from the Yavapai Baptist Association April 2010

Transcription

1 from the April 2010 ON TARGET In my last column I wrote on the need for real revival in our churches. This has been a great need for many years, which is a fact that few Christians can deny. This month I want to address one of the keys to real revival taking place prayer. If you are a student of the great awakenings that have swept our country, you will already know that real revival always came as the direct result of a group of God s people seeking him in prayer. There may have been several years of prayer that led up to the revival, but one cannot help but notice that prayer always preceded the great awakenings. One of the greatest examples of this is the Prayer Meeting Revival (also known as the Fulton Street Revival) that started in New York City in The Old Dutch North Church hired Jeremiah Lanphier to do some visitation for their church in hopes of stemming the tide of decline they were experiencing. Visitation didn t work, though, so Lanphier decided to hold a prayer meeting. He passed out fliers to invite business men to come to the noon time prayer meeting. The first meeting was held in September 1857 and only 6 men showed up. They decided to continue the prayer meetings and 20 showed up the next week. You need to understand that in the good old days drunkenness was rampant, bankruptcies were at an all time high and in October (just a few weeks after the first meeting) the nation was hit with the worst financial panic in its history. Soon prayer meetings were cropping up all over the city. Every church and meeting hall was filled with people coming to pray and seek the Lord. Estimates range from 300,000 to 1,000,000 people getting saved all over the country during this revival. That was in a nation with a total population of 30 million people. That is somewhere between 1% - 3.3% of the total population swept into the kingdom of God in a year or so. Imagine today what would happen if somewhere between 3.5 million to 10 million people were saved in the US in the next year. That s what it was like in the Prayer Meeting or Fulton Street Revival in the late 1850 s. Dr. Gregory Frizzell has written extensively on the subject of prayer and revival (you can find his books on-line just search for his name on the internet). One of the things he points out that many have neglected is the need for God s people to repent of their sinfulness in order to have an effective prayer life. The Bible is painfully clear when it tells us that our sins hide God s face from us. NAS Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. We will never see real spiritual change in this country by putting the right people in political office (don t get me wrong, I think we should vote for the right people); real spiritual change will take place when the people of God get right with the Lord and begin to bombard heaven on behalf of this nation. Pray for your pastor, your church, your city or town, our county, and our nation. God works in answer to prayer. Your brother, Rik page

2 May 2010 ASSOCIATIONAL CALENDAR 1 YBA VBS Clinic at Robert Rd. BC 8:30 1:00 PM 1 ASBC Hispanic Women s Conference in Avondale 6 National Day of Prayer 9 Mother s Day 11 ASBC Convention Council quarterly meeting at ASBC Offices 13 Pastors Fellowship Lunch 11:30 at Robert Rd. Baptist 13 Administrative Council Meeting 1:30 at Robert Rd. Baptist ASBC State Mission Team quarterly meeting in Scottsdale 31 Memorial Day May 2010 CHURCH EVENTS 1 YBA VBS Clinic at Robert Rd. BC 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM 2-30 Adult VBS starts for 5 weeks from 5:00 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. at Robert Rd. BC 7 Diamondback game ending with a concert by Jars Of Clay & fireworks. 30 Pew Boys will be in concert at Mountain View BC in Dewey Call for details 31 RRBC s Annual Memorial Day picnic will be May 31st at the church beginning at 10:00 a.m. YBA HARVEST MINISTRY Everyone is encouraged to come and check out this awesome ministry in Chino Valley. Ed Albus (pictured left) heads up the Harvest Ministry which began last year. At the end of the harvest season they had given away several tons of food to those in need. Every Saturday from 8 - noon anyone interested can meet at the property and help in the planting, several crops are in with corn being planted next. On May 22nd after the planting, plan on staying for a potluck picnic and have a great time of fellowship and fun. For more information contact Ed Albus at page2

