Revival Preaching

So a colleague had one of his members call a month ago with the request/order that I had to preach their church's revival. At the time it was a while off. I said I'd be glad to do it.
Then time passed, and Sunday night will bring the beginning service. And I'm not so glad I'll be doing it.
I mean no disrespect to my colleague, his revival chairperson, or their congregation. I just puzzle over the revival's place in our world.
I don't even know how these worship series came to be named such a thing. Words have to matter to someone in my line of work, or at least, they should matter greatly. And one does not require much familiarity with language to understand that "revival" refers to a rekindling or renewing of life.
In many communities, or lack of communities, people would come from great distances, gather for days or weeks at a time, eat, dance, worship and whatever else all together. Those pioneering souls could go some time without a member of the clergy passing by, or a neighbor, or any face that was outside the family. So the camp meetings/revivals were special times spiritually, but also socially.
And they became times when conversions were expected to happen. New life was to be sought, often by hard-headed children of the families involved, but also by community drunks and other sorts of reprobates.
But these days, the only people who show up for revival services are the same ones who show up for Sunday evening worship: the ones who could be leading the thing themselves. OK, there is the "we all need..." dogma to acknowledge, but the folks I will be facing Sunday night through Wednesday night will be the finest, most devoted participants in their church.
What in the world am I going to "Re-" with them? And why would I aim for evangelism with this group that is already so firmly entrenched in the faith?
You who know me well know that I don't do well in the realm of "Since this is what's always expected and done, we'll just ignore reality and keep the fantasy in place." Not my best thing! And I won't do it in the coming week, either.
So, we will lay aside the fantasy of wailers from the Mourners' Bench wending their way to the altar, convicted by the overwhelmingly powerful preaching brought to bear by the visiting Evangelist. We will, indeed, shoot for revival. I continue to struggle with aspects of my own faith, and will, as always, work out of that. It seems to resonate.
I believe that I have been more changed by the revivals that I have preached than anyone who was parked in the pews. That's no insult to those faithful people. It's probably a confession about where I've stood on my journey, compared to where others have been positioned on theirs. But it is one of those odd Southern phenomena, to be paid something to show up at someone else's church, fill someone else's pulpit and work on my own faith.
I do hope that someone else will get a little work done next week, too.