Revival?

Jay Adams, who is now blogging (at 80 years old, no less), offers the following perspective on revival:

Someone wrote in asking about revivals. I’ve never been involved in anything like a genuine, God-blessed revival—if you mean by that large numbers of the church coming alive to their faith in new, demonstrable ways. Such things happened in in this country in years past, the historians tell us. But in my time, I’ve never seen it.

However, I have seen individuals revived—getting on the ball, and doing things for Christ. I know of one church, for instance, where in a generation, forty men went into the ministry as the result of exegetical preaching. I have known people who have suddenly awakened and begun to serve Christ with new verve. But a revival? No. Haven’t seen one.

But why are we looking for a revival, anyway? Remember Elijah’s revival on Mt Carmel? It really had few lasting effects—that’s one reason he went sulking into the wilderness. Remember, God told him there were others who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal, and that He works mainly in quiet ways rather than in the thunder and the storm.

So, let’s be grateful for those here and there come alive and begin to do things for Christ—that is to say, for revivals in individuals, even if we don’t see them in the church at large. [emphasis mine]