At the turn of the 20th century, the one-eyed son of former slaves was receiving tuition from a Methodist-trained minister from Topeka, Kansas in order to attend Bible school in Texas. Because this student was African-American, he was segregated from the white students. From his place seated in the hall outside the classroom, his heart (to use John Wesley’s expression) was strangely warmed by God’s Spirit.
In spring 1906, he was invited to speak in a Nazarene church in Los Angeles where he preached that it really had been the Lord’s intention to pour out His Spirit on all people – even the poor, black ones. He was locked out of the church. Not to be dissuaded, he continued to speak to the poor on front porches and in any home that would receive him. Interest swelled and an abandoned warehouse at 312 Azusa Street was commandeered to be a place of gathering for the revival that was now underway.
The Los Angeles Times reported on April 18, 1906: “Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and the night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of the worshippers who spend hours swaying back and forth…”
This itinerant preacher was William Joseph Seymour and he opened the door to a move of God that Los Angeles Times readers could never have imagined. That movement placed the Word, the Spirit and the mission of the Church into the hands of poor, multi-racial people. Seymour let loose what was deemed to be an entire underclass of men and women to reach out with the love of God.
From these beginnings, the Pentecostal church increased steadily throughout the world until by 1991 it took its place as the largest family of Protestant denominations in the world. In January 1999 it was recorded that more than 450 million people were involved in Pentecostalism, with an annual increase of 19 million per annum. Sixty-six percent of this movement is found in the developing world.
As he obediently put down his small, shabby suitcase in downtown Los Angeles, did William Seymour have any idea what the Lord was planning? When we faithfully do what the Lord has asked of us, when the people of God are mobilized in His love and work together to complete the task, beyond our comprehension, beyond anything we could ask or imagine, the world is transformed.
God has set a passion in our hearts that the family of churches across New England that is the growing ADNE, would play its part in the re-evangelization of New England; to turn the spiritual tide; to be relevant in the face of cultural change while remaining Biblically faithful; to be a church of His Word and His Spirit, expressed in gracious and loving evangelism and justice, distinguished by radical generosity and compassion. This will require a movement of God’s Spirit. But this does not mean that we get to sit back and watch God do all the work. There has been no significant move of God in the whole history of salvation that did not embrace, did not mobilize, all of us ordinary people in the hands of an extraordinary God.
We are all called, each one of us. In the hands of an extraordinary God, we all have something unique and essential to contribute to the advance of God’s Kingdom. The apostle Peter wrote to followers of Jesus (and that includes us today): “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
Bishop N.T. Wright put it this way: “The long story of God’s plan to put things right, starting with Abraham, climaxing in Jesus and the Spirit, and looking ahead to the new heavens and new earth, is not the story of guilty humans being forgiven so they could go to heaven, but of guilty humans being rescued in order to be worshippers and workers in God’s restoration movement, God’s kingdom-project.”
How do you know what your ministry is? Look at your talents, gifts and abilities. When you use those talents and gifts to help other people, that’s called ministry. You may be at home, at work, at a sporting event, in the aisle of a grocery store, at a committee meeting, at an exercise class, on the train — anytime you’re obediently helping other people in God’s name, you’re ministering. And when take our small step of obedience, we can be sure that God will take it and bless it in ways beyond anything we could have imagined.
Bishop, Praise God. Am always blessed. Keep it up. Phil. 1:6.
Amos