While I was in England, as I've mentioned before in this blog, I had been gaining more and more of a sense of urgency. Something needs to happen in Sullivan - I don't know what that looks like other than it needing to be led by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. When I come back to the mayor's office the next Tuesday morning, no longer were they talking about this revival through Revive Indiana being 8 months away - they were already going through logistics and how to pull this revival off in 2 months! While I was gone, feeling the Spirit tugging on me, the pastors back here in Indiana were feeling this same push!
I stop and I think about what John Wesley did for the church: he organized and executed a revival, yet he didn't do it alone. The Spirit was working through him, his brother, their classmates, friends and acquaintances. Often times when we talk about the Methodist movement, it often times sounds like John Wesley gets all of the credit and he did it all by his lonesome - and that couldn't be further from the truth.
There are many things which I am impressed by concerning this upcoming revival. For one thing, it is all of these different churches which are coming together as the Body of Christ. Sure, we might not all agree on every doctrine, but we recognize that the main and unifying point of Christianity is our relationship with Jesus Christ - that we are all called to grow closer to God through His Son. As long as we keep our eyes on that truth then we're golden!
The other amazing thing to me about this is that the Spirit literally knows no bounds, either spatial or chronological. God was working on my heart while I was in Salisbury, England while He was working on the hearts and minds of the pastors back home, 5 time zones away. Even though there is a part of me that wants to throw up my hands in exasperation at the lunacy of pulling off an event this big in 2 months, I find myself at peace, trusting that no matter what happens, God will use this for His glory. Good will come out of it - and my part of this process is to trust and obey.
So here I am, in the midst of sermon planning and writing, studying, visiting parishioners and trying to get ready for the Fruitful Congregation Journey which will help lead Sullivan First UMC into being a more fruitful and vibrant congregation (a revival in and of itself), at the same time, I am actively promoting and helping to get this ecumenical event off the ground. All I can say is that I am incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to be a part of something like this alongside some truly wonderful and gifted people from the various churches in this city.
If you want to learn more about Revive Sullivan, you can check out our Facebook page (just search for "Revive Sullivan"). I am going to be looking into a website and likely building that if Revive Indiana (who we are doing this revival under) does not already supply us with one.
Prayers, please, for the community of Sullivan. May this city come to know the grace of God as it is actively working in all of our lives, and may the Spirit cut through the attitude of apathy which Sullivan has taken on. May we all come to understand that we are loved and valued children of the Most High God!