3 CHURCH STRENGTHENING TEAM YBA Church Strengthening Team met on Tuesday April 27th - 10 a.m. at Robert Road Baptist Church. Training events are being planned and the YBA VBS Clinic will be held on Saturday May 1st from 8:30 a.m. (registration) until 1 p.m. (lunch will be provided) at Robert Road Baptist Church. As of April 14th - Mtn. View, RRBC, The Ridge, and Willow Hills will be attending. It would be helpful if you would provide your VBS dates to the YBA Office as soon as possible and then complete your reports after your VBS is held and send them to the YBA office. Hobby Wiles - Team Leader LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TEAM "For everything there is a season; a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecc 3:1) There is a time to prepare and a time to work. Sometimes leaders focus exclusively on the work, and forget the need to continually prepare. We all need to take the time to "sharpen the saw," as Stephen Covey phrases it. The dull saw may continue to cut, but it must work harder and the results are not as good - and sometimes you don't really notice until the chips start to fly... Ministers and church interns had a great opportunity last month to sharpen their communication skills with Dr. David Johnson in the Preaching Workshop. Some of us learned the basics of homiletics, while others were reminded of the things we have let slip. Either way, the result will be better preaching and teaching in the churches of the YBA. Our next Ministers' Workshop will cover basic Counseling and is scheduled for July. Watch for future announcements as the details get settled. Pastors, don't neglect the opportunities the Lord provides to sharpen your ministry. He is the Master Craftsman, and we owe it to him to be ready tools in his hands. Brian LeStourgeon Leadership Development Team Leader page3

4 Mission Trip to Mescalero, NM October 1-8, 2010 Join the 's Director of Evangelism and Missions, Rik Danielsen, for a mission trip to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. We will be working with Pastor Zach Malott and the members of the Mescalero Baptist Mission. We will be: Leading Revival Services Sunday AM & PM and Monday through Wednesday PM. Doing prayer walking in the community during the day. Practicing servanthood evangelism during the day. If you are interested in participating you MUST contact Rik Danielse no later than Tuesday June 1st. Contact Rik Danielsen at the YBA office: 7594 E. Palo Verde St., Suite A, Prescott Valley, AZ or by at rdyba@cableone.net for more information. page4

5 CHURCH NEWS From Robert Road BC We just finished Witness Training on Wednesday evenings with Rik Danielsen teaching the program. We averaged 15 in attendance and discovered 602 lost people to pray for! We also completed a Study of Revelation on Sunday evenings for continued Discipleship training. Adult VBS starts on Sunday May 2nd thru May 30th. One day will be covered each Sunday for 5 weeks from 5:00 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. There are 30 who have pre-registered! A Happy Mother's Day to ALL our Mothers!!!!! and God Bless Those Who Are Graduating this May! Our children's Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS will be June from 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. A family night Shindig will be Friday June 18! The Diamondback organization will continue having Faith and Family Nights beginning May 7 - you can obtain group rates with 10 people!!! May 7 will feature the Jars Of Clay concert and fireworks after the game against the Milwaukee Brewers as well as a testimony from a Diamondback player! Contact Elisabeth McMenamy at (602) or join RRBC by purchasing tickets by May 2nd! From Cordes Lakes FSBC Diamondback Baseball and Family night Concert with JARS OF CLAY May 7 th or Ken Boggs know ASAP let Pastor Tom From FSBC Prescott Valley We are proud to introduce our new Youth Pastor, Don Gagnon, his wife, Mindy, and children: Kaitlyn and Jami. Don is doing an exceptional job with our Youth Ministry. We are also gearing up for softball season and plan to participate this year. The Lord is Good and is blessing our body by adding new people to our membership every week. From FSBC Mayer We celebrated Easter with a SonRise service followed by breakfast in the fellowship hall. It was a true blessing to have 19 people show up for the service! The weather co-operated and it was held outside! Our ladies have jump started the WMU, and have had an excellent turnout! They also started a sewing club, with the desire to make quilts for the local fire department to give to kids that are in a traumatic situation. They are also going to make stuffed toys for them too! It is exciting to see God at work in our community! 7594 E. Palo Verde St., Suite A, Prescott Valley, AZ Phone: Fax: ybassoc@cableone.net page5