MELBOURNE REVIVAL CROSSES DENOMINATIONAL/RACE/ECONOMIC LINES


On June 12, the NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RELIGION REPORT (vol. 9, No. 13, p. 3), reported that the revival services in Melbourne Florida were "still going strong." Fred reported at that time that "everybody is exhausted, but God is manifesting His presence every night--so we are reluctant to stop" (ibid). Pastors from many different denominations were continuing to join in worship, share testimonies, and pray for renewal at one another's churches. Between fifty and eighty pastors in the area were attending a weekly prayer meeting associated with the revival at First Baptist Church in nearby Satellite Beach, Fla.

By August of 1995, the Melbourne revival was receiving coverage in CHARISMA magazine, which reported, "Falling under the power of the Holy Spirit is not unusual to most charismatic Christians. But doing so alongside Presbyterians, United Methodists and Southern Baptists is. Yet it's a daily experience for many Christians in Melbourne, Fla., where an unexpected revival movement is unifying charismatics and noncharismatics, and their clergy. . . . More than 65,000 people now have attended the meetings. . . . Hundreds of people have publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ." (p. 18).

The October 1995 issue of RENEWAL (issue 223), a British Publication, carried an article on the Melbourne, Florida revival by Thomas, an author of Christian fiction who was touched by the revival in June. He wrote, "I was in Florida doing research for a new story, when the city's main paper ran a front- page story of remarkable goings-on at a local church. . . . The reporter was clearly not a believer, and yet this article described someone who had been deeply affected. . . . the meetings were continuing six nights a week, drawing a capacity crowed every evening." He found an "astonishing mixture" of white, black, Asiatic, Hispanic, and American Indian people, which "cut right across the borders of wealth, class, race, and religious BGCOLOR. . . . The sense of matter-of-fact calmness which had returned by heart upon arrival continued unabated throughout the five-hour service. . . . There were numerous declarations of miraculous healings. Well over a hundred people had by the end of the night been laid out flat by the moment's power. There was loud laughter, there was speaking in tongues, there was spontaneous singing" (pp. 18-20).