March 17, 2003
ANOTHER VIEW:
God still pours out revival blessings
___By Rex Clayton
___The thought of "revival" always makes me cringe. I have planned revival at every church where I have been pastor. I pray about the timing, the evangelist, the music evangelist. I pray that our people will be faithful to come and bring their lost friends. I pray I will have stamina for those days.
___When I have prayed and sought the face of God, I count down th
e days and fear my church and I will not experience revival. My chest gets heavy, tears well up and I hear my head say, "Don't assume upon the Lord." My heart fights my intellect and tells me, "God wants to bring revival every time."
___I have been in outpourings of revival that produced change in churches. I have been in meetings when we would have 20 to 30 lives changed. I have always thanked God for those people he has brought into his kingdom. But would God ever invite me to be a part of revival where it was scary-exciting? He has now!
___An article in the Baptist Standard about revival in Nocona inspired me. The church was about the same size as ours, and they experienced an event that shook their church. They had a huge numbe
| I have told myself through the years that revival was intended to wake up the church. Well, the church wakes up when lost people are being saved. |
r of spiritual decisions, and the pastor was scrambling to baptize, counsel and follow up.
___As I read, God led me to that evangelist. I felt God tell me I needed to get him to First Baptist Church of Everman, to this tame church, to set off an atomic spiritual bomb.
___We started on Sunday morning, and I baptized one person who had come through the ministry of our youth. I was pleased to start revival with a baptism. When God brings even one to baptism, I can take all the junk that comes in ministry.
___Monday night, I baptized two. Tuesday night, I baptized five. By Wednesday, the last night of revival, it was scary, because we had 39 who wanted to be baptized. We don't have enough baptism robes for 39. Where was our faith in that decision?
___We scheduled our evangelist for assembly time in the schools. At the elementary school, he talked with the kids about staying off drugs. He encouraged them to make sure their friends were the ones they could count on to help them and not harm them. He urged them to make education the focus if they want to succeed in the world today. At the end of the talk, he passed out so many pizza tickets that if they had all been redeemed we would have been feeding pizza for at least two days. The kids begged for more.
___I whisked him out to talk at the high school, which does not usually assemble all the students at once. Our youth minister introduced the evangelist, and he took control of the crowd and even talked down a few hecklers. The air was electric. At the end of the assembly, he had not only talked about keeping away from drugs, surrounding themselves with people to help them and making good grades; he passed out pizza tickets.
___On Monday night, we hosted 380 in our sanctuary. We have an average Sunday School attendance of 150. Our music evangelist played the guitar and sang praise songs, and the evangelist gave a straightforward gospel message.
___That night, we had 52 professions of faith, including 29 who wanted to be baptized and 12 who expressed a desire to join our church who were unchurched.
___Tuesday night, we had to set up chairs in the aisle, moved chairs out of the choir and set them across the front and still had a few who stood in the back. We had 24 professions of faith, including seven who wanted to be baptized and four who wanted to join the church who were unchurched.
___Wednesday night, we had 12 professions of faith, including five who wanted to be baptized and four who wanted to join the church.
___We also recorded nine who want to give their lives in full-time ministry.
___You tell me, did we have revival?
___I have told myself through the years that revival was intended to wake up the church. Well, the church wakes up when lost people are being saved. The first day of revival, we had little financial support. Tuesday, I used our "phone tree," providing our church a report on the blessings that were showering down. People started coming to the church office to provide funds for the revival. More people came to serve, and we received a shower from heaven that we didn't deserve but were so grateful to experience. We gathered more than $4,000 in one day.
___Our prayer was not enough, our planning was thin, our resources were stretched, but--hang it all--we got a revival.
___Let me encourage you to use the gift of the evangelist. Look for those who are harvesting and who will stretch you when they come. I was uncomfortable for days. I picked up pizza off the ground and got it under my fingernails. I watched as the members had soft drinks spilled on them and froze their fingers digging soda pop out of ice to give to waiting hands.
___Our work was translated by God into joy as we saw God moving. Thank God for revival and for letting me experience this in my life.
___Rex Clayton is pastor of First Baptist Church in Everman
___
The Baptist Standard
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
|