Is Tent Revival Worth It?

Is tent revival worth it?

I thrive preaching revival. I love to see God reaching for folks and them reaching out to God. I love preaching the Word and watching hungry people grab hold of it. I am an evangelist and I love the whole process of revival. There have been several occasions that I have preached 25-30 weeks of revival in a row. Probably not the smartest thing in the world for our health's sake but people go to work in the factory, construction site and office week after week, why shouldn't I? I love and believe in revival.

But throw 8-10 tent revivals into the mix and it changes everything. The tent revivals add a whole new meaning to the word, work. The tent set up, tent tear down each week, PA set up and tear down each night most places, the logistics of setting the meetings in advance, coordinating with Pastors to make sure everything is ready, pulling the trailer, finding a place to park, the enormous financial pressure and the list goes on and on...

I have not even mentioned the spiritual part of the meetings which includes sermon preparation, prayer, the actual singing and preaching and carrying the burden for each meeting. It seems as if we face more spiritual opposition under the tent than we do in normal revival. I suppose this is because we are daring to reach for those under the oppression or possession of the enemy and reaching for them out there on his turf. All of this on top of our normal responsibilities with the bus, regular revivals and family time.

So, is tent revival worth all of that?

Read my lips. It is absolutely worth all of that and more. It is wonderful to see people saved under the tent that have refused to go into our churches. There is no doubt about it. Everything that goes into having tent revivals is worth it.

There may be years that we do less tent revivals than other years. There may come a time when I am not able to keep up with the physical demands of tent revivals. It may be that we walk through other doors of opportunity as God leads and we do less tent revivals as a result of that.

But for the foreseeable future we want to preach as many tent revivals as possible. I want to take the message of the Gospel to the world as long as I can and I want to do it as effectively as I can. IF we believe the Gospel message and IF we believe the world needs to hear it then we have a duty to proclaim that message as loud as we can and for as long as we can.

We tried to work smarter last year and as I have mentioned in other blog posts we are trying to work smarter this year. I am trying to use the strength that God gives me as efficiently as I can. We have preached some Sunday though Wednesday revivals this year so that we have a little more time to re-cooperate before the next revival. I think that is helping and we are planning on more of that in the future.

In 2012 we set the tent up nine times, in nine cities and in seven states. We had  at least 71 services under the tent. I pulled the tent trailer 9300+ miles from February to September. There were people saved, healed, delivered and filled with the Holy Ghost under the tent. Some places we had much more response from the community that others but not one of the tent revivals was a bust. God helped in every service of every meeting.

Yes, tent revival is absolutely worth it.

We plan to start tent revivals this year, by the grace of God, in Citronelle on Easter Sunday, March 31. We are working again this year in Citronelle with Pastor Gaylon Cunningham and Pastor Darius Templeton and their churches. We plan to be there Sunday through Sunday and then move up the road to Millry, Alabama to set up the tent with Pastor Lamar Chapman and hopefully some of those area churches April 10-14.

We have two tent revivals scheduled in May in Virginia and Indiana and one in June/July in Illinois. We have two tentative tent revivals in North Dakota and Montana and then round out the season in Oklahoma, Missouri and back in Mississippi. Of course all of this is subject to change. I have learned that you can not chisel tent revival dates in stone. There are just too many variables.

We are hoping that we will have a little better handle on the expenses of tent revivals this year. We were spending $3-400 every week just on miscellaneous things to keep the tent up and the whole thing running the last two years. By the end of the 2012 season it seemed that everything was finally in place and the spending was calming down. I do have to replace the rims on the tent trailer this year but I hope to do that one or two at a time. All of the normal expenses and extra fuel go right on but we deal with all of that every month by the grace of God. He certainly knows how to handle it.

Please pray for us that God will use these meetings to reach for souls for His glory and for His kingdom. I would love to see a few dozen people saved in every tent revival. That is totally within the grasp of our God. Pray that God will provide every necessary ingredient for these meeting.

We would love for you to join us in a tent revival some time. You can always check out our schedule HERE. I advise you to check it before driving to be in a particular meeting because dates and locations do have a way of changing at the last minute. We will try to keep the schedule current.

God bless,

Davy