Revivals, Worshipping as a Family, and Spiritual Gifts
I remember revivals from my childhood.
Revival services were part of our normal yearly church calendar. As a Pastor’s kid, I have vivid memories of traveling evangelists coming to our church for week-long evening-services beyond the normal Sundays and Wednesdays. I remember my family hosting those speakers for meals before and after church. I remember coming to services wearing my baseball uniform following a game. I remember receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues at a revival service. Those memories are etched in my mind, even if I didn’t always want to be in church seven times in seven days.
The revival experience came full circle for me this past week.
Just last week, our local church ReConnect Conference featured revival-style services from Sunday morning through Wednesday evening, and my son Nate was a part of each service beginning Sunday evening. Our normal children’s and student ministries services and programs were suspended for the week in order to allow our children, teens, and volunteers the opportunities to attend the special services.
At the time, I had no idea Nate was paying such close attention to the speakers. As a parent, you expect your children to sit quietly during a worship service, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised during the car-rides home to hear how much he could repeat of what he heard. When we asked in an off-handed way about what he learned from service, I was astounded by the way he could recall the stories the speakers shared, the scriptures they read, and the points they made.
Over the course of that week, he asked us honest questions about how to distinguish God’s voice from all the competing voices around us, and even why one person spoke a message in another language during service, but another gave the meaning of that message… Those questions and many others were sparked by what he saw and heard during our ReConnect Conference, and they were incredible opportunities, teachable moments for Mandy and me to sow truth into his heart and mind. Even more, his presence in the services exposed him to our Pentecostal heritage, and made the outpouring, infilling, and demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit normative for him.
My story might betray a bit of my own bias, but from a youth pastor’s perspective, I am chagrined I did not give him more credit for his ability to not only listen and understand the adult message, but also to come away from those services having heard God’s voice. I know as a child I learned from what I saw in church and in revival services, but it still pleasantly surprised me to hear that same experience coming from my own child.
I saw three major benefits from children and teens participating in an adult service, and in a revival-style service.
Ask your children and students some questions about the last time they were in worship with you; give them the chance to process with you what they saw and heard.
Revival services were part of our normal yearly church calendar. As a Pastor’s kid, I have vivid memories of traveling evangelists coming to our church for week-long evening-services beyond the normal Sundays and Wednesdays. I remember my family hosting those speakers for meals before and after church. I remember coming to services wearing my baseball uniform following a game. I remember receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues at a revival service. Those memories are etched in my mind, even if I didn’t always want to be in church seven times in seven days.
The revival experience came full circle for me this past week.
Just last week, our local church ReConnect Conference featured revival-style services from Sunday morning through Wednesday evening, and my son Nate was a part of each service beginning Sunday evening. Our normal children’s and student ministries services and programs were suspended for the week in order to allow our children, teens, and volunteers the opportunities to attend the special services.
At the time, I had no idea Nate was paying such close attention to the speakers. As a parent, you expect your children to sit quietly during a worship service, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised during the car-rides home to hear how much he could repeat of what he heard. When we asked in an off-handed way about what he learned from service, I was astounded by the way he could recall the stories the speakers shared, the scriptures they read, and the points they made.
Over the course of that week, he asked us honest questions about how to distinguish God’s voice from all the competing voices around us, and even why one person spoke a message in another language during service, but another gave the meaning of that message… Those questions and many others were sparked by what he saw and heard during our ReConnect Conference, and they were incredible opportunities, teachable moments for Mandy and me to sow truth into his heart and mind. Even more, his presence in the services exposed him to our Pentecostal heritage, and made the outpouring, infilling, and demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit normative for him.
My story might betray a bit of my own bias, but from a youth pastor’s perspective, I am chagrined I did not give him more credit for his ability to not only listen and understand the adult message, but also to come away from those services having heard God’s voice. I know as a child I learned from what I saw in church and in revival services, but it still pleasantly surprised me to hear that same experience coming from my own child.
I saw three major benefits from children and teens participating in an adult service, and in a revival-style service.
- Children and teens can understand more than we give them credit, and they are often paying more attention than we realize. We see that to be true in other areas of their lives—school, athletics, culture in general. It should not surprise us at all that our Lead Pastor or a traveling Evangelist can preach an adult message in a way that impacts our children. Perhaps we are not asking enough questions about what they’re hearing and seeing in church to fully understand what they’re learning?
- Children and teens need to see their parents and adults worshipping, and operating in the gifts of the Spirit during corporate worship. This is a critical component of family-discipleship, that children and teens see their parents in love and adoration of the Savior, and that a Sunday worship experience influences a weekly relationship with Jesus. How much more will they understand what it means to follow Jesus if they see how their parents respond to His call?
- Children and teens need to see the gifts of the Spirit operating in our services. When it comes to the move of the Spirit in personal AND corporate worship, they will not value a heritage they do not experience. As Pentecostals in the Holiness tradition, it is incumbent on us as parents and leaders to make sure our children and teens not only see and hear the dynamic work of God in our services and in our homes, but we must also encourage them in their pursuit of spiritual gifts. It will not happen accidentally.
Ask your children and students some questions about the last time they were in worship with you; give them the chance to process with you what they saw and heard.
- Which song was your favorite today? What did you like most about that song? Do you ever find yourself singing it during the day?
- Do you remember the story our Pastor/Speaker shared? What was the main idea of the story?
- What did that story tell you about God? What can we learn from that story?
- (In the case of a spiritual gift manifestation) Did you see anything unusual in the service today? What did you think about what happened? Did you understand it?
- Did you feel like God was trying to speak to you today? How do you think God speaks to us during worship/preaching/altar ministry?