Refocusing on Revival

It’s time to return to the original purpose of this blog. I apologize for the digressions of recent months. Let’s talk about revival!

Several years ago I attended Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation at Washington Crossing United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania. While I was there, Pastor Scott McDermott prayed over me twice, on different days. Both times he used the words, “Ezekiel anointing.”

I took it as a word from the Lord. When I returned home, I re-read the book of Ezekiel, looking specifically for what God might have been saying to me through Scott. Here’s what I gleaned from it. It has come to form the basis of my understanding of revival.

Through a strange and unforgettable vision, God calls Ezekiel to go to his own people, those whose language he understands. God tells Ezekiel that though many will not listen, he must persevere in his message: warning people of God’s righteousness and judgment while encouraging them about God’s grace and promise of restoration. Ezekiel does this through a series of speeches and memorable prophetic actions.

In chapter 37 the story shifts to a series of visions, beginning with the famous valley of dry bones. As Ezekiel speaks God’s message over the bones – the same message of righteousness, judgment, grace and restoration – the power of the Holy Spirit brings them to life and forms them into a vast army.

The scene shifts again. This time Ezekiel sees a vision of God’s temple – not the stone temple which lay in ruins in Jerusalem, but the ideal which the stone temple was intended to represent: the dwelling place of God. From the temple flows a stream of water. As Ezekiel follows the stream farther from the temple, it becomes deeper and wider, and trees grow along the riverbank, with healing power in their leaves.

The New Testament uses the images of army and temple in referring to Christians. In other words, Ezekiel’s visions are pictures of the church.

More than that, these visions are pictures of what God wants each local church to be, at least in part. The farther Ezekiel got from the temple, the wider and deeper the river got. Water must have been flowing in from other sources. The only source of Holy Spirit water is Christians, whom Jesus said are to be fountains of living water. So the increasing size of the river speaks of the varied contributions of all the different local churches flowing together into one great river of life.

Taking this all together, I condensed it into what I believe is God’s personal mission statement for me: to go to my own people, whose language I understand, and, regardless of their response, to faithfully proclaim through word and action God’s message of righteousness and judgment, grace and restoration, prophesying the Holy Spirit over the dry bones to form them into a dwelling place for the manifest presence of God and a source of the river of living water that brings healing to the nations.

The people of Annapolis are certainly my own people. I grew up in the area. I don’t believe God is calling me to try to organize some big revival movement. But neither do I believe that God has called me to focus on building my own little local church empire. You can’t dam up living water. You can’t catch it all in a cistern inside the temple and keep it for yourself. The purpose of the river living water is to bring life and healing to all those who are outside the walls.

So that’s what I hope to focus on in this blog from now on. I appreciate your prayers and your comments.

Thank you, Stan and Jen!

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. – 1 Timothy 5:17


Most of us wouldn’t call Stan and Jen Bice “elders.” But they are older than the teens in our Trinity youth group. Since 2003 they have done a wonderful job of “preaching and teaching” and even “ruling” (in the words of 1 Timothy 5:17) our Trinity youth group. Now that they are stepping down from that position in order to give their growing son Corey the attention he needs, I want to be sure we give them “double honor.” They certainly deserve it.


For seven years Stan and Jen have selflessly given of their time and their hearts to the young people of Trinity Church. They have been there for them in times of fun and times of crisis. They have played games with them, taught them, listened to them, counseled them, and encouraged them. They have provided a shining example of what a Christian relationship between a guy and a girl should look like. They have taken their vacation time to attend youth leader training events.


Young people today face problems and pressures most of us even one generation older can’t begin to imagine. Stan and Jen have been there to help our kids navigate these rocky waters with grace and faith.


In twenty-nine years of ministry I have worked with many youth leaders, paid and unpaid. I can say unequivocally that Stan and Jen are among the best I have ever worked with.


In the past, Trinity has had paid youth directors. As we are in the process now of returning to that once again, I urge everyone to make a point of thanking Stan and Jen Bice, unpaid servants, for the difference they have made in the lives of many, many young people, and in the life of Trinity Church.


Thank you, Stan and Jen! You’re the best!


Blessings,

David Wentz

Haiti and Holy Week

Last night (Friday, March 27) Trinity Church was honored to host a marvelously eclectic concert of music to benefit long-term care of orphans in Haiti. Organized by David Slade of the SladeChild Foundation, a great collection of local jazz, blues and worship musicians donated their time, and the appreciative audience donated approximately $1500, 100% of which will go to Haitian orphan care.

