What would revival look like in America?

I listened to a great message by Voddie Baucham recently which he preached at the Founders Fellowship Breakfast at the Southern Baptist Convention. In it, he talked about what revival would look like and what it would not look like if it oocurred in our churches across America. Ask most people about revival and they say it involves full church buildings filled weekly with passion and excitement. However, all of these things are true of a typical football game. Yet, we wouldn't call that revival. Voddie's message got me re-thinking about revival. I began to consider the possibility that revival would initially result in a decline in our churches across the SBC.

Initially...

1. SBC denominational numers would plummet because we'd eliminate the millions of so-called "members" who couldn't be found by the FBI.
2. We might practice church discipline, causing our numbers to decline even further.
3. In some churches, revival would result in the whole counsel of the Word of God being taught, including the parts that are not popular. Preaching would be more than a self help pep talk. Those who come to hear those pep talks would leave and our numbers would decline even further.
4. Worship would become something more than a weekly concert that precedes weekly theater. This would result in the entertainment seekers leaving and thus, our numbers would decline even further.

But in the long run...

1. We’d be filled with new power and victory to live the Christian life. The world would see our walk matching our talk and it would be convicted.
2. Homes would be restored as men, women and children fulfill their Biblical roles.
3. Evangelism would come naturally to our people. You wouldn’t need to take a class to tell someone about Jesus.
4. The Sunday night attendance might rival the Sunday morning attendance, even when “just another sermon” is on the schedule.
5. Our denomination would have no problem sending out those 2,800 missionaries they’ve been praying for. They’d be flooded with prospects offering to serve and the churches would send all the money they needed since everyone would be tithing!
6. Teenagers wouldn’t abandon the faith as soon as they leave for college because they would be trained by Godly Dads and Moms who take the initiative to teach their children the Word of God. Thus we'd stop losing the next generation to the world.

I think you could argue that short term loss would probably result if revival took place, but long term growth would then follow. Feel free to share your thoughts on this matter and be sure to check out the above sermon if you have time. Either way, "Lord, send a revival!"