The Big Tent Revival Meeting

This past Sunday night I went to what was billed a "Big Tent Revival Meeting" at a local community church.  It lived up to the advertising.  It was a really big tent set up on the church grounds.  The singing was all about old gospel songs most folks knew by heart.  The preaching was strong and evangelistic. There were words of repentance spoken at the end of the service.  It was indeed a revival meeting.  Folks left looking forward to meeting the next night.   

After the service I walked up front to speak to the preacher and saw something I could not see from my lawn chair seat at the edge of the tent's canopy.  A big metal cow trough. It was like the ones I have for the cows on the farm.  It was big enough for use in the pasture and certainly big enough to use for baptisms which was why it was up front full of water.  One person had been baptized at the morning service and the preacher was expecting more to come.  I imagine their expectations of more baptisms will become reality.  

I remember one Sunday long years ago when someone came forward unexpectedly for baptism at the end of a service and the baptismal font was empty.  We had to wait for someone to go get some water.  After that embarrassing moment, I made sure of two things.  I made sure the baptismal font was in a very visible and prominent place for everyone to see and I made sure it always had water in it.  In too many of our Methodist churches the baptismal font is all but hidden in a corner and empty of water.  My Baptist friend at the "Big Tent Revival" modeled greater expectations than is usually seen in most Methodist Churches.  Just maybe the cow trough is speaking a message about expectations to the church.  It would be a good thing to listen.