Tent revival ‘beginning of something great,’ ‘unity among races’ in Butler

By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist

Something happened recently that Terry Long said is still reverberating through the county — something nobody will forget.

The Fire in the Field Crusade, held in a big tent just west of downtown Butler, was “the beginning of something great,” said Long, director of missions for Choctaw Baptist Association. “I don’t think we’ve yet seen the full fruit of it.”

But they have seen a good bit, he said — just shy of 1,000 people attended the event held over five nights Oct. 15–19.

The revival brought together churches across denominational and racial lines, and “God came and the glory of God fell on that tent,” Long said. Washington Baptist Association also partnered with them to run the event.

“It was a tremendous work of unity among the churches,” he said. “I’ve never seen so much unity among the races and the different denominations.”

For more than a year leading up to the event, pastors have gathered at 10 on Wednesday mornings to pray. They’ve moved the meeting around to cover all parts of the county.

“It was some of the best prayer meetings I’ve ever been in,” Long said, adding that they could see the effects of that prayer on the event. Ten new believers came forward to profess Christ at the crusade, and dozens of Christians “got revived,” he said.

Evangelist Frank Shelton of Washington preached at the crusade, and Shannon Knight, of Tuscaloosa, led worship. John Bush of Montgomery was the event coordinator.

They also led assemblies in local schools and saw around 100 students profess faith in Christ.