were for revival and a life of faith. He, along with James A. Stewart, Bill Stafford, and others established what they called an “International Congress on Revival” that gathered for the purpose of seeking God’s face. They brought together revivalists from all over the world as well as people who were experiencing revival personally. There was preaching and music, but most of the time was spent seeking the Lord and speaking of revival.
As a result of that book and the moving of the Spirit in my life, the Lord began to stir my heart to begin transitioning a camp meeting that I lead in the mountains of North Carolina from just a historic camp meeting to a “Southern Congress on Revival.” I announced it to the camp meeting on the week of July 4th. While there, an older man of God that I love and respect deeply, Billy Martin from Winston Salem, taught each morning on the subject of revival. He said that the three things that have always preceded revival were prayer, preaching, and the providence of God. The first two did not surprise me. When he spoke of providence, it was a stark reminder that we do not have revival when we desire or prepare for it, but instead when God deems that it is time for an individual, church or movement to experience genuine revival.
Revival is defined many different ways. I will elaborate on this subject in future columns, but I will offer this definition now: Revival is an extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit producing an extraordinary work of God among His people where Jesus Christ is glorified and magnified in an extraordinary way.