The last penny came off the press yesterday. Pennies started being made in 1793. Back then a penny bought a biscuit, a candle, or some candy. Today, it costs about four cents to make a penny. I wasn’t a math major but it seems that if it costs four times the amount to make a penny than what it is worth, it quite literally is not a money making venture. The penny had to die. It didn’t make financial sense to make cents. 

I wonder if there are things that have lost their value in the church? Do we do things that no longer make sense, but cost cents (sometimes a lot more than cents)? Every church that I have been a part of has had a few sacred cows hanging around that probably could have been let out to pasture years ago. Sometimes we do things that don’t necessarily cost cents, but still have no value and should be buried.

The opposite is also true, there might be things that have immense value that we have let go by the wayside because the bottom line. For example, I wonder if spiritual renewal weeks (revival services) fall into this category. A yearly (even semi-annually) revival meetings were common place fifty years ago. Today, most churches no longer have them. The unsaved have other things to do. School activities take out many students and parents from evening services. Other busyness invades our time. The seasoned saints felt they no longer needed such gatherings. Attendance dropped. It grew costly. There are better ways to spend money. I’ve heard all the arguments. Churches don’t see the value in the special services. It’s like the penny. They cost more than they are worth.

But is that true? Revival/spiritual renewal services still can have immense value. In fact, it makes no spiritual sense to call them off. No matter the cost. 

Our spiritual renewal services are preceded by a 24/7 prayer week. We are convinced spiritual renewal should be bathed in prayer. There are three people in the building (two hosts and one pray-er) for every hour from Sunday to Sunday. Next, from Sunday to Wednesday, we have special services. We provide a free meal before the weekday meetings. We start early (5:30 meal; 6:30 service) so young families can still attend. We provide children’s services (it’s not babysitting. It’s age appropriate children’s worship). We do our best to allow our “regular” worship leaders and pastors to have the services off—so that they can receive the blessing of spiritual renewal (maybe those leading need spiritual renewal the most. We don’t want our leaders to have the well run dry). We bring in excellent speakers. It’s an important rhythm of our church. We ask folks to prioritize the gatherings. We remind them that we all need it. Pastors included. Hitting pause on our busy schedules and settling to hear what the Lord has for us has immense value. It’s not like the penny.

What’s the value in one person saved? One marriage renewed? One teenager called in to the ministry? One person healed? One discouraged saint reinvigorated? The penny might not be worth the time and effort to make them anymore. The same cannot be said for times of spiritual renewal.