I think this was a tremendous way to lead into Holy Week. But the way many people approach the week before Easter, they might miss the connection entirely.

Holy Week, sometimes called Easter Week, starts and ends with celebrations. Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, recalls the cheering of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the deliverer promised by God. They cheered, sang, and made a carpet of palm branches and their own coats to keep the road dust down as the donkey carried Jesus.

At Trinity, we will celebrate that tomorrow (March 28) with the premier presentation of “Majesty on a Donkey,” an original cantata for praise band (we call it a Praisata), written by our own George Lewis, at the 9:00am and 11:00am Sunday services.

Holy Week ends with Easter, which celebrates the fact that Jesus rose from the dead as a guarantee that all who put their faith in him will also rise from physical death to eternal life. Trinity, like churches everywhere, will be bursting with music, praise and joy.

But there’s a third name for Holy Week or Easter Week: Passion Week. The passion of the Christ, as many people know from the movie by that name, was a horrible episode of betrayal and sadistic torture that Jesus endured in between those Sundays. When the formerly-cheering crowds discovered that Jesus had come to deliver them from spiritual bondage, not from the Roman army that occupied their country, they turned on him. He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. And in so doing, he paid the price for all the sins of all the people of the world.

That’s why we celebrate. And that’s why I think it is so appropriate to lead into Holy Week by doing something to help Haitian children orphaned by a massive earthquake. Because the children in Haiti are suffering. And if you take away the Sundays, Holy Week is all about suffering. Jesus knows what those children are going through, and Jesus cares.

Some people might wonder about jazz and blues music in church, especially leading into Holy Week. But the Bible says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27). I think a concert that raises money to help orphans is the purest form of religion.

So have a wonderful Holy Week. Celebrate Palm Sunday! Celebrate Easter! But find a church service on Maundy (Holy) Thursday or Good Friday to remember what the celebration is all about. If you live near Annapolis, we'd love to see you at our service at Trinity on 7:30pm Thursday. Many people say it is one of the most moving services of the year. Or join the 24-hour prayer vigil starting at 8:00am Friday, organized by our youth.

And remember: in Haiti the ground has stopped shaking, but the work has just begun.

Fourteen Rules for Happy Relationships

From marriage to work to the clerk in the store, it’s all about how you treat people. Jesus said, “Treat other people the way you would want them to treat you.” Here are fourteen specific ways to apply it.

1. Smile

2. Take the initiative - most people are insecure, so say “Hi” first

3. Set the tone for every interaction by projecting the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

4. Look for God’s image in everyone

5. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative – choose to focus on things you like about the other person and things they are doing right

6. Watch your mouth – Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement (Ephesians 4:29)

7. Pay attention – To get anything worthwhile you have to pay something, to get a good relationship you have to pay attention

8. Don’t take offense – choose to give the benefit of the doubt

9. Give the defense a rest – proving your innocence is not always the most important thing

10. Look for win-win – relationships are not a zero-sum game

11. Ask, “Which is more important: getting my way, or this relationship?”

12. Pray God’s blessings for the other person

13. Look for ways to be God’s blessing for the other person

14. Love ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out

What if it still doesn’t work? “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). A relationship is a two-way street, and some people just won’t cooperate. Don’t let them make you feel guilty about it.

It Feels Good to Get Something Done

Three years ago I was invited to speak at a conference on the Holy Spirit in Turkey. Being invited to speak anywhere is exciting. Being invited to speak on the Holy Spirit is really exciting. But being asked to do it for the Christians in Turkey, which is 99.7% Muslim, is downright cool.

A year later I was invited back to lead conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders in two cities. I will be going back to do the same again in September.

There are fewer than 100 churches in Turkey, a country of over 70 million people. About half of the churches are in Istanbul. Few of them have been in existence longer than about ten years. As a result, there are very few experienced pastors in Turkey. There are also very few Christian books available in Turkish, and none that I know of on the practical aspects of administering a church. That may explain why my talks on that subject were so well received.

In the last year I have been working intermittently on expanding my notes into a book that can be translated and made available to Turkish pastors and church leaders. It will be in three sections, on the pastor, the local church, and the wider church. This morning I hit a milestone. I finished the first draft of the first section!

