Congregants from multiple churches turned out for nightly revival meetings May 4-8 at the Riverside Park Pavilion.
Brownwood’s A Breath of Praise Church hosted the revival, which drew about 150 people each night. Praise and worship bands from local churches provided music, and A Breath of Praise pastor Eric Jordan preached each night on the Old Testament book of Jonah.
In an interview Friday morning, as Jordan prepared his sermon for the revival’s final night, Jordan explained the reason for the revival.
“About four months ago, God began to really move up on my heart about a citywide revival, getting multiple churches involved, not just one body,” Jordan said. “It’s not just about one church. It’s about the body of Christ, uniting together and coming together to advance the kingdom of God.
“That’s what the Lord laid on my heart. Iit’s not just about our church. It’s about all the churches who wanted to be involved. So we got five churches involved, and each church represented a night, and you had a host church that would bring their church and their music team and sing. And each night has been fantastic. We’re averaging over 150 people a night.”
The churches that served as hosts, in addition to A Breath of Praise, were High Mesa Cowboy Chuch, Milton Avenue Baptist, NorthRidge Baptist and Greater Faith Community Church.
“We’ve had four baptisms,” Jordan said. “We actually took a baptismal pool out there to the park and baptized on site, and we’ve had dozens of people come up for prayer. When they’re coming up for prayer, they’re crying out to God, they’re repenting, they’re asking for healing and deliverance. So all the pastors would get up there, and we would be ready to pray,.
“We really represented what the body of Christ really looks like. We had white people, black people, Hispanic. We crossed denominational lines, whether you were Baptists or Methodists or whatever. Everybody was coming together. We put down all our differences and brought down all the walls, and what we did was praise and worship our God.”
When asked how he was able to prepare and deliver sermons five consecutive nights, Jordan said.
“It all depends on how the Lord delivers them to you. It’s not through our own effort. His Spirit actually guides you into what needs to be said and he begins to reveal to you some of the things that need to be talked about. And then by his Spirit, we begin to search the scripture and bring out.”
Jordan concluded by saying, “when the Lord laid on my heart to be the speaker, he gave me the book of Jonah. Jonah, as you know, is about God saving 120,000 people, saving a city in one day. And so that’s why I believe the Lord put on my heart with this citywide revival. We’re trying to reach the entire city.”
