CORDOVA, Tenn. (BP) — Steve Gaines recalls a day nearly 30 years ago following a period of prayer and fasting when he was about to preach at First Baptist Church of Gardendale, Ala., his pastorate for 14 years.

He had a keen sense that the Lord was telling him to give the invitation to Christian discipleship before the sermon.

“Lord, we don’t do that here,” he responded under his breath, in his telling of the story to Baptist Press decades later. “(The Lord) said, ‘Well you do now.’ And so I give the invitation, and seven people got saved before I preached, and I realized God was doing something.”

It was the beginning of a revival, leading to years of sustained baptisms and growth before Gaines transitioned in 2005 to pastor Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, the former pastorate of the late Adrian Rogers.

Gaines mentions the Gardendale experience in his book, “Revival: When God Comes to Church,” released in May of this year.

In 2019 in Owensboro, Ky., Pleasant Valley Community Church had a vision to saturate the city and nation with Christ, senior pastor Jamus Edwards told Baptist Press.

The church sat up a tent downtown on the riverfront in the most highly trafficked area of Owensboro and preached the gospel one Friday night in September, having prayed that God would send people.

“We prayed for months and months that God would move mightily on the river,” Edwards said, “and that night we set up a tent, had about 1,200 seats under the tent and we prayed that God would send people and He did.”

Baptisms that night and following bumped the church’s 2019 baptisms to 114, compared to 20 the previous year. Revival was evident.

“People beheld the glory and the power of God and I think it renewed our church’s faith in the power of the gospel,” Edwards said, “that when we preach Christ, Christ really does save people. And there’s need.

“I think people still talk about it to this day. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

Prolonged speculation and spirited discussion engrossed many when a February 2023 chapel service at Asbury College in Ashland, Ky., led to days of continued worship, praise and prayer.

Was it genuine revival? Was it the beginning of the next great awakening?

“I am hopeful about what is taking place at Asbury, and I am also confident that any genuine revival destroys a worldly cynicism from among God’s people,” wrote David Prince, pastor of preaching and vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., and assistant professor of Christian preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a February 2023 article. “Lord, revive us again.”

Christians continue to desire revival and spiritual awakening, pointing to historical milestones.

Gaines believes the United States would not have come into existence were it not for revivals and spiritual awakenings that swept the original British American colonies in the 1700s under the likes of George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards and others.

“They prayed and God came down upon their services and in a powerful way,” he said. “And I believe that the unity in the American colonies came from the Great Awakening that took place during their day. Thousands of people were saved.”

At First Gardendale, when he gave the invitation before the sermon in the two morning services and received about 30 new believers, he said revival began immediately.

“That night, the place was packed for Sunday night service,” he said, “because everybody knew God was doing something.”

It’s not a matter of making God move, Gaines said, but being in position when He does.

“You can’t make God do anything, but you can set up your sails, if you will, like a ship, and when the wind blows you’ll be ready,” he said. “I believe it was a revival at our local church.”

In the years following, a Wiccan was saved and joined the orchestra. Homosexuals, adulterers and fornicators were saved and delivered from their sinful strongholds.

Gaines said he has experienced God’s miraculous power at Bellevue Baptist in his pastorate spanning 20 years.

“I still believe that the greatest days can still be to come. We don’t need to live in the past,” Gaines said. “We need to pray for God to revive us in the future. And I believe He will. He still wants to do that.”

Gaines defines revival as “when the glory of God fills the house of God,” and believes the best is yet to come, whether in an individual’s heart, in the local church or in multiple churches.

“Revival doesn’t have to be all the way across the whole nation. It can just be in one person’s heart. I think that’s where most revivals start, when just where two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name, He is in our midst,” he said. “Now I know that that (verse) technically is talking about the church and church discipline even, but I believe it also is just a given rule that when we gather together, Jesus comes in His manifest presence and changes everything.”

Pleasant Valley Community Church’s biggest burden after its 2019 revival, Edwards said, was engaging the newly baptized in discipleship classes and connecting them with local churches. Some accepted invitations to Christianity 101 classes at Pleasant Valley, joined and remained active members, he said; some joined other churches, and others did not respond.

Edwards is building on the 2019 revival this fall, preaching a series of sermons on personal evangelism and bringing in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Timothy Beougher to teach a series of lessons on the same.

The personal evangelism emphasis will work to saturate the community with the gospel. Although Owensboro is in the Bible Belt, he said tens of thousands of people don’t know Jesus.

He believes revival comes in God’s timing and only comes through prayer, submission and repentance.

“God’s people will never experience revival until we’re desperate and we’re broken and we’re tired of our sin and we plead with God to come.

“I think the reason we don’t see revival is we don’t ask for revival, we don’t pray for revival and we’re not willing to get on our knees until revival happens,” he said. “I just don’t think churches can have a prayer meeting or two, set up a tent and expect God to come. He desires humble, broken, contrite hearts.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)