by Steve | Jul 10, 1996 | Archive - 1996
Troubled soul finds salvation
By Alice Crann
At first Joseph Justiss hated the revival. “I remember not being able to breathe. My head was hurting. I was nauseated. I watched [evangelist] Steve Hill preach and I hated it.”
He left vowing never to return. The next night after work the 25-year-old went home and discovered everyone was at the revival.
“The house was empty but so was I. I can’t explain the emptiness I felt. So, I drove to the revival and I sat in the back of the church.”
He was surrounded by hundreds of worshippers, many seeking the salvation offered by Jesus. Justiss was looking to be saved from what he described as a life of depression and degradation.
Steve Hill came up to me and it felt like he looked right through me. I got freezing cold. I went into a fetal position. Every time he touched me, it hurt, it burned. He began to pray for me. I thought I was flipping out.”
Justiss tried to run, but Hill grabbed him.
“I fell on the floor. All I remember was fighting Steve Hill, and us wrestling on the floor he kept praying for me. Something finally broke in me, and I began to sob from the bottom of my stomach.
The next day, Justiss met hill for counselling. They talked for hours about the things in Justiss’ life that were making him unhappy: homosexuality, the occult, drugs, alcohol. That night, July 10, his parents drove him back to the revival.
“I went to the front row. I told God, ‘If you can take all of this away – the homosexuality, the occult – I’ll serve you again.’ I went to stand and I fell hard on my face. It was like God was saying, this is how I want you to serve me.
“I started crying, but this time I did not feel emptiness, I felt peace. This is when I was saved.
His mother Guadalopi Justiss said she knows the power of God, but she still stunned by what she calls “the miracle” that saved her son. “How can I say it? the change is like night and day. There aren’t any words to describe the difference. Before he was suicidal. Now he’s at total peace with himself.”
As a teenager, he had tried to fit in when it came to sports, hanging out with the guys, and dating girls. “But nothing ever worked,” Justiss said. “This is when I decided I was born gay.” At age 19, at a Christmas party, he said he had his first experience with pot, alcohol, and sex.
“That’s when I came out of the closet. I became close to a man, and we moved in together.” After two years, Justiss got restless and depressed, and once again tried to commit suicide with pain medication. That’s what started the flow of psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and – antidepressants.
His mother began begging for him to go to the revival. “I told her I didn’t want to go – that it was all hype, all emotions like a tribe dancing around a fire until everyone is caught up in the frenzy. But my mom begged and begged.”
When Justiss first went in he was demon-possessed. He looked like a wild man,” said the Rev. John Kilpatrick, pastor of Brownsville Assembly. “But the Lord delivered him. He did an about-face. It’s miraculous! It’s very evident that he loves the Lord. Today, he’s a tranquil person, effervescent and happy. Everyone at the church looks at him like a trophy of this revival because they know what a mess he was.
Justiss said he is no longer a homosexual. “I want to have a wife. I want to have children.”
But what about those who say people are born gay, that it all has to do with genetics? “I can’t speak for anyone else. All I know is that I am no longer attracted to men. I am attracted to women.
He now works at the Christian Television Network as a master control operator and attends Pacesetters Bible School at Pine Forest United Methodist Church.
Justiss attends the revival on his nights off from the work to praise the Lord and gain inner strength from the Holy Spirit. “I don’t take what’s happened to me lightly, and it’s not all blue skies and butterflies. I go through daily battles. It’s a daily decision to serve God but my heart has changed. when I look at my eyes in the mirror I can see something different.”
Alice Crann is a staff writer with the Pensacola News Journal, from which this article is reprinted with permission.
by Steve | Jul 10, 1996 | Archive - 1996
The Pensacola Outpouring
By Steve Beard
July/August 1996
The final evening after a week of revival services is always bittersweet After all, God has been at work in the lives of the faithful. The preaching has been challenging, the praise and worship music has been inspirational, and hearts are transformed at the altar. God’s presence seems almost palpable. In response, men and women make heartfelt commitments to spend more time in daily worship, Bible study, and prayer.
After all of this, the evangelist packs up and travels to the next town. Slowly we adjust to the absence of the fiery sermons and altar calls. Not long after, we appoint a committee to plan for next year’s revival.
