Revival Under John the Baptist

Revival Under John the Baptist

Just prior to Jesus' public ministry there was a sweeping religious revival in Judea with John the Baptist as main person. John himself, as we shall see was a special case so we should not expect to see his likes in our time, but there may still be lessons in what happened then that we can learn from.

John was the fulfillment of prophecies made more than 500 years before his birth. Jesus attested to this: “… a prophet? Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: 'I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare the way before you' [Mal.3.1]” (Luke 7.26,27) and the Gospels bring in another prophecy: “He went around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. 'A voice of one crying in the desert, “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filed in, every mountain and hill made low. The crocked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation”' [Isaiah 40.3-5]” (Luke 3.3ff).

His birth was doubly miraculous: It was announced to his father by the Archangel Gabriel and it involved an elderly previously barren woman becoming pregnant! Gabriel's message was: “ … he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel he will bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go before the Lord in the power of Elijah ...”

After his birth his father gave an oracle which included both these themes after the vital part that God's salvation was about to dawn in the person of Jesus: “Praise be to the Lord the God of Israel, because he has come and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ...” (Note: Jesus was, but John was not of the line of David) “And you my child will be called a prophet of the most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him. To give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins ...”

So John was no ordinary evangelist and this was no ordinary revival, it was to prepare the way for Jesus ministry among the people. None the less it was a revival and we see again the key element which marked the earlier prophets.

The immediate purpose was to bring the people back to God by them coming to repentance so that they could receive knowledge of God's salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. This is an important and succinct statement of God's purposes for humankind! It is then in Jesus that we learn what it cost God to make this forgiveness available.

John's message was as blunt as any of the prophets before him: “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance … a man who has two shirts should share with him who has none …” (to tax farmers) “Don't collect any more than you are required to” (to soldiers) “No bullying, no blackmail: make do with your pay” His message is also easily recognisable as in harmony with all the Old Testament prophets.

His reception among the people however was much better than his predecessors. “And so John came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins they were baptised in the Jordan River.”

His reception among the religious leaders was in stark contrast. We see this illustrated in an exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders when they questioned his authority and he asked them about John's authority: “John's authority, was it from heaven or from man?” They discussed among themselves: “If we say 'from heaven' he will ask 'why didn't you believe him' But if we say 'from men' the people will stone us because they are persuaded that John was a prophet” (Luke 20) The saddest part of this, besides the fact that the religious leaders had not believed John was that they did not care whether his message was from God or not. Earlier Luke comments: “the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptised by John.” (Luke7.20)

Lessons I think we can safely apply to our times are these:

a) John, like the prophets, was sent by God: this revival did not spring from any human plan or desire.

b) John's message, like the prophets before him, was: “repent and receive God's forgiveness, and show it in your new lives.”

c) John operated outside the religious institution, and indeed the established religious leaders rejected his message.

Revivals in Israel Pt 1

Revivals in Ancient Israel (922 to 732 BC) Pt 1

The “ten tribes” which rebelled against Rehoboam formed the northern kingdom of “Israel” from then on to its demise at the hands of the Assyrians in 732 BC.

Humanly the rebellion was caused by Rehoboam's lack of diplomacy and care for his subjects. Divinely it was foretold and caused by God in response to Solomon abandoning God in his old age.

Jeroboam (king 922-901) had been approached by the prophet Ahijah who said “This is what the Lord says: 'I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's had and give you ten tribes … you will be king over Israel' ”. Sadly, after the successful rebellion Jeroboam did not trust God to maintain him in power but made his own holy places at each end of the kingdom (Dan and Bethel) complete with golden calves and his own brand of priests (not Levites as God had decreed). 

 

I will skip over the next five kings of Israel, because they all followed the same pattern. Most took over the throne by force and killed all the males related to the former king. All of them did further evil in God's sight by worshipping idols. A prophet would tell them that God was about to strike them for all the evil they had done but they did not repent and then disaster befell them.

