WATERTOWN, Tenn. (BP)–Round Lick Baptist Church recently concluded a revival crusade that was “unusual” in several respects.
First, it was a pre-planned two week meeting during a time when many revivals are less than a week, said Terry Wilkerson, pastor of the Watertown, Tenn., church.
The evangelistic team which led the effort — evangelist Ronnie Owens of Tazewell, Tenn., and music evangelists Brent and Erica Murray of Acworth, Ga. — were the same team who led revival services at Round Lick one year earlier. The “harvest” of souls was greater the second time with 51 people accepting Christ compared to 41 a year ago, Wilkerson said.
Of the 51 people who made public professions of faith this year, 10 times as many of those did it during the second week of revival, the pastor noted, and attendance was higher the second week than on the corresponding nights of the first week.
Also, the service with the most first-time non-Christians during the revival occurred on the final night, Wilkerson said.
“I believe that these facts shed new light on the need for churches to return to revival meetings in general as an important tool for evangelism,” he said.
He also encouraged longer revival meetings to “give God time to warm the hearts of believers to effectively get the unsaved under the sound of the gospel.”
“In a day when many have almost given up on these types of evangelistic efforts, saying ‘they no longer work,’ God poured out his blessings in Watertown,” Wilkerson said.
