New Wineskins

In my last post I talked a bit about George Whitefield and his ability as a preacher. As a contemporary of Wesley he is one of the key figuresin the birth of Methodism. However, without John Wesley Methodism would have never existed. It was Wesley's organisational ability that allowed the move of the Spirit to flourish. Placing people into small accountability groups that encouraged purity and witness enabled those who came to salvation to continue in their relationship with Jesus. Whitefield's preaching may, arguably, have been more effective but his effectiveness as a revivalist was hindered by the fact that once he had left a town or city new converts were left to themselves. Wesley drew new converts into accountability groups and so allowed the missional effects of the revival to continue way after he had left.

Every move of God should change the Church. It is unrealistic to expect the church structures to remain unchanged when the Holy Spirit visits! Jesus says in Matthew 9 "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

We at St Andrew's have at different times experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at work amongst us that has changed much of the nature of who we are as a church. We also need to continue reshaping the structures of the church. Our move to Missional Communities is a way of establishing new wineskins in response to what God is doing amongst us and, to some extent, in preparation for what he is going to do in the future. As with Wesley's groups they need to have the same focus on discipleship and mission. In that sense what we are doing is not new, we are part of a history of pioneers who want to work with what the Lord is doing.

What is sad about reading through God's General's is to see how quickly those within methodism began to lose their focus on purity and proclamation and reduced themselves to political squabbles about church order. We cannot lose sight of the call of Jesus to 'GO and MAKE disciples", the moment we do that we become less than we ought to be.

When Preaching was Rock and Roll

Currently, I am reflecting on a book of biographies I am just about to finish reading. It is 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and it details the amazing lives and ministries of some key men of God from the early 1700's onwards. One chapter is about George Whitefield, who was a remarkable man and preached in the UK and America at the same time as the Wesley's.

Whitefield was, by all accounts, a remarkable preacher and a pioneer in evangelism. He was the first in his time to preach in the fields, something which the Wesleys and others then went on to copy. He had been ordained at 22 and quickly became known across Londan as the 'boy preacher'. However, it was not long before pulpits were closed to him because of his affiliations with 'methodism'. His passion for the lost would not deter him from preaching so he preached wherever he could. He began travelling up and down the country finding suitable feilds to preach in. As his fame grew the crowds gathered to hear him would be vast, the most conservative estimate of some crowds was 10,000, while other claimed it was 30,000.

When crowds came to see Whitefield what they saw was a small, round faced, cross eyed man but what they heard was one who 'preached like a lion'. Whitefield grew up wityh a love of the theatre. he read plays as a teenager, learning the lines and practising his delivery. he learned how to project hs voice so that he could be heard over vast distances. His sermons where dramatic, entertaining but always convicted people of their need of the free grace of God. Someone once said that they would give £100 to just be able to say 'oh' like Whitefield! As Whitefield preached the power of God would fall on those who were searching for Christ and hundred's would be saved. People would be crying out, falling to the floor and weeping hysterically as the presence of God filled their lives.

His journals and the journals of others of his day tell of how crowds would gather hours before Whiteield was to preach. One writer tells of how he was going to hear Whitefield and as he approached the twon all he could see what what looked like fog over the town. As he got nearer he realised it was dust from the countless feet and horses hooves of those gathering to hear Whitefield.

We live in an age when the spoken word seems to have become overlooked. I was reading a column in the Independant the other week that looked at our current politicians and asked where are the great orators. Were are the people who can capture our imagination by the power of speech. Have we become so tied to soundbites and Twittering that we have forgotten how to use the spoken word. Some people say that preaching is coming to an end, that new media will overtake preaching. Yet even now as people become immersed in new forms of communication what I see are people who are also desperate to hear a real person speak (aren't you tired of automated telephone answering systems!!). The Church mustn't give up on preaching as some would have us do. Of course we need to adapt our style to the current age and the current need, pretty much as Whitefiled did, but we need to preach boldly, courageously and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Praying for Revival

I've been reading a great book recently by Roberts Liardon. It's called 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and is a history of just some of the key people in revivals between mid 18th century to the present day (check out www.godsgenerals.com). It is a fascinating and hugely faith building read. So I thought I would spend a number of posts just refelecting on some of the events I have read about in the book.

The one things that stands out above all others as I read this book is that prayer is so central to seeing revival come. The book starts with just a brief story of the Moravians who had such a major influence on John and Charles Wesley. These were followers of the teaching of John Hus (left), who was burned at the stake for preaching against the doctrines of the Catholic Church in July 1415. They had spent many years simply looking for a place to worship until they settled in Herrnhut, Germany. In the August of 1727 they began to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their churches. This in turn led to a growing passion and conviction to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth and a desire for the power to make it happen. This led to them agreeing together to pray round the clock for the gospel to be spread and revival to come. This they did 24/7 for 100 years. Those 100 years saw them send out more missionaries than any other church at that time. It was also a time of tremendous revivals in the UK and America.

That same emphasis on prayer is then seen in the life of every revivalist that Liardon looks at. It is particularly evident in the life of Charles Finney who would send a colleague, Daniel Nash, ahead of him by 3 or 4 weeks into whatever city or town he was visiting to gather people to pray. Nash would pray with power and faith, Finney would preach and the Lord would do the rest.

What is evident as you read of the lives of these saints is that they prayed because they desperately wanted to see unchurched people saved and knew how desperately they needed the Spirit's power if that were to happen.

It is really easy to read these stories of the great men and women of God and feel guilty that our prayer lives look so weak by comparison. I know that much of my lack of prayer is because I know I can 'get by' in my own strength. I know that in my own strength and with what I know I can share my faith, preach a half decent sermon, lead and pastor, but the thing is I will never see the same results that Wesley or Whitefield or Finney saw. I look at my own prayer life and I know that I have ever reached the same level of desperation for God's power for salvation that these saints did. So that is now my prayer for myself 'Lord give that same desperation for your power' and maybe when I'm desperate enough I'll start praying like these revivalists.