Revival meetings; does anyone else remember them? They were pretty common occurrences among evangelical churches when I was coming of age (although in retrospect I think they were on the wane at the time already). A church would invite an evangelist or someone with special artistic skills to convey an evangelistic message calling for repentance and the turning over of a new leaf. That individual would come and speak for the better part of a week (Perhaps Sunday through Wednesday or Friday nights) and the church would set aside those nights to gather —
and would invite friends and family members that they believe might benefit from hearing the message conveyed by the evangelist. These meetings normally ended with an altar call invitation to make a public profession of faith.
They were called “revivals” because they were meant to revive the flagging faith of church members as well as to reach new converts … and perhaps to bring new energy and vitality to sleepy churches. I have fond memories of some of those meetings. I can remember chalk artists sometimes aided by black lights sketching things that astounded me. And I was deeply moved by the messages that several of the evangelists gave. More than once I went forward to “rededicate” my life to Christ.
The small Baptist Church I grew up in was pretty conservative. The sixties and early seventies might have been a time of sex, drugs and rock and roll in other places, but in Emporium those things didn’t affect us too much — at least in my church they didn’t. I do remember a pastor reacting to John Lennon’s remark that the Beatles (or perhaps rock and roll in general) were more popular than Jesus. But nestled in a valley tucked deep in the Alleghenies it didn’t feel to me that the sweeping changes in our country during the Vietnam era had much to do with us. Of course they did though. They were just a little late arriving.
We loved watching The Andy Griffith Show back in the day because we felt like our town had a touch of Mayberry in it. And in a way, I suppose Emporium still has a touch of that iconic town inside of it. I imagine the residents of Eldred, Smethport, Coudersport, Port Allegany, Kane, Portville, N.Y., Cuba, N.Y., etc. feel the same way. The characters in Mayberry were a little exaggerated but we had our own characters. You didn’t have to look too hard to find Floyd the barber or your little town’s version of Aunt Bea and Otis (the town drunk).
As I have mentioned before in this column, following my father’s sudden death in an industrial accident when I was 5, my church became like an extended family to me. I found people who were constantly looking out for me. They sent me to church camp every year, congratulated me on my (meager) athletic accomplishments and when my name was (all too rarely) listed among those on the honor roll at school. But most of all they invested in my character. My Sunday School teachers and pastors challenged me to be a better, more Godly person and they provided me with role models. Some were teachers in the local school system, others were businessmen and some housewives.
Two role models for me happened to be students who were a few years ahead of me in school. They were simply nice guys who took their faith seriously. They had great families who were pillars in our church and (at least from my perspective) they seemed to do everything right. Rusty Horning was the student manager on some of our high school teams and Jim Bitner was one of the first guys off the bench on our perennial champion basketball team. Most of all, I saw them as individuals of high character. They were not only always in church and Sunday School on Sunday morning and youth group on Sunday evening but I never heard them using foul language or participating in the usual disrespectful behavior often seen at school. And they seemed to care about me.
Keep in mind ours was a church where 100 people in attendance on Sunday morning probably meant it was Easter Sunday or the Sunday before Christmas. So it is really quite surprising that, as it turns out all three of us entered the ministry after graduation. Rev. Russel Horning has been the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Shinglehouse for three decades! And Rev. James Bitner has been the senior pastor of Myerstown Baptist Church in Myerstown, Pa., for 20 years. And I have been here in Olean for almost 14 following three other pastorates and a youth ministry position.
I mention all of this because the three of us recently decided to team up to go back to Emporium in just over a week (May 22-25) to lead a series of revival meetings there. I have never heard of anything like this happening before. We are calling it the First Baptist Hometown Revival and it will feature two of our other classmates (Cathy Ostrum Swarmer and Dave Labrozzi) sharing their testimonies. These meetings will take place on Sunday through Wednesday nights at 6 pm. I’m sure they won’t be like the revival meetings I remember, but we couldn’t be more excited about them. Please help me spread the word!
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(Editor’s note: McDowell grew up in Emporium and will be joined by two fellow Emporium alumni next week to put on a “revival” at the First Baptist Church of Emporium. McDowell is also a religion columnist for The Era’s sister paper, The Olean (N.Y.) Times Herald.)