What would happen, however, if the evangelist never left? What would happen if revival never ceased? How would we adjust?
That has become a major question at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida. On Father’s Day Sunday, June 18, 1995, evangelist Steve Hill shared about a life-changing experience of literally being overcome by God’s presence and overwhelmed by his love several months before at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London. When Hill asked how many would like to receive a refreshing of the Holy Spirit, more than 1,000 people responded. As he laid hands on people, the Spirit of God swept over the congregation in an unusually powerful way.
The morning service lasted till 4 p.m. Needless to say, the Lord had more in mind on this Father’s Day than merely taking the dads out for lunch. One year later, Hill is still there preaching. From all indications, the church has happily adjusted and is praying, “More, Lord, more!”
Since that Sunday, more than 20,000 people have made public commitments to Jesus Christ at the Brownsville Assembly – many of them actually running and diving for the altar. Punk rockers and lawyers, strippers and bankers, truck drivers and crack addicts have all found new life in Christ at the church. One couple who had been divorced for a year discovered one another at the altar after each had independently given their lives to the Lord. They are now remarried.
Simultaneously, untold thousands of Christians from virtually every denomination – including United Methodism – have experienced renewal by receiving prayer. Pastors testify to having received a fresh evangelistic anointing. Some believers respond to the prayer ministry with unusual manifestations such as trembling, groaning, shaking, and falling under the power of the Holy Spirit. Men and women from all socio-economic levels flock to the church in search of salvation, deliverance, Holy Spirit empowerment, and physical healing.
The Brownsville Assembly now holds revival meetings every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. Cumulative attendance has been more than 650,000. On weekends, people arrive in the afternoon in order to find a place in the 2,300-seat church. The parking lot is usually still filled after midnight. License plates indicate that some have driven from halfway across the United States. As word has traveled across Christendom regarding what has become known as the “Pensacola Outpouring,” international visitors from throughout the globe have made pilgrimages to the panhandle city.
The revival has caused the church to make several adjustments – all of which they were more than happy to make. The financial burden alone includes additional phone lines, child care helpers, drinking water, electricity, and parking-lot security.
“We’ve prayed for revival for two-and-a-half years, and we knew one was coming,” said Pastor John Kilpatrick of the Brownsville Assembly. “But this magnitude has shocked us.”
Preparing for revival
Dr. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world located in South Korea, was praying in 1991 for revival in America. He believes that the Lord led him to point his finger at Pensacola on a map of the United States. “I am going to send revival to the seaside city of Pensacola,” Cho sensed the Lord saying, “and it will spread like a fire until all of America has been consumed by it.” Pastors in the area have been mindful of the prophesy ever since.
Pastor Kilpatrick sought God’s direction for their Sunday night services. The Lord reminded him of Matthew 21:13: “My house will be called a house of prayer.” He asked the women of the church to sew banners in order to focus specific prayer on issues such as spiritual warfare, family, souls, leaders of our country, healing, pastors, peace of Jerusalem, schools, and revival.
The night that the banners were paraded in, Kilpatrick didn’t know how to divide the congregation evenly between the banners, but he noticed that as each banner was carried in, different people began to weep. As the banner representing prayer for the leaders of our country came in, he lost all composure himself. At the Spirit’s leading, he encouraged the congregation to go to the banner that they had cried over. “As soon as I made that announcement, everyone got up and joined others around a particular banner,” Kilpatrick explains in his book, Feast of Fire. “No one was left in his or her pew and the people were evenly distributed. Prayers were lifted up that evening as our congregation set a precedence of intercessory commitment that continues weekly to this day.”
As the weeks went on, the congregation saw many prayers answered, but there was a special emphasis around the revival banner. More and more people joined the prayer for revival each week. “They would gather around it for long periods of time, seemingly in deep travail and especially intense intercession,” reported Kilpatrick.
Pastor Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill are both very quick to point out that what is taking place is not only for Brownsville, let alone for the Assemblies of God. Instead, this revival is for all. Southern Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and independents have all been touched.
One group that has been blessed is the United Methodists in the Pensacola area, most notably the congregation at the Pine Forest UM Church.
