Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509250091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ESTHER DISKIN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
``Revivalfest '95,'' which starts tonight under a tent with room for 5,000 people, will feature a different minister each night, including 77-year-old Oral Roberts, a pioneer in religious broadcasting, and Benny Hinn, who packs stadiums around the country with his flamboyant faith-healing services.
Robert Schuller, who broadcasts from the all-glass Crystal Cathedral in California, will speak at a Wednesday prayer breakfast.
The revival coincides with Virginia Beach's Neptune Festival, so CBN was able to get only 3,500 chairs to set up under its tent. People will be allowed to sit on the grass or bring lawn chairs, and an overflow area with a television monitor will be set up.
The revival marks the start of the network ministry's five-year campaign to bring the Gospel message to countries around the world through a combination of television broadcasting, films, distribution of videos and pamphlets, and door-to-door evangelizing. The network intends to expose 3 billion people to its material, hoping to attain 500 million converts to Christianity.
The campaign is timed for the year 2000, which Robertson said he considers a historic period for religious rebirth.
``There is a great spiritual hunger all over the world,'' Robertson said. ``It's unprecedented. There has never been anything, I don't believe, in the history of mankind to equal what we're seeing now.''
The revival is remarkable for the prominence and diversity of ministers it brings under one tent and is a sign of Robertson's centrality in American evangelism, according to scholars on religious broadcasting.
``It does reflect that he plays an important role,'' said Corwin Smidt, a professor of political science at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. ``There aren't many other people who would be able to do it.''
Others suggest that Robertson, who has faced some criticism for his heavy involvement in politics, may be seeking to modify his image. Robertson ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 and has been outspoken about his intent to influence the Republican Party through his grass-roots political organization, the Christian Coalition.
``I wonder if part of the motivation of this is to blunt criticism that he has abandoned evangelism for politics,'' said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Columbia University.
Revivals, often conducted in tents, are considered a kind of miraculous season in the Protestant tradition when vast numbers of people convert to Christianity or rededicate themselves spiritually.
Robertson said an important aspect of this revival is a demonstration of unity among churches and pastors whose worship styles are dramatically different. He said that in a time marked by worldwide signs of crisis - including wars, natural disasters and new diseases - religious people must come together in new partnerships.
``We don't have the leisure to fight any longer. We must come together in various types of alliances,'' he said.
The Hampton Roads churches participating in the revival, with religious messages and nightly choir music, exemplify some of that bridging of differences in religious practices.
Congregations like Rock Church in Virginia Beach and Bethel Temple in Hampton emphasize charismatic worship, such as a belief in sudden, miraculous healing through prayer and prophetic visions. Churches in the Southern Baptist Convention believe that these practices were part of Christianity shortly after Christ's death, but that they are not valid today.
All will join in the CBN revival. ``We hold that salvation comes by faith alone and that Christ was the incarnate son of God,'' said the Rev. Robert Reccord of First Baptist Church of Norfolk, who will speak along with Schuller at Wednesday's prayer breakfast.
``We need to focus on what we agree on and not nitpick on points we don't.''
by CNB