By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
LAFAYETTE, La. (LBM) – Pastor James Pritchard knew God could do something miraculous when he scheduled a four-day revival for February, but was amazed, nonetheless, when 56 baptisms took place during the final night of the revival meeting at First Baptist Church, Lafayette.
A crowd of more than 900 cheered as individuals from 6 to 95 years old stepped either into a horse trough or the baptistery inside the worship center to symbolize death, burial and resurrection with Christ, Feb. 9.
“What happened was the answered prayer of what we hoped the Lord would do,” Pritchard told the Baptist Message. “When He showed up like that, all we could say was ‘God showed up, look what God did!’”
Leslie Hale was among the first to be baptized. During the first revival session, Feb. 6, Hale was convicted of her need to come forward and declare her faith in Christ.
“It was like someone was pushing me forward that morning and I was obedient,” Hale said. “Once I came out of the baptismal waters, I felt completely clean. Seeing so many people baptized is something that is hard to describe, and I can’t wait to see what the Lord does with all of us who participated in baptism.”
PRAYED
Pritchard recognized that for the Holy Spirit to move, the congregation needed to enter focused times of prayer ahead of the revival meetings. During a 40-day period prior to the first revival service, more than 300 members participated in times of prayer and fasting. Pritchard also led the church in focused prayer moments during Sunday morning and Wednesday evening prayer services in January and February.
And, on the Wednesday evening before the revival, Adult Sunday School classes organized on-campus to hold “cottage prayer meetings.”
“We can do all the planning we want to do, and it can come to nothing,” Pritchard said. “So, we knew for us to have any type of success we had to be praying. Revival starts with church people and if you don’t have that then you can’t expect soul winning to take place.
“We put up the sails, but it was up to Him to make the wind blow,” he continued. “He honored the work, prayer and faithfulness of the church and brought a great victory. We are basking in the glow of what He did.”
REVIVED
Each night of the revival featured messages by evangelist Ronnie Hill of Fort Worth, Texas, and there was a dedicated focus: high attendance on Sunday for Bible study (888 attended, the most since before March 2020), student night on Monday, family night on Tuesday and steak night on Wednesday.
Pritchard said his members became more excited as each night passed and believes the best is yet to come for his faithful congregation.
“The revival was successful because it got our people praying, serving and inviting lost friends to church,” Pritchard said. “And it got our people excited about the Great Commission. The week of revival really was ‘the cherry on top’ because, while preparing for the revival, the Lord changed the hearts of our people, and that resulted in the renewal of our church. What a revival does to a church — it says ‘If God can do this, what’s next? What else can He do and what else can we try?’”
