WHAT NEXT Matthew 9:35-38
There was a very rough piece of sea on the UK coast and many ships sank and people lost their lives. So, they built a lifeboat station very basic but functional, it was saving lives and people came and looked at it, they became very proud of this lifeboat station and added all sorts of the latest gadgets.
But then they outgrew that one so built an even better one, many drowning people were getting saved and they had invites to go and talk about lifeboat stations.
They formed committees to discuss which boat to have, they built a museum and put up pictures of people from the past. Focus groups were formed and conferences on saving drowning people and books were written.
All this was great but they were so busy they no longer had time to save people.
This is a parable about the church, in 1904-5 a young guy called Evan Roberts was at the centre of the Welsh revival, many people were saved it petered out and for years decline has been the order of the day.
Until now. . .
An African guy called Yinka felt God speaking to him in Reading and they went on the streets with a simple message God loves you and has an awesome plan for your life. Many people accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
They then went to Liverpool and Bristol calling this “The Turning”, again a huge response, so Julian Richards invited them to Wales.
Last week across 18 sites in Wales people went on the streets with that message.
3351 people accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and the next task is follow up and discipleship.
David Brownnut said last week it had confirmed what we knew, that is not quite right, it confirmed what we thought, now we know.
The night with Martin Lewis and the Garden Party were other chances to reach out to people.
There are many people out there who want to accept Jesus it's the church they are not sure about.
But this is going to take time and effort, are we prepared to pay the price to do this or are other things more important to us.
In Acts Ch 6:1-7 it says that people were struggling to care for everyone, so in other words not everybody can do everything we are not a large chapel but by Welsh standards we are no longer small but it needs everybody to play their part.
A mistake I have made is to try to do too many things, that is not going to happen anymore. Together with Phill and Geraint we will look at how we use people's gifts better.
A minister I know who is into Welsh church history has told me two things as to why the revival didn't last.
One is the First World War many of the converts perished in the trenches.
The other reason was people got converted but they still, in the main, lived hard lives where every day was a struggle.
It was William Booth who formed the Salvation Army who said I preach three things to the poor soup, shave and salvation.
If a person is cold, hungry or homeless it makes hearing the Good News very hard to hear.
CS Lewis was an atheist who became a Christian and he wrote a book called the Screwtape Letters it's a junior demon talking to a senior demon and their greatest strategy was to convince people heaven and hell didn't exist.
Secondly make everyone so busy that they don't have time for a relationship with Jesus.
I wonder what Screwtape would make of the current state of affairs.
Maybe something like this.
“Oh, how's it been going?”
“Well it was going well, we set the young against the old with Brexit and they are still arguing about it even those Christians are involved.”
“Oh well done, brilliant.”
“And then we had bombs, knife attacks and ran people down with cars.”
“Oh, that was a master stroke and not many of them were saved.”
“And then it was made illegal to say ‘you know who’ was the only way to the Father, two of those Christians were arrested and dragged before the courts but sadly a Christian lawyer beat us on that one case was thrown out.”
“But master then something even more terrible has happened the Christians are fighting back even Blaenycwm Chapel is on the move baptising people, feeding the hungry and caring for those in need in the community and praying and seeing miracles.”
“Oh no, that's terrible”
“And then in cities in England but then across Wales they went out on the streets telling people about big J and many are accepting Him, it's a disaster.”
“We just have to hope it won't last.”
A glimpse maybe of the enemy but it's our choice where we go from here. Every person has a part to play in the future. It's not about Blaenycwm Chapel, it's a building.
Remember the life boat station parable.
It's about each and every one of you who are precious to Jesus, and it's about those in our community who have not yet accepted Him.
There is nothing more important than this, it is more than life and death, it is about eternity and life with Jesus.