This brings us to Ahab, who succeeded his father Omri as king. He married Jezebel who was a devotee of Baal, and between them they made Baal and Ashera worship the state religion and tried to exterminate Yahwism. Onto this stage steps the prophet Elijah.

Elijah throws down the gauntlet by declaring that, although they claim their idols control the weather there will, as a demonstration of Yahweh's power, there will be no rain until he says so.

There follows a delightful account (1 Kings 17 & 18) of the cat and mouse game: Ahab trying to capture Elijah but God hiding and miraculously feeding him. In the midst of this we learn that there has been an “underground church” in Israel. We encounter one Obadiah, a high official who still worships God and who has hidden away 100 prophets of God and supplied them with food and water.

Then comes the big contest. Elijah challenges the Baalists through Ahab to meet him on Mount Carmel before all the Israelites. 

The prophets of Baal dance all morning around the altar they have built to no avail. At the time of evening sacrifice Elijah says a short prayer and fire falls from heaven and consumes the offering on his altar. After such a demonstration the Israelites declare their allegiance to God and dispose of the prophets of Baal. Then the rains come.

In this revival of true religion, God defeats the ruthless power of the state with a miraculous demonstration of his superior power. 

 

After this, God delivers Israel twice from attacks by vastly superior forces. Even after the judicial murder of Naboth, God's sentence on Ahab is postponed because Ahab humbles himself before God.

Elisha succeeds Elijah as prophet and his ministry too is studded with spectacular miracles. The king, Ahab's son goes in awe of Elisha, and is delivered from attacks by the neighbouring Arameans, but Jezebel is still alive and we see later that while there are companies of God's prophets, there are also many belonging to Baal. I am only guessing, but this could be the reason God works so many spectacular miracles at this time.

A lesson for today I would Take from this is: God can, but infrequently does, miracles. I say this because there has on one hand been a “signs and wonders” movement that expected miracles at every turn, but on the other hand in mainline churches a lack of belief in let alone expectation of miracles. In the Bible they do happen but they are pretty rare: mostly grouped around Elijah and Elisha, then Jesus and the early Apostles. Apart from that they are sprinkled as authentications of prophecies (as for Hezekiah) and as military deliverances – although there are certainly a large number of those! As Jesus said: “In the time of Elisha the prophet no one in Israel was cleansed of leprosy, only Naaman the Syrian” 

 

My advice is: Pray for miracles, because when the situation warrants it God is more than capable of doing them: but do not expect them just whenever you think they might be useful. 

 

Next an army commander, Jehu is anointed king by one of the prophets at God's command. I am personally confused about what follows. Jehu deliberately carries out God's sentence on Ahab that all his descendants would be killed. He also disposes of Jezebel. He kills all the prophets and ministers of Baal, and purges the leading men of the country. The Bible commends him for carrying out God's sentence, but historically his purge of all the leaders weakens Israel economically for some generations. Perhaps I am wrong, but I would take two opposing lessons from this:

1) God takes the perverting of true religion really, really seriously – so that a complete purge is worth the consequent problems …. but …

2) To convert and be able to retain the leaders, influential people and intelligentsia is better still.

As God predicted, Jehu's descendants to the fourth generation are kings, thereafter they change by assassinations and coups. They do not institute religious revival. Although some like Jehoash revered the prophet Elisha, indeed he referred to him as “the chariots and horsemen of Israel”. Some, like Jeroboam II had economic prosperity, some were oppressed by Aram, and finally Hoshea by turning traitor against his Assyrian overlord caused all Israel to be deported and scattered over the Assyrian empire. 

 

So unlike Judah in the South, kings were rarely the motivators of revival in Israel.

 

We have looked at Elijah and Elisha, next I want to see what effect some of the later prophets sent to the North had.

One Thing That Can Trigger Revival

One Thing that Can Trigger Revivals

In Judges (and 1 Samuel 7) we have statements that there were revivals of true religion after times of apostasy.

A theme that occurs over and over again runs like this: “Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord and he gave them over to ----- for ---- years. When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of their distress he sent them --- who delivered them.”

