What Triggers Revival?

 Back in the early days in Prescott I recall that pastor Mitchell rarely preached a sermon on witnessing or evangelism. He didn't need to very often. One sign of genuine revival is an eagerness to witness. Everything is so fresh and new and exciting. Personal evangelism was not a common topic of sermons in the early days of revival.

We in our Fellowship seem to have a new crop of leaders who are focused like a laser beam on witnessing and evangelism. They see evangelism in every Bible text. They preach evangelism in every sermon. It seems to be always on their minds. Not that they spend their days on the street witnessing. But since evangelism is no longer an outworking of real revival, they think that by forcing the issue they can spark revival again.

I suspect that pastor Mitchell probably preached on evangelism more in regional conferences than he did at home. So you that only knew him from your conferences did not know that well rounded ministry that flowed through him. At the end of his life pastor Mitchell did not focus on evangelism or witnessing.

It seems to be only those who were saved in revival and who now are leaders and who think that the very early days are the norm for the whole spectrum of the life of faith. They have become the hammer who thinks everything is a nail. They only know one way to live and they ignore the fact that we cannot live like that forever.

So we support the vision and we pray for workers and we give to outreach even though we can no longer participate in any of that.

One more thought. Revival is a Divine work of God. It may be triggered by prayer. But it is never triggered by evangelism. Never.