Southern Tent Crusade Hits D.C.
WASHINGTON – Hailing from the Southern state of North Carolina, a traditional tent revival landed on the grounds of the National Mall over the weekend with a large plastered sign near the Washington Monument.
In large print, the words "Hope Ministries International Tent Crusade - Everyone Welcome" face Constitution Avenue, a street that carries heavy commuter and tourist traffic throughout the week. And under a large-pitched tent are some 1,000 seats that the ministry evangelist hopes to fill over the next five nights.
"Everybody is born a sinner," said evangelist Dave Kistler to an initial Sunday night crowd of over 300. You sin not because you commit a sin but because you are a sinner, he stressed.
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Sunday's evening service was the official start of H.O.P.E. Ministries International's DC Crusade. With virtually no advertising ahead of the crusade, news about the tent event did not reach far in the nation's capital. But beginning Monday, the crusade team and its more than 200 volunteers will hand out 60,000 DC Metro maps containing event information and pamphlets of the books of John and Romans with American troops pictured on front.
Meanwhile, under the tent, Kistler is telling people how to go to heaven, the Daybreak Quartet is singing Southern Gospel music acapella, and attendants are singing several hymnals including "I Stand Amazed in the Presence" to a piano played by Kistler's wife, Betsy.
The DC Crusade has the semblance of some of Billy Graham's first tent revivals and crusades from the mid-1900s. Kistler, who grew up Baptist, pointed out that H.O.P.E.'s crusades "piggy-back" Graham's.
While the Graham evangelistic events continue the traditional choir music, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has also adopted contemporary Christian music and feature popular Christian rock bands, appealing to more youth as well as adults, in its festivals around the world.
Hope Ministries prefers to take the "safer" route.
"If you go to one extreme or another, you lose a group that would volunteer or come," said David Carter, H.O.P.E.'s youth and outreach coordinator.
If the music was rock, some might not like it, Carter explained. "But this type of music, nobody would have a problem with it."
That also applies to the message and the volunteers. "People don't find it offensive," Carter noted.
On Monday, H.O.P.E. is featuring folk and patriotic music.
Carter doesn't believe sticking with tradition limits their reach. Tent revivals are still active in the American South and overseas. And many churches that take extremes limit their effectiveness to certain crowds, he noted.
"So many people come here (Washington) and want you to sign a petition," he said. "We come to offer encouragement."
"We love you and Jesus loves you," evangelist Kistler firmly stated to the crowd, particularly those who just came walking by.
"Opportunity has seasonal character," he emphasized. "This is your opportunity to be saved."
Otherwise, "you may not get another one," the evangelist said.
The June 10-15 DC Crusade is H.O.P.E. Ministries International's third tent crusade in the nation's capital since 2002. Hickory, N.C.-based H.O.P.E. is featuring two events each day, a music program at 1:30 p.m. and the crusade's main service at 7:30 p.m.
