When I was growing up, my Church had two revivals each year; one in spring and one in winter. During the week of the revival, my sister, brother, and I were dragged to Church each night. I can’t speak for my sister, but I can guarantee you that my brother and I did everything we could to amuse ourselves while we waited through the boring service. We dreaded “Revival Week,” and hated the way it intruded on our personal lives.
Years later I was having a discussion with another pastor about youth work and revivals. I told him my exact thoughts about the subject. He patiently listened to me, and then challenged me to look up the term in a dictionary. I went home, grabbed the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language off my desk and looked up the word. The first definition gave me fuel for my next discussion. It told me revival meant a person was restored to use after a period of obscurity.