Several times the stress is on God's compassion for them and there is no mention of him waiting for revival of religion – apart from appealing to him for help — before he acts. In others there is either the demand to, or the stated fact that they did, put away their false gods and return wholeheartedly to him.

There are two examples in particular that I think repay closer inspection.

The first is that of Gideon.

In Sunday School we tended to focus on the episodes of “Gideon's fleece”; the choosing only the 300 warriors who didn't kneel down to drink; and the exciting bit of smashing the pitchers, holding up flaring torches, blowing trumpets, shouting “for the Lord and for Gideon” and standing there while the confused Midianites killed each other. For our purposes I want to pass over those.

In Judges 6 we have the familiar “again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord”. This time “and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” Then after a brief account of their privations under this incessant raiding: “When the Israelites cried out to the Lord he sent them a prophet ...” So God's first response on this occasion was to call the nation to repentance, for the prophet's message was: “This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: I brought you up out Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you 'I am the Lord your God, do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me”.

So in answer to their cry for help there was a reminder of God's gracious dealings with them in the past and their ingratitude and disobedience. Interestingly there is no mention of their response to this call to repentance at this stage, rather the narrative continues with God beginning to rescue them.

Gideon is told he is God's chosen leader for this purpose. Like many others in this position he demurs at first but when God demonstrates his presence, Gideon accepts his commission. Now we come to an interesting bit. What is the first task God sets Gideon? (can you remember without looking it up)

Gideon's first assignment is to tear down the local pagan shrine and offer a bull as a burnt offering to the real God.

This may sound simple: it was not!

Gideon sensibly did it at night, and even so, when the fact was discovered the men of the town demanded Gideon be put to death. 

 

So the populace could not have listened to the prophet sent to them if their attachment to the cult of Baal and Asherah were still so strong that they wanted to Kill Gideon for challenging it. Nevertheless God proceeds to rescue these ingrates! But I think it is really significant that his chosen leader has to thus demonstrate his loyalty to God.

Coming forward to the present day, how would any of us even in a society where we at least won't be killed fare in standing up against false “gods” that have been intertwined in our culture? I offer this challenge because I have faced it myself! Yes, I chose loyalty to God and no I wasn't killed, but on the other hand I was not rescued as Gideon was by his father's edict: “Whoever fights for Baal will be put to death by morning” instead I paid – only in human terms of course – a price for my loyalty. Of course I don't regret it for a moment! (well not many moments anyway), as Paul said anything we suffer now is nothing in comparison to the glory which awaits us in heaven. But I have mentioned this as a warning that being part of a revival will not be all fun and games!

The second example is in the preface to the account of Jephthah in Judges 10.

The usual start “again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the philistines”. The Israelites certainly seem to have outdone themselves in disobeying and forsaking God this time! Then: “ he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites who that year crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed them.”

Once again when their suffering brought them to their senses “the Israelites cried out to the Lord 'We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals'.”

This looks like repentance, but this time God is tough on them : “The Lord replied 'When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods so I will no longer save you. Go cry out to to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are I trouble!”

This is a lesson which is repeated and expanded on through the Bible. For instance the N.E.B. translates Rom. 2,4 as “Or do you think lightly of his wealth of kindness, of tolerance and of patience, without recognising that God's kindness is meant to lead you to a change of heart?” 

 

In this case they had thought lightly of God's kindness so he resorts to toughness which fortunately for them does lead the people to a real change of heart: “But the Israelites said to the Lord 'we have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.' Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.” And God does rescue them.

So at least one thing that can trigger revival is when suffering as a result of abandoning God brings people sufficiently to their senses that they ask God for help.

 

Perhaps that is like a group version of the “Prodigal Son” who only comes to his senses when he is starving and finds forgiveness and reconciliation when he takes the road back to his father. We may see further instances of this particular cause of revival, and find others as we proceed.

Spiritual Boom and Bust Cycle

Spiritual Boom and Bust Cycle

This seems to be a major theme of the book of the Bible called “Judges”. 