A family revival
Marilyn and Ted Bridges attend Pine Forest. Prior to the revival, they had been separated for more than six months. “I thought things were going along real well, but evidently they weren’t,” Ted, a retired Army colonel, told Good News. “I wasn’t a drunk, but I abused alcohol. It was really weighing on my heart.”
Marilyn told Ted that she would come back if he would hold his drinking. “I could see that he was coming to grips with it,” she reported. “We were struggling because his anger was coming back. I could see him dealing with that anger, but he still had a long way to go.”
Shortly before the revival, the two of them ended their separation. However, neither of them could have anticipated the transformation in their marriage that was about to take place.
On the first night Marilyn went to the services, she came home at two o’clock in the morning. Her husband said, “Good gracious, where have you been?”
“To the revival!” she responded. Marilyn told him he needed to join her. Although he didn’t want to go, Ted gave in under one condition: “I’ll go, but I’m not going to stay until two o’clock in the morning. I’ll take my car because when I get tired I’m coming home.”
At the conclusion of the service, the ministry team attended to those desiring prayer. “I knew that if this as really of God then there was going to be some kind of dynamic force there,” said Ted. “And there was.” Ted received prayer and “it was like my legs were knocked out from under me, and I couldn’t get enough of it after that.” They returned the next night. Ted received more prayer and knew that he was different.
“I still have a long way to go,” says Ted, “but I’m a lot better person than I was.”
“From that very first night that Ted and I were together at the revival,” Marilyn told Good News, “God healed all the hurt of 30 years of struggles that we had had. It was a miracle.”
The revival has had an effect upon the entire family. Their 19-year-old daughter Leah remembers the night well. “I was praying for Dad too,” she said. “The Spirit of God fell on me as I was praying for my father and I started crying. I had gotten to the point where I couldn’t talk to my father because I had so much anger. And he had told me many times, ‘Sorry,’ but I had not let that go, and that was sin in my life. God was pulling that out.” Reconciliation within the Bridges family has been one of the faith-filled outcomes of the Brownsville revival.
Needless to say, Ted’s life has not been the same. It was not long thereafter when he stood up in church and said, “There cannot be anything going on in your life that is important enough to keep you away from the revival service. You need to go and experience it.” He couldn’t contain himself. “I had to say it,” he says. “And now I can’t keep quiet.”
An initially skeptical pastor
The Rev. Perry Dalton, senior pastor of Pine Forest UM Church, was on vacation when the Brownsville revival broke out. Youth director Linda Smith alerted him to what was going on. After all, she had begun attending on the third night with members of her youth group.
Dalton was encouraged to attend but initially thought to himself, “I don’t really need this. I’m a very happy pastor with a growing church where a lot of things going on.” Nevertheless, he agreed to go, secretly hoping it would die before he got there. Of course, it didn’t. “After the first or second revival meeting, I realized that God was doing something here and I needed to be a part of it. And my church needed to be a part of it,” he told Good News.
The relationship between Brownsville Assembly and Pine Forest UM Church is wonderful, reports Dalton. “There is a real ecumenical spirit towards the Methodist Church. There has been no effort to steal sheep away,” he reported. “There has been no effort to ask [UM] people to give their time back to Brownsville. There has been every opportunity to include them in what they were doing.” Dalton is one of several local pastors that participate in Friday evening baptism services at Brownsville.
“I have more committed Christians now than I have ever had,” he says. “The Brownsville situation really created a holiness in the lives of the people, a real desire for righteousness.”
Because of the revival, Pine Forest UM Church has made a few adjustments- primarily by offering several different kinds of worship services. “That has worked fairly well,” reports Dalton.
Of course, the manifestations – particularly the shaking and trembling under the Holy Spirit among the youth – can create quite a stir. Recognizing that manifestations are certainly not common within contemporary United Methodism, Dalton says, “We don’t encourage the manifestations but we don’t discourage them. I don’t really see it as an obstacle or a problem. I had never seen the manifestations within the Methodist church before this, so my concern was what it was doing to my congregation and how I was going to come back and relate to it.”
