We Could All Use a Good Old Fashioned Revival Meeting

At this time of year, I always miss those old fashioned camp meetings we used to attend. I say used to attend, because hardly any churches have them any more, and I, for one, really miss them.

My husband used to pull our trailer up to the Assembly of God camp meeting at Brooks, Oregon the last week-end in June every year, stay for the week-end services, and then go back to work the next week, leaving the family at Brooks to enjoy the services all week long.

A week which included Bible studies during the day, evening preaching services that sometimes lasted far into the night, and visiting with friends we hadn't seen since the previous year. My husband would reappear the next Saturday morning to spend another week-end enjoying the services with us before loading us all up late Sunday evening to head for home.

We loved every minute of it, and came back refreshed and inspired to live more fully for God than ever before. Many older people in our churches today will testify that they first became Christians while attending services at an old-time camp meeting.

Sadly, camp meetings have almost disappeared. People claim they are too busy to take a week out of their lives for camp meeting today, yet they manage to make a number of visits to nearby lakes, the ocean, and even Disneyland each summer. I think our priorities have really been screwed up and society as a whole is showing the effects of it. We live in a, "What's in it for me?" world today, and many people are so greedy to accumulate the things that the modern world has to offer that they seldom take time to think about spiritual things.


I've decided that even though I can no longer attend the old fashioned camp meetings of the past, I don't have to neglect my spiritual life. I can make a point of setting aside more time to read the Bible, and seek God's will for my life every single day. There is a song we sing sometimes at church. It has a line that reads, "Tho' no one join me, still I will follow...." That is going to be my theme song from now on. How about you? We may never bring back the old-fashioned camp meetings, but we just might start an spiritual revival in our churches.