 

I said earlier that we had to be careful applying things that God did with ancient Israel to modern entities because Israel had a unique relationship with God. However in this 'boom and bust' cycle it is human nature that is in question and so we should still be able to learn valid lessons. Also God's mercy and kindness even when his covenant people flagrantly broke the covenant and brought on themselves the dire consequences this involved is something we can take great comfort in.

As readers may be aware, mostly these “judges” were not judges in the legal sense. They were national leaders raised up by God in times of emergency to rouse Israel to fight and defeat enemies who were oppressing them. With two notable exceptions: Deborah, a prophet, seems to have been a law-court type of judge. On God's orders she appointed a military leader to throw off Canaanite domination. Samuel was another law-court judge doing yearly circuits of Israel. When the neighbouring Philistines attacked the Israelites gathered at Mizpah, Samuel did not lead the army but prayed and in response God threw the Philistines into such panic that they fled from the Israelites.

I think it will be best to describe this cycle in the Bible's own words from Judges Ch 2.

6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. …….

1  After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands.18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

So the pattern seemed to go like this: God rescues them and they stay faithful for a while, then the next generation ditches God in favour of attractive human-invented “gods”. God leaves them to the consequences … eventually they cry out to him, he rescues them and so the cycle starts over.

It seems to me that this (and the continuing occurrences through the Old Testament) tell us something about human nature and human-invented religion (if we can include modern secularism as a religion!). Our human nature is intrinsically flawed. This nature rebels against true religion and coming into a friendship with the God who really exists. Jesus had quite a lot to say about this, and it is eloquently described at the start of John's gospel

“9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (KJV – for the poetry of it!)

What our human nature feel more comfortable with is this:– a religion which does not require us to repent of our sins and seek and receive God's forgiveness and henceforth be ever in God's debt – infinitely in his debt! That our proud human nature abhors! Yet to those who subdue their human pride, turn to God and devote themselves to being like Jesus, it is infinitely precious: forgiveness, adoption as God's sons and daughters, recipients of his love and heirs to his promises of eternal life with him in heaven.

So humans find for themselves other gods. These may make cruel demands: the O.T. condemns the people turning to worship “that detestable god” Moleck and burning their sons and daughters alive in his fiery statue. Today tourists may see Hindu devotees carrying a kavardi by metal skewers piercing their skin, and be awestruck at the torment they are prepared to endure in the course of their religion. On the other hand they may be religions that pander to our lusts: the worship of Asherah seemed to involve much sacred prostitution and adultery.

But the point is that the people who knew God and had been beneficiaries of his kindness kept turning away from him to these human religions. As he said through Jeremiah: (2:10 ff)

“Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

So we should not be at all surprised that we have seen a general falling away from Christianity over recent decades in the West. The rise of a stridently anti-Christian secularism is also explained once we recognize it as a human-invented substitute for religion of the old sort. This may not have advanced our thinking on the how of revival, but it has shown us that every generation needs one!

Bible on Revival

What the Bible has to say on Revival

There is no shortage of books about Christian revivals. Over the decades I have read a fair cross section of them, so why do I want to go back to basics and look at biblical examples? The answer is a bold one: I think on the whole that the books are missing vital elements.

To be sure some of the stories of past revivals make exciting and inspirational reading which is good as far as it goes, but I want to know more. Also authors of these put their own spin on them. Some are super-spiritual and discount the human – sociological factors, human psychology and techniques of persuasion. Others go to the other extreme of denying anything except these human elements. Finally some produce one-size-fits-all human based blueprints for revival which strike me as pretty useless.

So I want to go back to basics.

A word of warning before we enter the world of the Bible. I happen to believe it – which sets me apart from an awful lot of modern church ministers! For those who eschew the Old Testament, just two quick points. Sure the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus and found its fulfilment in him, but Jesus quoted it as authoritative in teaching and said “I did not come to do away with the Law and Prophets” (which is what they called what we call the “Old Testament”) So If one believes in Jesus one is committed to taking the OT as authoritative too. Second point is the statement in 1 Corinthians 10.11 about the experiences of the Israelites in the desert: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us...” This should alert us to the fact that there are things to be learned from the narratives in the OT. So far from being “just a Jewish history” as I have heard it described, we have deliberately preserved for us in the OT narratives historical scenarios which have something to teach us.

