26 Saved This Week

GOD'S SPIRIT IS MOVING in our church and in our Christian School. With the start of the new school year, we always start by sharing the gospel with our students and hosting a spiritual empahsis retreat for our high school students. Well, the retreat doesn't happen for another couple of weeks, but listen to what God did at ECS last week. We started this school year with 432 students and just this week, 26 of those students made decisions for salvation. This is one of the privileges of having a Christian School. Not only do we get to teach subject matter from a Christian world-view, but we also get to share the message of salvation. One person said, "We offer academics and MORE!" Pray for us as we now work to disciple these students and reach these families.

Revival Fires are Burning!

It's Monday, again, and I have to tell you what happened yesterday! The flames of revival continue to burn! We've seen another 3 people come to the decision for salvation. (Remember, we're in a town of less than 8,000 people!) The man who was saved last week was baptized this morning. It was a sweet time as he had to gently kneel and lean forward, due to severe back problems; but he wanted to take that step of public identification. It gave a great opportunity to ask, "If he could do it, what's your excuse?" We added another 8 new members today, along with their 3 children. 6 people rededicated their lives to our Lord and again, the altars were full. We are really to the point that we can't wait until the invitation time comes... so we can see what God is going to do!

MORE Saved and Baptized

God is working in our church services and revival is beginning! Today, our morning worship service started with 9 baptisms. Those who came forward during last week's invitation were among those baptized. Several others were also moved to take this step of obedience during the week. A young man who is on fire for our Lord has been a major spark in the flames of revival. He was baptized this morning and willing to say "yes" to whatever the Lord asks. A special moment occurred as our Youth Pastor, Justin, baptized his wife. Their transparency and honesty before our congregation was amazing. Remember... Justin was just baptized last Sunday.

In addition, there were five more salvations this week. Some occurred in conjunction to the service and others occurred as friends began sharing their testimonies with others. A man who grew up in our church, was so convicted that he came weeping and it took a couple of minutes for him to even tell me why he came forward. He said, "Preacher, I need to be saved." Three more teens were saved this week and the flames of revival are spreading. We added another family to the church and the altar was full again today. GOD IS MOVING!

The Start of Revival

Last night, we had a MAJOR wind storm that took down trees, power lines, and knocked out electricity across our area. Needless to say, today's service was interesting. Some lights, no air conditioning, etc. Believe it or not, the sound system worked and so did God's Spirit. I preached on "Holiness" and the altar response was so good, that I'm thinking about turning off the A/C again next week.

During this past week, our teenagers were running a VBS for a church that we are helping to start in Clover, SC. While our teens thought they were going to minister to others, it was our group that would experience God's moving. The VBS was a great success and there were 10 salvations among those who participated, BUT there were 6 salvations among our team of teenagers that were on the mission team. Included in that number were my middle daughter (17 years old) and our Youth Pastor's wife (age undisclosed for my own safety). On the night that they were both saved, the scene is described as our teenagers scattered across the lawn and through the buildings praying into the wee hours of the morning.

The Sunday after the team returned, we started our Worship Service with the Youth Pastor admitting to the church that he had been a hypocrite, because he had been performing many of our baptisms, but had not personally been baptized after his salvation. He asked the church's forgiveness and then I stepped into the baptistry and baptized him. Immediately following, I had the privilege of baptizing my daughter, Bethany! WOW... what a great feeling for a dad!

After starting our service by baptizing the Youth Pastor and then the Pastor's daughter -- I knew it was going to be a good day. At the close of the service, we had one of Christian School teachers come for salvation. Justin's testimony also touched another lady who grew up in our church and she came for baptism. Two came for church membership and the altar was lined with people rededicating their lives to Christ. It was a GREAT day!