After Taste of Revival

Well our 3 day mini revival was concluded last night at Bryromville Baptist Church and all I can say is wow. This was brother Myke Harbuck's first revival meeting and you never would have known it. He did a great job! His messages were straight to the point and they hit you right in the face. I would say they were short but brother Myke wasn't telling a lie when he said he was good for at least an hour of preaching. But now that the meetings are over I can't help but wonder how my people are feeling. What taste was left in their mouth after the faithful preaching of God's Word?

I'm praying that what usually happens after a revival meeting will not happen in Byromville. Most of the time we do anything we can to get the taste of revival out of our mouths so we can get back to life as usual. I keep using the word taste because the type of preaching we just heard is bitter-sweet. It's difficult to take and hear at first but it produces good things like repentance and change. True revival is the recognition of God's people that they are far from Him and that they need to return; this means giving up some things and making some changes in life. Most Baptist I know don't like to do those things. But we must change, we must press on towards maturity and excellence otherwise our churches will die.

I think A.W. Tozer said it best. He said that a church is in one of only three places. "They are in rut, rot or revival." I'm tired of the rut religious activity and playing church. I'm certainly sick of the people of God rotting away because they never use any of their spiritual muscles. I'm praying for a God-sent revival in my life and my church. You know not one person made a profession of faith at our meeting. There where not very many who made their way to the altar. But I don't consider what happened to be a failure. Revival happens on God's time; not ours. He will do something in Byromville when the people respond to Him in the proper manner. As long as we are seeking revival we won't find ourselves in on of the other two places; rut or rot.

Robo-Church

You know we didn't need Tom Rainer to write Simple Church in order to reveal to us that the way we do church is too complicated. All we need to do is read the book of Acts and make a comparison. The church in Acts was simple in its approach. It was birthed and then it began to grow. The early Church was concerned about discipleship and evangelism. They came together to worship, pray and read the word then they went out and shared the Gospel and God added to their number. By every numerical and logistical standard the church in Acts was successful. What went wrong? This is the million dollar question that we find ourselves asking.

I have a theory. I think we have lost sight of the reality that the church is a living breathing organism. It is not something that can be manufactured then reproduced but something that is born from the life change that Jesus Christ brings to a lost world. Today people seem to be building their church; putting it together with programs, doctrines of men, money and the political and personal propaganda of various members. Like the Bionic man or Frankenstein we are trying to force our churches to look the way be want them instead of being obedient and letting them grow naturally into what God wants them to be. We are trying to build a Robo-Church; a super elite creation of man built in his image. No wonder whole communities are lost and headed for hell! No wonder we never experience true revival!

I have personally felt the conviction that I need to boil my life and my ministry down to the essentials; growing closer to Christ (Discipleship) and sharing the Gospel (evangelsim). The more I read, study and preach through the book of Acts the more and more I have a desire to be like the early New Testament church. Im tired of Robo-Church I want a living growing church.

What really matters

Tonight's service was an interesting one. I finished up a sermon series from Isaiah 6:1-10 tonight on the "Three Realities of Revival". I desperately want to see true biblical revival in my church; not just a pep-rally for Jesus. The theme of tonight's message was evangelism. Isaiah saw the need to go and speak the truth of God. He realized he came from a generation of "unclean lips". I simply shared with my church that if we can not be serious about evangelism then how could we say we are serious about Christ. Then as I was preaching a thought occurred to me.

What's the one thing we won't do at all in Heaven? Some think it's cry but the Bible speaks of God wipping our tears away so there will some crying. The answer is evangelism. If this is the one thing we will not be doing in Heaven then shouldn't it be the one thing that consumes us now. I used the quote from Wesely that is located at the top of this page. I think it says it all. Why are we not sharing our faith all the time?

What are they looking for?