I also happen to credit God with more (infinitely more!) than average human intelligence which sets me apart from an awful lot of “Christian” platform speakers and their followers. Here is what I mean: First they treat the Bible as a grab bag of quotes to back up their own one-eyed ideas – they wouldn't dare do that if they really believed it came from God! Then they read it in a literalistic way – as if God didn't know about the figures of speech and plays on words that even pretty dumb humans use all the time.

For example we understand a play on words – as in this joke: “There are two fish in a tank; one turns to the other and says 'Hey do you know how to drive this thing?'” Guess what? God uses plays on words too! For instance a very simple play in Jeremiah 1.11-12 where the footnote in your Bible should tell you that in the original Hebrew “almond tree” and “watching” sound alike.

If we interpreted our everyday language literalistically – which we don't – we would get ridiculous meanings. This is exploited for humour by one author (Terry Pratchett) in this example: “A brass plaque on the wall proclaimed that – against all gynaecological probability – 'Fred Bloggs was born here'”.

Other aspects of “methodology” will be discussed and developed as we go. If I were to put up a starting hypothesis to test it would be something like this:

a) There is no one-size-fits-all pattern of revival. Rather a great variety to suit different situations.

b) The initiative for revival is generally taken by God alone, but occasionally in response to the prayers of devout people.

c) Human agents are generally invited to play a role. Occasionally human agents unwittingly play a role.

d) God frequently utilises crises and sociological factors to motivate revival, and uses many honest techniques of persuasion.

Case Study : The Golden Calf – Exodus 32

I'm not going to treat this one in depth because it has many unique features.

But I think it is fair to use it as an illustration is the role played by a leader chosen by God. It would appear God was going to destroy the Israelites for turning away from him so quickly and attributing his deliverance of them from Egypt to an idol in the form of a golden calf, but in answer to Moses' petition spared them.

Ps 106.23 Puts this graphically even painting the image of a warrior defending the breach made by an enemy in a city wall: “So he (God) said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.”

From this I deduce that a person God has appointed leader may be able by their intercession to be responsible for God – in this case dramatically - changing his intentions, or in a more ordinary way sending revival. We may be able to refine this observation as we examine further cases.

Saving the West 1: Jesus

I visited Turkey a few years back.

We saw the places St. Paul preached, the sites of some of the “Seven Churches” of Revelation. We saw the early Christian basilica’s – now all turned into mosques.

We learned a bit about the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire. It survived the fall of the Western half for another millennium. Perhaps the Roman emperor, a believing Christian, was heeding God's warning in Revelation “Come out of her (Rome) my people” when he moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, or perhaps it was just the centre of the empire by then. Either way they escaped the destruction of Rome and the slide of the west into the dark ages.

But as we looked at church frescoes we saw the decline of Biblical Christianity there. Myths and human legends came to supplement and even supplant true Biblical scenes as the message of this admittedly beautiful wall art.

It came as little surprise then when our study guide claimed that the islamification of this region involved little coercion. The population gladly forsook their “Christianity” which lacked any spiritual vitality to join the passionate advocates of Islam.

Of course the West rose after the middle ages. Christianity flared to life again and again in revivals in all nations and churches. Despite the times the light of the Gospel dimmed to a few embers, under the grace of God it flared anew. Prosperity, freedom, rule of law all flourished. Western nations were on top of the world.

And now … we are in decline!

Many commentators say Europe is in terminal decline. Saving a miracle they may be right! And for the rest, are we that far behind? I read recently that New Guinea people were converting to Islam because of their strict morals which contrasted so starkly with the degenerate morals they saw in “Christian” nations. That sounded a warning to me since many first century converts to Christianity from Roman and Greek culture were attracted to Christianity because its strict morals and monotheism contrasted with their own degenerate culture!

