ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609130088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: DIANE TENNANT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
NOTE: Below
Like moths to a flame, the faithful have been flocking this year to a huge tent on Centerville Turnpike to seek salvation.
Pitched next to the television studios of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, the humble tent has taught an interesting lesson: High-tech can't hold a candle to the drawing power of an old-fashioned tent revival.
The network ministry's tent has drawn crowds of up to 8,000 people for preaching and music during the past year, and organizers of next weekend's RevivalFest hope the trend will continue.
``This tent has been an amazing experience,'' said Norman Mintle, vice president of ministry events at CBN. ``We never had less than 3,000 people a night.''
The white tent, with its folding chairs and gravel floor, is a throwback to the sawdust trail, where hellfire-invoking preachers raised spirits and saved souls earlier in the century. CBN has discovered it works just as well near the end of the millennium.
``It's a radical departure from the TV thing,'' Mintle said. ``Television, as powerful a medium as it is, it's vicarious. It's not a be there, see it, feel it, touch it.''
The tent was erected last fall for CBN's first RevivalFest, a weeklong series of sermons and music. It was so popular that the tent remained for the rest of the year, and a second RevivalFest was planned.
The revival is part of the network ministry's five-year campaign to spread the Gospel message in the hopes of attaining 500 million converts to Christianity. The campaign is timed for the year 2000, which Robertson has said he considers a historic period for religious rebirth.
Evening speakers for this year's event, which begins Friday, include T.D. Jakes, Larry Lea, Carlton Pearson, Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts and, of course, Pat Robertson.
Morning speakers are Kay Arthur, Kent and Candy Christmas, Cindy Jacobs, Sid Roth and ``Love Boat'' captain Gavin MacLeod and his wife, Patti.
The tent will also host the American premiere of the musical ``Shalom Jerusalem'' and a daylong YouthFest featuring Ron Luce and the band DC Talk.
Local church choirs and pastors will participate, and that has been a focal point of the tent ministry during the past year.
``We wanted to create an atmosphere where churches from Tidewater could come in a nondenominational setting,'' Mintle said.
``We wanted to be a unifying factor for Tidewater. It's really turned out to be very successful from that goal.''
Success is no stranger to CBN. The ``700 Club,'' which originates from the enormous brick building near the tent, reaches 1 million households a day in the United States, Mintle said, and is aired in about 60 countries.
A recent show found an audience of about 40 people seated in a cold, dark studio, watching makeup artists scurry around patting down shiny noses and errant hairs before the lights came up behind the set. The guest hosts for the show, Scott Ross and Gordon Robertson, interviewed supermodel Kim Alexis before a backdrop of an anonymous skyline, artificially lit with the colors of sunset.
Mintle was also a guest on that show, telling viewers about the tent. ``This is a new thing that God is doing,'' he said. ``The tent is a huge part of what God is doing at CBN these days.''
This past Tuesday's tent service with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, was all natural, from the breeze to the twilight sky to the soft whispers of ``Amen'' and ``Hallelujah'' in the crowd.
Although the tent was taken down while Hurricane Fran passed by, it should be back in place Friday.
``The tent can look spectacular but it's warm; there's no air conditioning,'' Mintle said. ``The reality for people is, `I'm in a folding chair sitting in a tent.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Richard L. Dunston/Landmark News Service. Guest speakerby CNBJerry Falwell addresses an audience under the CBN ministry tent.
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