I know what you're thinking. "You've been working a year, and you just finished the first draft of the first third of the book?" In a word, yes. And it feels good. If you've ever worked a long time of a big project, you can identify.

Please pray that it is useful, and that I finish the rest of it more quickly. (As many of you know, the biggest problem is setting aside time to work on it regularly.)
And please pray for God's work in Turkey.

I Am No Longer My Own

“I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” - John Wesley, founder of Methodism

A spiritually significant event happened in the Sunday morning services on February 14. The people of Trinity United Methodist Church formally and officially renewed our recognition and acknowledgement that Trinity Church does not belong to us, but to God.

We did that by praying together John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, printed above.

I know this is not the first time the people of Trinity have prayed that prayer. In fact, when I first moved into the pastor’s office here, I found several copies of a Covenant Service in which that same prayer had been used. Nonetheless, I believe it was a significant act.

I spent most of the sermon time talking about what it means to tell God that we “freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.” I told of two churches who have prayed that prayer. For one, God chose to “let it be full” and “let it have all things.” It’s now one of the largest United Methodist churches in the world. The other church was one of the largest United Methodist churches in its area when they prayed that prayer. God chose, at least for a time, to “let it be brought low.” (You can hear the sermon at www.trinityannapolis.org.)

When a church prays the Wesley Covenant Prayer, there is no guarantee which way God will take it. On February 14 the Trinity congregation heard the possibilities, took time to search their hearts, and were invited to freely pray it or not. It sounded to me as if almost everyone chose to pray it.

When we acknowledge that the church belongs to God and not to us, then it’s up to God what he wants to do with it. We know that it will be for the greater good, but it may not seem to be for our local good, at least at first.

I’m blessed that Trinity is a people who understand this. For instance, many were very skeptical of putting a big screen up in the front of our beautiful traditional sanctuary, but you were willing to go along with it if that’s what it takes to reach people who don’t know Jesus. And most of us have found now that we actually are glad to have the screen. Going along with God’s plan doesn’t have to be painful.

Of course, all this applies when we pray the same prayer for our own individual lives. Do you trust God that much?

So we’ve prayed the prayer. What will happen now? I believe that God will choose to take Trinity’s yieldedness to his will and turn that to something that, like the video screen, will not only bless our community but bless us as well. I can’t guarantee that, but it’s a feeling I have.

God has a plan for Annapolis. Trinity Church has now publicly said to God, “Whatever you need us to do to make your plan happen, we’ll do it.” I’m excited to see how God is going to answer that prayer. I don’t think we’ll have long to wait.

Snow Day

As I write this we are in the middle of what will probably be called “The Blizzard of 2010.” I’d guess we have at least fifteen inches of snow on the ground, and forecasters are calling for five to ten inches more by the time it’s over.

Some people have to work during a snowstorm, and I thank God for the plow drivers, first responders, power line crews, and others.

But for most of us, especially if we don’t lose electricity, a snow day is something we look forward to. I know it is for me.

A snow day is a chance to just sit back and relax. Nobody expects us to go to the office. Nobody expects us to run any errands. Nobody expects us to work in the yard or drive anyone anywhere.

So what do we do instead? Read by the fire. Work a puzzle. Play a game. Drink hot chocolate. Odds are the whole family is there in the house together, which may not happen often anymore, and we can do these things together. We might go out and build a snowman or have a snowball battle. Or we might just sit and talk to each other – which most of us need a lot more of.

And when it’s over, you feel good. You feel relaxed. You feel refreshed and rejuvenated. And you may think, “Wow, we ought to do that more often.”

You know what? God thinks so, too. In fact, God thinks it’s so important that he made it one of the Ten Commandments. One day out of every seven. The Bible calls it “sabbath.” It’s a time to rest, relax, be with family and friends, and be with God.

Your body needs it. Your mind needs it – just ask a doctor how many health problems are caused or exacerbated by stress. Your spirit needs it. Your family needs it.

Don’t wait for a snow day to force you to obey the Fourth Commandment. Do it every week. Start with church, which refreshes your spirit in worship and refreshes your soul by being around a wonderful bunch of people. Then spend the rest of the day doing things you enjoy and you aren’t required to do. You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make for you the rest of the week.

God didn’t command us to take a weekly snow day because he likes rules. He did it because he loves you. So enjoy it!