F.A.Q.-- What Is A Gospel Meeting? By J.S. Smith

I saw the sign beside the church building which said, “Gospel Meeting Tonight,” but what, pray tell, is a “Gospel Meeting”?

     Whenever gospel meeting season rolls around, Christians are given the opportunity to hear a guest speaker in their home congregation preach nightly for a few days or even a week. It is also a period in which the members are encouraged to invite friends, neighbors, acquaintances, relatives and strangers to come and hear the gospel. The church then is meeting for the purpose of the good news. Hence, it is a “gospel meeting.”
    The more popular phrase for similar events among denominations is “revival” and that phrase really is no more or less scripturally sound than “gospel meeting.” A periodic revival of zeal is precisely one of our ambitions in conducting a “gospel meeting.” Peter’s epistles were attempts at revival (2 Peter 1:13), as were those of Christ (Rev. 3:3) of Paul (2 Tim. 1:6). Certainly, however, we should take care not to confine our meetings for the gospel and attempts at revival to a couple of weeks in the spring and autumn.