Have we lost some essentials of Christianity ?

As to prosperity, that is looking shaky after the 'global financial crisis' the choice of 'bread and circuses' over needed economic reform by the rulers and people of Greece and so forth.

As to freedom, the drift from democracy to bureaucratic rule in the European Union, the calls by activists that this or that issue is too important than to allow democratic choice, and the constant media attack on Christians and Christian values should worry any person who values freedom.

Is history repeating itself now in the “decline and fall of the West”? Most probably.

Is there any hope? Only one!

There is only one hope of saving Western nations: a Christian revival.

For those about to close this book right now, very hard … don't be a bigot … give me a chapter or two to make my case … who knows, I might have a point!

For those who think they agree with me …. not so fast … I may have a twist or two you were not expecting.

My first twist is this: While a Christian revival is most certainly the only hope of saving the West, that is merely a by-product.

The first, second and third reasons anyone should want a Christian revival is so that people should develop that friendship with God which grows like a swelling flower bud in spring during this life and bursts into full and beautiful bloom in heaven.

This is what really matters most. This life is transitory: life in heaven with Jesus never ends. So while we do long to make this world a better place for all; making people become friends with Jesus is better for them by far. If we can do both, then we are really achieving something!

Saving the West is a by-product, but a very beneficial by-product of saving people.

As more people develop their friendship with God they begin to think, act and respond in a more God-like and less flawed-human way. As the true character and commands of God become more widely known in a country the social mores and folk-ways which give the moral tone and social timbre to a community become more God-like and less the product of flawed human nature. The more these things progress in a country the better life becomes for all the people in it.

Next: “calling all progressives”. Many good hearted people have embraced Progressive Socialism as the best means of improving life on earth. What if, for all its promises, it is not?

My Adventures with God Ch 37: More Miracles

Ch 37: More Miracles

To re-cap: From our “back to the drawing board” experience we were re-building the church. Sociology had given us valuable insights, but the actual details came as answered prayer to our little prayer group. Spiritually and numerically the parish was growing. But what the diocese needed to see was growth measured in dollars – lots and lots of dollars.

I had stood firm against fund-raising when people wanted to do that instead of evangelism. But this was different, we had previously done the evangelism very successfully: now we needed some miracle money to convince the diocese we were on the right track. But you know what God is like: he does so much better than we can imagine or dare to ask!

In our family we have a saying “For God two-birds-with-one-stone is still wasting stones”. In this instance God raised money and built up the morale and numbers of the congregation at the same time.

Here is how:

Inez and Sue – but since they were both great prayers I should say “and God” – made a formidable team. Gala events were planned. The congregations were still small but we had huge numbers of people in the community who would gladly help out at grand events.

And grand they were! We believed that these events had to be fun for the workers and give them a great sense of achievement and being part of a winning team. This meant grand scale, good planning, effective team and morale building and really obvious success. People had to have fun and be proud to have been part of the team pulling off such a big successful event.

We might spend sleepless nights, but the team had to know they were supported, valued and they had to believe it would work!

Our first grand event was a Gala Fashion Show (with dinner of course). Now we had a fashion show each year at the flower festival with local women modelling clothes from Sparrows Emporium – a great thing but we were thinking bigger, much bigger! One of Inez’s friends in the district, Dulcie had been a top model in her youth: she still had contacts. We were getting real models, actual high fashion clothes, the correct trappings of catwalk and music. The real thing!

Next came the dinner part: we had lots of volunteers, and all those women who had gone into other churches, and some of the others from those churches who thought we were, as one lady said “A breath of fresh air” cooked and baked (yes including a Uniting Church lady who was the undisputed best sponge baker in the district – Vera of our church was undisputed second best)

For wait staff we put out the call and the town young people rallied, they brushed up exceedingly well in the natty black and white uniforms we got hold of somehow. I think about 30 of them rolled up!

It was stunning! Financially it was hugely successful. In team building it was amazing. In satisfaction level for the gang … you only had to look at their faces! They were exhausted but they had been part of something big!