The revival also caused Dalton to examine his own Methodist roots. “I have a new appreciation for the Wesleyan revival.” Some of what he sees in Pensacola is reminiscent of what John Wesley observed in his journals. “That’s part of my heritage I didn’t know,” he says.
“The aspect that is new to me is the depth and length of time that this has gone on,” Dalton says. “What God has done here is let it go on long enough that it has had some good lengthy results.”
Youth ablaze
Most of the young men and women in the Pine Forest youth group were Christians before the revival. As one girl described the situation, “We were Christians before, but now we’re on fire.”
“Before this summer, I was backslidden,” says Jennifer Coe, 17, president of the youth group. “I knew right from wrong. I knew enough to know that what I was doing was wrong, and I was miserable where I was at.” Throughout the summer, God had created a spiritual hunger in Jennifer. She has been a part of the revival since the second night. She prayed, “God, I just want more of you.” She didn’t know what to think of all of the aspects of the revival, but she knew God was there. “I could feel the presence of God so strongly,” she told Good News. “It was like soaking in his love.”
These young people have become very serious about intimate worship and repentance. “I just want to go praise God,” says Tamara Nowin, a 17-year-old who attends Aldersgate UM Church in nearby Molino. “I wasn’t really committed until I went to Brownsville. I knew there was more I had to give up. I saw how powerful God was and I didn’t understand why I was holding on to these things anymore. I just wanted to give it all up.”
“The first thing it affected was my desire to worship the Lord,” says Terrie Taylor, a youth counselor at Pine Forest. “I had a new hunger to praise Jesus. I was excited about coming to church. I don’t think I ever really worshipped until now. I had a new hunger to read the Bible. I noticed right away being able to focus on Jesus without any distraction in my quiet time.”
For the two year before the spiritual awakening came to Pensacola, youth pastor Linda Smith had encouraged the young people to pray for revival. She even helped initiate what would become the Pacesetters Bible School in order to provide in-depth theological and Biblical studies for young people. She has “never seen such fast-forward spiritual growth” in all of her years of ministry. Smith believes that this generation holds the promise of great spiritual destiny. It has been through her encouragement and discipleship that so many youth in Pensacola are seeking the deeper things of God.
The young people claim that the change in their musical tastes is probably one of the most noticeable responses to the revival. The majority of them have given up on secular radio altogether. Instead, they prefer to listen to Vineyard-style praise and worship music.
Brian Hansen, 17, got rid of a sizable musical collection. “It was tame music compared to what’s out there, but when you put it next to God’s light, it’s still moral filth,” he told Good News. “It was a big purification thing in my life and God blessed me though it.”
Others in the group spoke of their declining interest in television. “’Ricki Lake’ was the best talk show in the world,” says Janet Webb, 17. Now she only watches Christian programming and the news.
“God has changed so much in my heart,” says Missy Gandy, 14. “Before the revival, being a Christian meant not doing certain things and coming to church once a week. Now its a lot more. It’s my life. It’s everything. It’s wanting to live for God, and that’s all I really want. It’s my heart’s desire.”
Caleb Phillips, 14, is relatively new to the youth group. He has only been to Brownsville once but he says that the changes in his friends and the around the church are obvious. “Our Bible studies have been stronger, more powerful; we can sit there for hours and talk about God.”
Caleb has been involved in many youth groups because he is part of a Navy family that travels frequently. “I never would have even imagined a church group like this,” he said. “At other churches, you go on Sunday and Wednesday night, and it becomes repetitive … .I’ve gotten to the point where I like coming to church. I used to do different things so I wouldn’t have to go. I’d be sick that morning or something else. Now I even enjoy the preaching. God really opened my ears so that I could hear and understand.”
The revival has also given many of the young people a deep realization of God’s love. “Lately, God has been trying to tell me that he is going to be my Daddy,” says Erin Butler, 15. “Not ‘O Heavenly Father,’ but Daddy. I’m starting to find verses in the Bible about the Father. Whenever I pray, I picture myself running up and sitting in his lap and hugging him really tight. I tell him everything like he was my daddy.”
“Before the revival the whole concept of God was a philosophical discussion for me,” said Brian Hansen. “The theology and the ethics were interesting, but I couldn’t understand how God could be personal to me. After this revival, he became so real to me. I used to be plagued with doubts and now they are gone.
