What mental images come to your mind when you hear that churches are talking about “Revival?” For many Ohioans, the images include old-fashioned tent meetings where a guest evangelist preaches long into the night. Or perhaps instead of a tent, the revival meetings are held in a church building. Either way, the Christians participating in such revival meetings invite their friends or un-churched family members to come to the meeting and hear the evangelist’s message.
There is revival coming to Fayette County, but it is far different than anything ever before seen in this community. There are no tents. While there is a church building that will be used, no evangelism will take place there. No single church is conducting the revival. Instead, 14 churches spread throughout Washington Court House and Fayette County are partnering together to reach their community with the life-changing good news of Jesus Christ.
This amazing event is called REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY and is scheduled for Friday, March 9 through Wednesday, March 14. The participating churches are working with Revive Ohio, which in turn is part of a growing nationwide movement. Fayette County will be the seventh county to host Revive Ohio as they have already been in Miami, Auglaize, Allen, Mercer, Darke and Shelby counties and in Dayton. Many Christians from those counties will spend the week in Fayette County investing themselves in our community and with our churches just the way Christians from other counties (and several other states) invested in them. In the months to come, Christians from Fayette County will travel to Logan and Hancock counties to help reach those communities with the gospel.
One of the unique features of REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY is that the evangelism will take place outside the walls of any church building. Just as it was in the New Testament days of the first Christians, sharing the gospel will occur wherever people can be found. It might happen on a street corner or in a parking lot. Perhaps at a job site, a restaurant, on an athletic field at school or at a nursing home. There will still be evening church meetings, but here the emphasis will be upon the unity of Christians from 14 or more churches worshipping together, sharing testimonies of how God is working through REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY and being trained to carry out the Great Commission to go and make disciples. Every church and every individual in Fayette County is invited to attend the evening meetings which begin at 6:30.
The location of the worship services and the base of operations will be Grace Community Church, located at 525 S. Glenn Ave. in Washington C.H. This site was chosen because of its location and kitchen facilities, but all of the participating churches are equal partners. Breakfast and dinner will be served at Grace Community for all those who are participating in the daily evangelistic outreach. Daily lunches will be served at other churches called Noontime Churches. The preparation and serving of the breakfast and dinner meals at Grace Community is being handled by other churches with help from local restaurants and the staff of one of our nursing homes.
A major aspect of preparing for REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY has been weekly community prayer meetings. Beginning last September, Christians from numerous churches began meeting at the Court House gazebo on Wednesday mornings at 6:30. With the onset of colder weather the meeting found open doors at Grace United Methodist Church, located on East Market Street. In recent days, a Tuesday evening Community prayer meeting for revival has been started at Heritage Memorial Church, located on U.S. Rt. 35 NW, at 6 p.m. Both prayer meetings are open to the public and will continue even after REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY’s official dates of March 9 – 14.
REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY is about far more than a six-day evangelistic event. The goal is to permanently transform the climate of our churches by equipping Christians to be disciple makers and by building lasting biblical unity between the churches of Fayette County. It was Jesus Christ Himself Who said in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Churches not yet committed to REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY are still welcome to join this exciting project. Here is the current list of partnering churches, in alphabetic order: Bible Baptist Temple, Calvary Baptist Church, Church of the Nazarene, The Gathering Place, Grace Community Church, Grace United Methodist Church, Heritage Memorial Church, Jeffersonville United Methodist Church, New Bridge Church, Rodgers Chapel, Second Baptist Church, Unity Fellowship Church, Walnut Hill CCCU and Woodlawn Free Will Baptist Church.
Information about REVIVE FAYETTE COUNTY can be found on Facebook at: Revive Ohio:: Fayette County or the Revive Ohio page that is linked to: www.gracecommunity.net by clicking on the “Revive Ohio” tab. County Co-Chairmen Bruce Morrison of Heritage Memorial Church (740-335-1079) and Jay Lucas of Grace Community Church (740-333-5433) are also available to answer questions and may be contacted through the church offices at the phone numbers listed above.