We only did these really big things annually – the next year the theme was picnic races – still in the Lang Lang civic hall. But people got gourmet picnic hampers, a course of hurdles (and a water hazard) was set up round the hall. For safety riders ran behind their (human) horses with reins connecting them. I am told the town’s real life SP (illegal off-course) bookie was running the betting shop and everyone was given Monopoly money to bet with. Another howling success! I even won the “Lang Lang Cup” cup (I was the horse) elegantly made by one of the parishioners from a jam tin and fencing wire.

In between we catered for weddings with much smaller teams, and put on other social events. The men from the pub who I had talked to in the old days sitting in John’s barn – and their friends turned out to help wash up and things like that – since we often borrowed the glasses from the hotel they had a vested interest in getting them spotless! The barmaid I mentioned earlier was one of the team – the first time she helped at a “do” I remember the look on Jan’s face when she came out in her miniscule black skirt and fishnet stockings and see-through white blouse! I didn’t think people could really turn purple! I also thought some of the old men were going to have heart attacks – but for the opposite reason.

Having mentioned Jan I realise I have been remiss. I have only described the new fundraising ventures. I need to give due credit to Jan and the rest of the Ladies Guild who had for years been faithfully ploughing on, and were still hard at work doing their various fundraisings.

By the end of six months, yes we were still in debt but we were definitely gaining ground. In the analogy I used of a swing we were now on the down-stroke and gathering speed! It was a success. The diocesan bean counters were still sceptical. But we said we’d won our bet. And continuing improvement of the financial position as the months rolled by showed we were right. Also the church was growing, not the rapid expansion of the early days but good solid and above all stable growth. We had proved the sociological research findings right! More important we had been another demonstration that God is faithful. 

My Adventures with God: God Provides ... Yet Again

Chapter 34 God Provides … Yet Again

The prayer group meeting each week for Bible study and prayer, particularly prayer for our church, coincided with God providing extremely lavishly.

We wrote down in a book the matters we were praying for provision or guidance with and the results and over time we saw in black and white the wonderful way God answered. Often the provision was at the same time the means of guidance.

Let me say again that we Christians often fall into the trap of deciding what we think would be best and then praying for God to do it. WRONG! If Christ is the head of his Church he gets to choose when and what and how. Our task is to ask what he would have us do to fit in with his plans. Sometimes this task is to pray fervently for something, for example revival. Then when we pray because the Holy Spirit is like a fire within us to ask for this with all our might, it is no surprise that mighty miracles follow. On the other hand when, as happens so often, we merely think revival or more usually just having our church grow big (and fat!) would be nice, no matter how much emotion we whip up God does not answer! (Well despite this, God is so abundantly kind and generous that often even our feeble and headstrong prayers get answered – though not necessarily exactly how we had in mind)

My first example of how wonderfully God provided for us as we sought to re-build the parish is this:

Flo. who was the faithful and dedicated organist at Lang Lang I talked about earlier, came to me one day and said that she felt she was now too old to continue, and a few weeks later died peacefully. So our prayer group brought this need for music at Lang Lang before God.

God answered in two ways, and provided guidance at the same time.

First a lady who attended a church about 30Km away contacted me saying she was an organist and had heard we had a very sweet little pipe organ. She came and tried out the organ and was delighted. Listening to her play we quickly saw that she was a very accomplished musician. She volunteered to come and play for one service a month, but after she heard about our Sunday School and the family services we had had, she asked for it to be the family service.

There was one problem. She was very “high church” and wanted the new family service to be a very traditional “Sung Eucharist”. We were more on the opposite end of churchmanship, although as I said earlier except for our “Bayles Fellowship” which had a pentecostal service, we used the current Prayer Book services. So our ideas for the family service were certainly more traditional than was the current vogue in evangelical churches, but what our new organist wanted was very much a move in the opposite direction to where “successful” evangelical churches were heading.