“When we pray we are not praying to a God who is an infinite number of miles away,” he continued. “Our God is closer to us than anyone else can be.”
The Pine Forest youth group is confident that it is part of a special generation that is in the midst of a historic moment. Some of them testify to having seen angels at Brownsville and other visions from the Lord. Others have shaken under the power of the Holy Spirit while in school – public and private. Yet Terrie Taylor simply summarizes the change within the members this way: “Increased hunger for the Lord and for witnessing. They had that already, but it just grew. An increase in their wanting to speak and share with others. An increased burden for others to get saved. There’s fire in their hearts.”
Spreading the fire
“A revival of this magnitude occurs once, perhaps twice in a century,” says youth pastor Linda Smith. “True revival, according to church history, is spontaneous and occurs sovereignly among church people much like spontaneous combustion where the conditions are perfect to create a fire.” With all the prayer offered for revival, Pensacola was ready for this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
“What’s happening lines up with the inner witness of believers,” says Smith. “It lines up with church history, and it lines up the Scripture.”
Those in Pensacola are looking to spread the revival fire. Like others of her generation, college student Leah Bridges is grateful for the revival but does not intend to merely live off of the fumes of old memories. “We need to come back to this river to be cleansed and washed and renewed, but He is telling us to take it other places,” she says. “I have no idea how long God’s going to have this revival here, but if it does stop, my heart’s desire is that we’re not sitting around going, ‘Remember the days when we had revival at Brownsville.'”
She believes that her generation must take the revival fires to other cities and countries. “I feel like that’s the burden God has laid on my heart and many other youths. My generation, we are the ones that God is going to use.”
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
by Steve | Jul 10, 1996 | Archive - 1996
The Good News Interview with Steve Hill
July/ August 1996
What follows is adapted from a conversation that Steve Beard, editor of Good News, had with evangelist Steve Hill. Revival meetings were launched by Rev. Hill at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, on Fathers Day 1995. The services went on continuously through 2000.
What prepared you for this revival?
I was saved out of the drug culture. My background has helped me as far as the soul-winning aspect. Early in my Christian life, back in 1977, I got around David Wilkerson’s ministry. He had an academy in Texas called Twin Oaks, a two-year leadership academy. Leonard Ravenhill taught on prayer, Nicky Cruz taught evangelism. It was a school where you were held responsible for what you learned. And if you did not learn, they would kick you out.
They would teach us on evangelism and then put us in a van, drive us to the streets of Dallas to a dope party, dump us out and say, “Go into that dope party, we’ll pick you up at four in the morning.” It was just hard-core evangelism. Instead of teaching the Four Spiritual Laws, they’d say, “Get out there, learn from experience.” When we came back, we’d talk about some of the hindrances we had, the bad experiences, and what we would change about our approach. Then they’d send us out again. You know very quickly whether you’re called to evangelism.
I graduated from that school, and went into church ministry. It was when I took a group of young people to Mexico that God called me to the mission field. I went to Argentina, and the very first meeting I went to was a Carlos Annacondia meeting out in the middle of a soccer field. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. I saw fifteen to twenty-thousand people craving God. I mean, going after God.
I had Carlos lay hands on me one night, and I feel that from him came a real evangelistic anointing. I’ve had the evangelism desire all my life, but I watched him-he’s led over two million people to Jesus. At one o’clock in the morning he’s still praying with people. At two o’clock in the morning, he’s still laying hands on people. He’ll go night after night. He’s so common, so loving, all he cares about is that one little boy, that one grandpa, that one uncle that’s coming to Jesus. I hung around that for seven years, and you absorb it.
How did you end up at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London?
I read in Time magazine how God was moving. I had been to London several times, and I thought, “I’ve got to see this. I’ve got to see God moving in the Anglican Church because I can’t imagine it.” The article said they were laughing, they were falling, and I had a very critical spirit.
I went to the bed and breakfast that we stay at when I’m in London; it’s owned by a Christian couple. I asked them where God was moving, and they said, “It’s our church.” They went to Holy Trinity Brompton. I said, “I need to make an appointment with the pastor.” They said, “Steve, he’s the busiest man in Europe. All of Europe comes here to get prayed for by him.”
