Revival meeting

== Meetings ==
[[File:Indiana-Michigan Conference In Fairview MI 1947 (5808666974).jpg|thumb|Mennonite conference in 1947]]
A revival meeting usually consists of several consecutive nights of services conducted at the same time and location, most often the building belonging to the sponsoring congregation but sometimes a rented assembly hall, for more adequate space, to provide a setting that is more comfortable for non-Christians, or to reach a community where there are no churches. [[Tent]]s were very frequently employed in this effort in the recent past, and occasionally still are, but less so due to the difficulties in heating and cooling them and otherwise making them comfortable, an increasing consideration with modern audiences.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}

[[Ben M. Bogard]], from 1909 to 1914, conducted revivals full-time in seven southern states. In 1924, he founded the [[American Baptist Association]], the [[Missionary Baptist]] denomination, still based in [[Texarkana, Texas]]. ABA churches have traditionally held revivals usually once or twice a year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1593|title=Benjamin Marcus Bogard (1868–1951)|publisher=encyclopediaofarkansas.net|access-date=August 2, 2013}}</ref>

The length of such meetings varies. Until the last quarter-century they were frequently a week or more in duration, especially in the [[Southern United States]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Black|first1=Daryl|title='The Excitement of High and Holy Affections': Baptist Revival and Cultural Creation in the Upper-Piedmont Georgia Cotton Belt, 1800-1828|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2003|volume=87|issue=3/4|pages=329–358|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=12115129&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=19 February 2018}}</ref> Currently they may be held for three or four days. Evangelist [[Billy Graham]] planned [[New York Crusade (1957)|a week-long crusade]] in [[New York City]], which ultimately extended from May 15 to September 1, 1957. More than two million people went to New York's [[Madison Square Garden]] to hear him preach.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ghi-dc.org/files/publications/bulletin/bu044/bu44_071.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-04-26 |archive-date=2011-11-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110214654/http://ghi-dc.org/files/publications/bulletin/bu044/bu44_071.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Most groups holding revival meetings tend to be of a [[conservatism|conservative]] or [[Christian fundamentalist|fundamentalist]] nature, although some are still held by [[Mainline (Protestant)|Mainline]] groups, which formerly conducted them with a far greater frequency.  Similar events may be referred to as "crusades", most especially those formerly held by Billy Graham and [[Oral Roberts]].

Along with [[camp meeting]]s, the holding of revival services is an integral part of the [[Methodist]] tradition, in which they serve to offer individuals the [[Born again#Methodism|New Birth]] ([[first work of grace]]) and [[entire sanctification]] ([[second work of grace]]).<ref name="Oconer2017">{{cite book|last=Oconer|first=Luther Jeremiah|title=Spirit-Filled Protestantism: Holiness-Pentecostal Revivals and the Making of Filipino Methodist Identity|date=12 October 2017|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=en|isbn=9781498203609|page=4}}</ref>

[[Conservative Mennonites]] continue to hold and promote protracted revival meetings of usually seven or eight days duration at least once per year in a given congregation. The visiting evangelist is chosen from among their own or related congregations.

Many revivals are conducted by nondenominational community churches, most of which are conservative in [[theology]].