In days gone by, revival meetings were the method of choice for evangelizing the lost in America. In their heyday, revivals lasted two weeks or more with evangelists who preached the gospel and drew increasingly bigger crowds each night.

Over the past 20 years, a change in American lifestyles has affected revival evangelism, as well as the church in general.

Revival meetings were shortened to a week and then to a Sunday-Wednesday format with attendance significantly falling off, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The reaction of many churches has been to stop having revival meetings altogether, moving their evangelistic focus elsewhere.

However, two veterans of revival ministry have teamed up with SBTC to reformat this type of outreach to reach a new generation of lost people.

“Celebration Weekend” is a ministry directed by Joe Simmons and John McKay in association with SBTC Evangelism Director Don Cass.

Both Simmons and McKay have a long history in evangelism, working for many years with evangelist James Robison, well known for ministry among Southern Baptists in the 1970s and 1980s. Both Simmons and McKay see a real need for crusade- type meetings in the local church again.

“I watched the crusade ministry all but vanish,” said McKay.

“We’ve got a whole world to reach and we need to use every method we can to reach people.”

Celebration Weekends provide ministry for every facet of the church,” added Simmons. “Every person is ministered to.”

In addition to providing ministry for every group in the church, Celebration Weekends pack everything into a Thursday through Sunday format with events for children, youth, women and men. Simmons and McKay have assembled a team of people who target specific groups within the church.

Evangelist Jay Lowder of Wichita Falls brings the messages during themeetings. Laurie Cole of Priority Ministries leads a women’s event on Friday evening and Saturday morning, targeting women and their lost friends.

McKay and Bill Cole, minister of music at Sagemont Church in Houston, work with the music for the weekend. And Hank Hough provides a ministry to children.

A typical Celebration Weekend schedule begins with school assemblies on Thursday and Friday to target area youth.

During this meeting, women are encouraged to bring one lost friend with them to Sunday morning service. Saturday starts with a wild game festival at which sportsmen display their trophies. In addition, a silent auction is held throughout the day. Saturday evening ends with a men’s banquet in which the gospel is shared.

Prior to the banquet men are encouraged to buy a ticket for themselves and one lost friend.

Lowder speaks in a limited number of schools and invites the youth to a Sunday evening youth rally. The weekend continues with a women’s event on Friday evening and Saturday morning led by Laurie Cole.

On Sunday morning, the church gathers together for an hour of music during the Sunday School hour and then an evangelistic service during the regular worship time. Aspecial children’s service is held during the adult worship time, showcasing Hough of Spring and his trained Labrador Retrievers. The Celebration Weekend ends Sunday evening with a youth rally, which features Lowder’s preaching and youth-friendly contemporary music.

While Celebration Weekends provide a different approach to evangelism than in years past, McKay believes the message of the gospel remains the same. “Our message never changes, but our method changes. God looks at our motive and our motive is to win them to Christ. That is our mission statement from the Lord.”

Three SBTC churches have already committed to host a Celebration Weekend.In April, Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo saw 80 decisions for Christ during its crusade promoted as SpringFest. Other events are scheduled at Bay Area First Baptist Church in Houston and The Church at Quail Creek in Amarillo. So far five Celebration Weekends have been put on the calendar for 2008. “We want to geographically schedule these eventsto touch all parts of the state,” said Simmons.

In addition to geographically scheduling events, Simmons pointed out that Celebration Weekends are not just for larger churches. “Four smaller churches are coming together in San Antonio next year,” said Simmons. He also believes that associations or other groups of churches could come together to host a Celebration Weekend for their city or county.

Both Simmons and McKay feel that Celebration Weekends could be a real boost to crusade-type evangelism in Texas and around the United States. “I believe that this thing could go nationwide and be incredible for two or three years,” said Simmons. “I believe this thing will spread pretty fast.” McKay echoes Simmons’s sentiments. “This is just one tool,” said McKay. “It might lead us on to bigger and better things.”

The SBTC evangelism team can customize a Celebration Weekend to suit the needs of any SBTC church, allowing for the involvement of other evangelists and speakers. For more information about Celebration Weekends or to schedule a Celebration Weekend in your church or association, contact SBTC Director of Evangelism Don Cass at 877.953.SBTC or log on to www.sbtexas.com and click on the Contact Us link.