I said, “Call him up and ask if he has time to pray for a Texan.” I wanted a little private visit with this guy [Sandy Miller] to see what was going on.
I went there at two o’clock that afternoon and there was a conference going on. I walked into the stately Anglican church in downtown London right by Harrod’s, the richest area of town, and stepped over about 500 bodies, people shaking all over the place. I had seen things like that before, but I’m an evangelist, so I’m after souls. If I can’t see hundreds and hundreds of people getting saved, then I’ll leave.
The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “You don’t need to talk to Sandy Miller. Just have him pray for you.” I walked up to him and said, “My name is Steve.” He says, “Oh my, we have an appointment at three o’clock, but look what’s happened in my church.”
I went up to him, he laid his hands on my head and it was over. I mean, I went down under the power of the Holy Spirit.
How do you channel revival fire?
That’s the most frustrating part to pastors because you can only live so long in this renewal. The first week after this broke out, I spoke a message on how to benefit from a divine refreshing. The first point was get all you can get. The second one was mix vegetables with the honey. Make sure you keep your feet on the ground. And the third one was let your stall get dirty. Where there is no oxen, the stall is clean. Get out there. You’re bubbly, you’re all on fire with the Christians, but let that happen at the workplace. And that’s what they started to do. And people started pouring in.
What is the relevance of it beginning Father’s Day?
I believe that was just a real special divine appointment. We didn’t really think about that. It was just totally spontaneous. The Father, he showed up on Father’s Day the way he did, and just loved on us. And you know, everybody got back to work. They got back to work in the fields and going after God, because they felt the nearness of the Lord.
What is the most important thing God has taught you through this revival
What I’m convinced of more than anything else is the urgency of the hour. The urgency of the hour and the necessity of right now.
This is not a coliseum, this is not a secular place, this is night after night, sinners are coming to a church. Why? They’re hungry. People are hungry and God has sent the famine. The Bible says in Amos, that God will send the famine. The famine for truth. So he’s going to do his part; we’re the feeding station. We’re the ones with tractor trailer rigs full of food. We’re laden down with everything these people need but they come into our churches and what do they get? Nothing. They don’t get fed. They need to hear about hell. They need to hear the full gospel. But they don’t get it. God is doing his part, we need to do our part.
How do you keep track of what is taking place at the altar?
We’re seeing a thousand people saved a week, but we are very conservative with the figures. To me, when someone comes up and has backslidden, that’s a salvation. They are a prodigal. They’ve been living in sin. He [the prodigal son] came back, crawled on his face and he said, “I’m not worthy. I can’t even be under your roof.” And the Father received him. That’s why Charles Finney and Jonathan Edwards preached about backslidden conditions. Our country was backslidden. When we give that altar call, there are a lot of people that are saved for the first time. A lot of people that come down that have never known the Lord, but there are also a lot of people that are backsliders and prodigals that are coming back to the Lord.
After they come to the altar, what happens to them? How do you follow up with so many people?
There are a lot of people that are coming from out of state. I had never seen anything like this. We have fathers and mothers bringing their unsaved children from Minnesota. They bring in van loads from Birmingham and have four or five unsaved people in the van to be prayed for healing. They come down here and they get saved, and so we encourage them to get involved in the local church. We do our very best to link them with people who have brought them, or we tell them about local Methodist churches and Baptist churches. Several pastors have gleaned people from this revival. But its an unusual type of situation because so many people are coming in from other areas that it is literally impossible for us to keep tabs on everybody that is coming. But another beauty of this is that a lot of people who get saved keep coming back because this is not a one week thing. So this is also like a discipleship process.
What do you make of the physical manifestations?
The Lord is welcome in this place to do anything he wants. But there is a balance here. They receive the gospel, they receive the cross, the blood. When the manifestations come, I welcome the manifestations, but I don’t major on the minors.
This last days awakening, mark these words – I’m not a prophet, this is not a prophecy – but this is what is going to happen. This awakening is going to shake this country, the power is going to come down.
