Hey... one of you posted a comment on a blog from a few weeks back, and I did not "approve" it because I have not been here in a while. Sorry! Thanks for the comment, and I will try to address it in a while, if I can!
What I want to do today is give you another nugget from "Words to Winners of Souls," Robert Coleman's compilation of some words from Horatius Bonar.
"It is easier to speak and write about revival than to set about it. There is so much rubbish to be swept out; so many self-raised hindrances to be dealt with; so many old habits to be overcome; so much sloth and easy-mindedness to be contended with; so much ministerial routine to be broken through; and so much crucifixion, both of self and the world, to be undergone....
"So thought a minister of the 17th century; for after lamenting the evils both of his life and ministry, he thus resolves to set about their renewal:
1. In imitation of Christ and His apostles, and to get good done, I purpose to rise timely every morning
2. To prepare as soon as I am up some work to be done, and how that I do it, and to engage my heart in it, and in the evening to call myself to account, and to mourn over my failings
3. To spend a competent portion of every day in prayer, reading, meditating, spiritual exercises, morning, midday, and evening and before I go to bed.
4, Once a month either in the middle or the end of it, I keep a day of humiliation for the public condition, for the Lord's people and their sad condition, for the raising up of the work and the people of God
5. I spend, besides this, one day for my private condition in conflicting with spiritual evils, and to get my heart more holy, or to get some special exercise accomplished, once in six months
6. I spend every week, once, four hours, over and above my daily portion, in private prayer for some special causes relating to myself or others
7. To spend some time on Saturday, towards night, for preparation for the Sabath
8. To spend six or seven days together, once a year, when I have greatest convenience, wholly and only on spiritual accounts
Showing posts with label revival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revival. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Recasting Revival
I love getting the word out about the effort to start new Methodist churches in Kentucky. Part of doing that involves going to a venerable Methodist institution, The Charge Conference. Charge Conference is where a church ("charge") presents their leadership for the coming year and addresses basic concerns of the church. Most importantly, it is a time to get pumped up about the future. In recent history, we have started having multiple churches come together in "clusters" to save the time of going to each church. But I have found that when done well, it is a time for a whole bunch of Methodists to get together and be encouraged by the work and the potential.
Thursday night, I had the chance to speak to the Nicholas County Methodist churches, in Carlisle. I have a personal connection there, because I preached revival in the Rose Hill church and am friends with Rick Sowder at the Headquarters church. It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our DS Terry Reffett had regaled me with stories of some of the old pastors... who are still preaching! One of them I sat with, preaching 60 years! Terry said there would be weeks of revival, with the preachers "preaching their hearts out." I wonder what that would look like?
What if we had a revival and it kept going? Terry had a revival in the early 70s that ran for 17 days. Alfie Grubb, whom I buried this past summer, was converted at a revival that lasted 50+ days.
We often look back at revival and wonder why it doesn't happen so much now. There is a very simple reason, and it's not just that we are "less spiritual" than before. Much of it, I think, has to do with entertainment. What I mean is this: 50 years ago there was no cable or satellite tv. No internet. A revival had a social function in addition to its spiritual component. People were more willing to come because everybody had the same blocks of time available. That is simply not true today.
So on the one hand, we have to find ways to be "revived" in different ways than we did before.
More importantly, we may have to call it something else so we don't get sucked into doing it the same way we did before. Terry Reffett suggested to me that maybe it's called a "spiritual renewal weekend."
But I have to say, I would love to have some real fireball come in and preach and maybe think it was just a few days but it kept going weeks.
I told everyone at the meeting that Robert Coleman, author of Master Plan of Evangelism is going to come to Morehead and teach a seminar on "The Lifestyle of the Great Commission" on November 9. One of the old pastors remembered that Dr Coleman had preached a revival in Nicholas County, outside. There was a bar nearby and Coleman was tearing it up in the sermon and he was so loud and his voice was echoing off the rocks and folks in the bar came out to see what the commotion was.
Lord help us, we are so bland nowadays.
Thursday night, I had the chance to speak to the Nicholas County Methodist churches, in Carlisle. I have a personal connection there, because I preached revival in the Rose Hill church and am friends with Rick Sowder at the Headquarters church. It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our DS Terry Reffett had regaled me with stories of some of the old pastors... who are still preaching! One of them I sat with, preaching 60 years! Terry said there would be weeks of revival, with the preachers "preaching their hearts out." I wonder what that would look like?
What if we had a revival and it kept going? Terry had a revival in the early 70s that ran for 17 days. Alfie Grubb, whom I buried this past summer, was converted at a revival that lasted 50+ days.
We often look back at revival and wonder why it doesn't happen so much now. There is a very simple reason, and it's not just that we are "less spiritual" than before. Much of it, I think, has to do with entertainment. What I mean is this: 50 years ago there was no cable or satellite tv. No internet. A revival had a social function in addition to its spiritual component. People were more willing to come because everybody had the same blocks of time available. That is simply not true today.
So on the one hand, we have to find ways to be "revived" in different ways than we did before.
More importantly, we may have to call it something else so we don't get sucked into doing it the same way we did before. Terry Reffett suggested to me that maybe it's called a "spiritual renewal weekend."
But I have to say, I would love to have some real fireball come in and preach and maybe think it was just a few days but it kept going weeks.
I told everyone at the meeting that Robert Coleman, author of Master Plan of Evangelism is going to come to Morehead and teach a seminar on "The Lifestyle of the Great Commission" on November 9. One of the old pastors remembered that Dr Coleman had preached a revival in Nicholas County, outside. There was a bar nearby and Coleman was tearing it up in the sermon and he was so loud and his voice was echoing off the rocks and folks in the bar came out to see what the commotion was.
Lord help us, we are so bland nowadays.
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