I am so thankful that my God never gave up on me but continued to work in me!
Like most pastors, I entered the ministry with a vision to see people saved, churches planted, and revival. And, like many pastors, the griping, fighting, and splitting over the years brought me to a place of discouragement. In time, my vision changed from soul winning to survival. Planning for growth was replaced by struggling to maintain. I stopped pastoring and began placating. I was lazy in the Word and rarely on my knees. Discipleship and visitation came to a halt, and our church began to die with me, as we seemingly fished all night and caught very little.
God is so good!
My life verse is Philippians 1:6. I am so thankful that my God never gave up on me but continued to work in me! He used a kind gesture of some fellow pastors, the preaching at Fellowship Meetings, the Tent Meeting in Worcester, and conversations with Brother Dwight Smith to rekindle that which had once been in my heart. Through these faith-building events, God restored the vision I once had as He brought me from a place of apathy, fear, and despair back to a place of fervency, faith, and desire. I felt the good hand of my God once again upon me.
In early June of last year, as the Tent Meetings were taking place, we invited Brother Smith and his family to spend a day with us in the Berkshires. We talked about Evangelism and Revival, and how things have changed since the days of the City-Wide Crusades and Extended Revival Meetings. God stirred my heart, and with the peace of God and liberty of the Spirit, I asked Dwight to come to Rhode Island for five weeks of simultaneous meetings in three locations. We looked one another in the eye, and we both sensed God’s permission to go ahead.
God did something amazing!
I announced the following plan to our church in late June. “The Knotty Oak Baptist Church will plant a church in the city of Providence and the Town of Portsmouth. Both churches will begin having services before the Dwight Smith Gospel Meetings which we have also scheduled for October 18 through November 18. We will have an Acts 2:1 Day on October 14, and we want every member of our church family to be present. Every member and every home must have revival before the Gospel Meetings begin. We have 15 months to get in spiritual, physical, and financial shape.”
We did not have one naysayer or gainsayer. Many folks said things like, “It’s about time!” “We’ve been waiting for this!” “This is what God has been preparing us for!”
We have divided the 15 months into 28-day segments, each of which begins with a new packet of materials such as memory verses, Scripture readings, special prayer cards, articles about revival, tracts, Gospel literature, and new hymns to learn. We have watched our church be transformed week by week as folks get spiritually right and stay right, with many getting in physical and financial shape as well.
Conclusion
As of this writing, the church in Providence is in its 6th week. Two souls have been saved, and we are averaging 14 from the community. The church in Portsmouth will begin with afternoon services in June. Our church (Knotty Oak Baptist Church) has seen amazing new doors of ministry open in the public schools and an addiction rehab. In these 11 months, we have had 107 professions of faith, an increase in visitors, tremendous harmony in the church, and we are on track to raise $65,000 for property repairs and ministry funding.
Knowing that this was more than we could undertake by ourselves, we began asking others to help in the Gospel meetings. Presently, 15 pastors are offering practical advice and material support. Many others are offering to help in some capacity, and I believe that there will eventually be over 50 pastors involved. Most of the pastors are associated with the New England Baptist Fellowship, and/or Save New England. A FaceBook page will be up by the time this goes to press (Evangelize Rhode Island), and we will be saturating social media and each community with advertisements.