I heard something very interesting on the radio yesterday. According to some recent research from Lifeway when looking for a church to attend the unchurched gravitate more towards churches with a traditional look. The guy on the radio said the same thing I was thinking; "that seems odd." All of the gurus out there paint a picture of the unchurched as being people seeking after the new or the modern. As a result more and more churches are meeting in places that don't look like churches. More and more gimmicks and or methods are being used to "draw" in the unchurched. Yet Lifeway's research shows they are attracted to the older buildings. The reason given my the radio personality was a connection to the past. Unchurched people like the older, gothic style churches because those buildings make them feel a connection to the past.

This totally reinforced my vision as a pastor. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We simply need to do the old things with more passion and zeal. We don't need to build the "me church" where everything is about pleasing self and gratifying self. We can build upon the foundation of the past and use that to reach people for Christ.

Through Cooper's Eyes

My daughter constantly amazes me! She is so full of personality and joy. Even when I have a bad or a long day Cooper just makes me smile. We just put a swing up in our back yard for her. She absolutely loved it. At first she didn't know what to think about it but the more I pushed the more fun she had. The great thing about watching her is that the whole world is new to her. Some of the most average and typical things are new and exiting for Cooper. She just loves life to say the least. Everything is an adventure to her. I wish I was more like her. There are things I dread and don't look forward to. But what is everything was an adventure? What if I viewed life the way Cooper does; as something exciting and new?

I just thank God for my baby girl. Its hard to remember what life was like before she came along.

Church Makeover

The more I read and preach through the book of Acts the more I am convinced that the church of today needs a face lift. We are so far from the Church we read about in Acts. The average Sunday morning "worship service" is a religious service at best. We sit, we stand, we sit, we pray, we give, we listen, then we leave. Everything has become so ridged and stiff. Its a one hour pep rally at best. I am ready for revival! I'm ready to see the power of God rain down upon His people as opposed to the trickle of spirituality that we get on the average Sunday.

I know there are people out there that feel the same way. As a matter of fact a friend of mine who is also a young pastor feel the same way I do. We don't necessarily want whats new; we want what is biblical. My friend lives in Tampa Florida and he sent me a wonderful video, filmed in Tampa with real people who are in their 20's. I've put a link to this video at the end of this blog. I hope you will watch it and be encouraged. Maybe this is the beginning of a revolution!

#links

Baptist Are Fat

"Baptist are fat." That was a statement that a minister friend of mine made over a year ago. I wan't quite sure what he meant by that back then but I think Im starting to understand it now. You see today's church is filled with a generation of consumers. They consume most of the time, energy and resources of the church leaving very little for the weaker brethren or the outside world. Basically we take and take and take but we give little. No wonder the average church feels so dried up and empty!

Ive been preaching verse by verse through the book of Acts and the more I read and preach the more I am convinced that today's church is far from the church in Acts. The early church was a generation of givers. They shared everything and held nothing back.

Im tired of being fat. I want to give instead of take. I want to be like the church in Acts.

Atheist Day

Today is April Fools Day if you are in to that kind of thing. I personally like a bumper sticker I saw one time that said, "April 1st...National Atheist Day." The phrase was followed by Psalm 14:1 which says, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." I happen to agree with that bumper sticker; only a fool would say there is no God.

You see I know that God exists; I saw proof of that Sunday afternoon. Mary Kathryn and I had finished lunch, put on our comfortable clothes, and had planted ourselves in the living room to watch TV. However, my plans were brought to a halt by a phone call. One of my church members had just died of a sudden heart attack in the middle of his living room with his wife and several daughters present. When I got to the house his body was still lying on the floor. This was only the second time in my life I had been near a body before it was taken to the funeral home.

You would expect mas hysteria, crying and even some shouting but the room had a peace about it. There were a few tears but not as many as you might assume. His wife was calm and very collected and his girls had a peace about them that is hard to put into words. Then the wife spoke to me and said, "That's not him...he is in a much better place." Now many times when you hear that phrase it is a cliche but you could tell this woman meant every word of it. Her husband of many years was gone from this world and was in the presence of God.

My faith was greatly encouraged that day. The power of God had gone before me and made my job much easier. Our Lord had provided that peace which surpasses all understanding. I wish every Atheist I know could have been there with me that day. I think they would have been hard pressed to say there is no God.