Altars were filled with Christians on their knees making things right with their God. Hearts were stirred. A flame was lit. The sounds of revival are beginning to ring once again at the Save New England Conference.
In the early days of our nation, the hills of New England echoed with the sounds of revival. Men of God such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Isaac Case traveled her roads and lanes proclaiming the Gospel in her cities and villages. Those voices have long been silent. Colleges like Harvard that were once started as a means to train young men for the ministry have now become citadels of secularism. Decades of humanism and false teaching have all but erased the influence of these and other men of God from the landscape of our minds.
PEOPLE DESCRIBED THE CONFERENCE AS
~ Attendee from New Hampshire
“Amazing…Helpful…Convicting…Powerful… Instructive…Life-Changing…Spirit-filled… “The best Conference I’ve ever attended in my life.”
The revivals of New England that once spawned the Great Awakening are no more. New England has become a bastion of Godlessness as the influence of pagan teachers has infiltrated her borders. No longer does the nation look to New England and her quaint country churches as the hope for America. New England is now a mission field; a preacher’s graveyard, they say. Missionaries now raise support to come and try to stem the tide of sin.
Can New England be saved?
There has gathered a group of men who believe that she can be saved. Twenty-eight Baptist preachers from all over New England gathered for two days in April for our Spring Save New England Conference to catch a vision of what God can still do in New England.
Men of God and their church members traveled from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and all across Maine to meet in a little town nestled between the lakes. Victory Baptist Church of Winthrop, Maine was filled with Baptist preachers sitting on the edge of their seats as they listened intently to nine of their brethren preach and teach the Bible. Over the course of those two days, those present heard thirteen messages from God’s Word, sang the songs of the old days, and had lunch on the grounds. It was reminiscent of days gone by.
Who were these men that spoke? Were they men of great renown?
Were they men who pastored large congregations? No, these were men who pastor churches in New England; who love God and believe the Word of God. These were men who believe that New England can be saved! Men like Isaiah Hill, who has pastored in the rural hills of Maine for forty-four years.
Despite having a stroke and his house burning to the ground twice, Brother Hill has remained faithful, doing all that he can to reach those in his area. They were men like Thomas Michael who came to the Boston area over forty years ago to do all that he could do to quench the flames of iniquity in that great city. Decades have gone by, and yet he remains faithful.
Who were these men? Men like Tom Faulk, who in his fifties decided that the Lord had a new ministry for him. He went to Groton, Massachusetts to revive a struggling church that once ran in the hundreds. The mastermind of this group is Paul Chapman. With his wife ill and often bed-bound, he pastors Curtis Corner Baptist in Wakefield, Rhode Island while balancing his duties as a father and a husband.
These are just a sampling of the men that God used to encourage and strengthen the brethren.
None of the nine who spoke would claim to have all of the answers. None would say that he has the formula for saving New England. However, each man did know one thing that could save New England. Each man simply used his time behind the pulpit to share his one great truth, and because of it people were helped, and twenty-eight pastors left that meeting better equipped to help save New England.
The night air of those two evenings carried upon it’s breeze the Spirit-filled singing and powerful preaching reminiscent of the revival days. Altars were filled with Christians on their knees making things right with their God. Hearts were stirred. A flame was lit. The sounds of revival are beginning to ring once again in New England.