The conventional wisdom among “growing” churches at that time was to downplay the “Anglican” and pretend to be “Community”. Services were more and more informal, the Prayer Book alluded to less and less, traditional hymns definitely replaced with contemporary choruses, and even ministers wearing street clothes. This trend has incidentally continued since then – I recently attended an Anglican service where the was nothing recognisable as liturgy from the Prayer Book, and nothing at all by way of a “Confession” or “Prayers of Intercession”.

However we could not escape the feeling that this lady was both God's provision and his means of directing how the family service should be. So we turned our backs on conventional wisdom and went with God!

God's wisdom is proved right by its fruits. These family services – yes done as a formal sung Eucharist – were a roaring success!

The kids took to it like ducks to water, their parents and grandparents came (yes they came initially to see their child doing their bit in the service, but they came) and forgive me if I sound old fashioned saying “and the blessing of the Lord was upon it” because I think that was the defining factor. We did it how God said to for that time and place, he had pulled together the right people for it, and he blessed it – there was just always the most wonderful atmosphere.

But as they say on TV : “Kiddies don’t try this at home”! I must add: Don’t just rush in and try this formula in your church – ask God what his individual plan is for you and your church!

Looking back I can see some of the human factors in the reason for its success. The kids were believers and they wanted their parents and grandparents to find what they had found in Christ. They had Sunday School most weeks with its format which was tailored to their needs and their own very special music. Family Service was where they were doing something for their extended families. Also church itself was so new to them that they saw no difference between “high” and “low” church or even between “formal” and “informal” styles of service. Their parents on the other had a formed idea of what “church” should be. Many of them had attended Sunday School in their youth. They had all been married in a church. They may not have darkened the doors of one since then, but they had an ingrained “cultural memory” if you like of what church should be like. So for them a traditional Eucharist was “proper church”. Besides with the kids doing many of the roles in the service, a really good organist (and really singable hymns!) and the presence of the Holy Spirit these services had real zing! As St. Paul said “God's 'foolishness' beats human 'wisdom'.”

We had organists for the other weeks in the month over time who were a great help, but I want to jump to one other amazing provision. This time God provided the most amazing couple to play the organ at Lang Lang. He was blind, his wife was his chauffeur much needed since they lived some 50KM away and his “partner in crime”.

He came and tried out our organ. “What kind of service do you do?” he asked, and then added “I can play for any sort: I’ve played for Pentecostals, I’ve played for the Grand Masonic Lodge.” I was amazed. An organist that knew their stuff but was prepared to fit in with whatever was required, Wow!

Again a lesson in God's wisdom. Did you pick the “Masonic Lodge” bit. So did I at the time but it was also obvious to us that God had sent this couple. At the time we simply followed where God was clearly directing, but if anyone has problems with this just think about God's people in past times who had to be spoken to on that account. For instance the Israelites about God's choice of Cyrus the Persian as his agent (Isaiah 54) and Peter about being sent to the foreigner Cornelius (Acts 10).

I asked him how he managed to play being blind. He answered “Most things I know by heart” If I am not sure, I run my fingers over the music I have in Braille to refresh my memory, then I play it by heart.” “What about new tunes” I asked. “Ah well” he replied. “I do need a bit of advance notice. You see my wife plays it one note at a time on my organ at home and I transcribe it into Braille music. Then I play it and learn it by heart.”

They had to come some distance. I knew they would need petrol money, and I feared – rightly as it turned out – that the vestry would not come at that. But he was brilliant. I believed God had sent him. So I just paid his petrol money out of my own pocket.

He was the most incredible organist. Ours was only a baby organ but with a very sweet rank of metal pipes and a very mellow rank of wooden ones, and the usual stops to give combinations of pipes sounding from the one key. He could almost make that organ sit up and beg! He just got the most amazing sounds out of it. He also had exquisite musicality and rhythm. When he played you just had to sing. I remember particularly his arrangement of that stirring Easter hymn “Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son”. It absolutely sent shivers down your spine and you just had sing it out with all your heart.

The church was changing and growing, but in quite a different way to anything we could have planned. God's plans really are so much better!