I’m also a youth evangelist, and we are dealing with a culture that may not be demon-possessed, but they are possessed by demons. They are consumed with demonic warfare twenty-four hours a day. They have seen the power of Satan at work. You watch any rock concert, the frenzy, the fire, the pull, the enthusiasm that’s there. We talk about our God, and the power of God. We sing, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” and they’re going, “Where is it?” They want to believe, but they see mom and dad are limp, weak, and they respond, “Where is the power? Mom, you’re popping valium and prozac and everything else and you’re talking about the power of God? Give me a break, Momma.” And so they come into this meeting, the punkers come in here, every age, every kind of person in the world comes into this meeting and they are hit by the power of God. Undeniably swept off their feet by the power of God and they basically by the hundreds say, “What must I do to be saved?”
Does everyone respond so positively?
There will be folks here tonight, who are skeptical and critical-they hate this revival. They don’t want anything to do with it, but they are out there tonight, and they are going to get saved. They are going to fall to the ground under the power of God, they’re going to be back next week with their friends. Why? They’re out here because they’re curious, they’re out here because Aunt Mabel was healed of cancer, they’re here for a million different reasons.
Are you overwhelmed by the historic nature of this revival?
What is phenomenal about this is the fact that when I look upon the people I see all the hunger. They come from the comers of the globe. They don’t come for the beaches. They come for this meeting and yeah, that blows me away. And I’m beginning to see how this could affect the nation. People are attracted to the fire. John Wesley said it: “I set myself on fire and the people come to watch me burn.”
This interview appeared in the July/August 1996 issue of Good News. The Rev. Steve Hill died in 2014 at the age of 60 years old. Photo: Courtesy of Steve Hill Ministries.
by Steve | Jan 12, 1996 | Archive - 1996
Archive: “Speak Lord!”
By Marilyn N. Anderes
It has been said that “the call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him.” Those who belong to God know his unique voice. He speaks with authority, trustworthiness, and life. Unlike Satan, Jesus expresses no condemnation for the sinner—only for sin. Although listeners are an endangered species, we can take personal responsibility for removing the cotton from our ears in 1996.
Our example in good listening is the Lord himself. Psalm 116:1 tells us that he hears our “voice and [our] supplications.” God hears what we say and what we’re really saying—the cry of our hearts. Consider this example.
“A man with leprosy came to [Jesus] and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured” (Mark 1:40- 42). Outside the city—often in the garbage heaps—banished lepers heard the familiar cries of taunting, fearful citizens. “Unclean! Unclean!” There weren’t many kind words and no hugs. With white, decaying lips the leper said “Heal me!” but with his heart he said, “Hold me!” Imagine the man’s joy as Jesus reached out and touched him.
God heard what the leper said and what he was really saying. And, God desires that we hear what he says and what he’s really saying—the cry of his heart. Oswald Chambers wrote: “Isaiah said the Lord spoke to him ‘with a strong hand’ (8:11), that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Every time circumstances press, say ‘Speak Lord.’ Then make time to listen.”
Psalm 107 offers four circumstances common to man. All of us fall into at least one of the scenarios and each of us can follow the solution offered. As you look at each example, probe your own life. Ask God to reveal where you fit most right now. Use the circumstance to say “Speak, Lord.” And then listen!
Psalm 107:4-9 tells about Wanderers With No Home. These people were lost, unsettled, hungry and thirsty for something. They longed for a haven. The wanderers sent out their SOS and were led by a straight way where they could settle. Their thirst was quenched and they were satisfied. They said, “Speak, Lord” and God showed them the way and they praised him (v. 8). Perhaps you’re looking for someone to settle down with, but you’ve not allowed Jesus to touch your heart until now. He is the way home!
Prisoners In Bondage (Psalm 107:10-16) were gloomy, chained, and seated in darkness. Why? Because they rebelled against God’s words and they stumbled. No one came to the rescue until God heard and broke through the gates and bars. Their heaviness turned into praise (vs. 15). They said “Speak, Lord!” and he showed them the truth. You, too, can make your way to freedom. John 8:31-32 says, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”(NASV).
Psalm 107:17-22 tells about Rebels In Affliction. Because of their many sins, these people were near death. They couldn’t even eat. But, again, they cried to God and he sent his living, enduring Word to heal them. Are you experiencing spiritual ill health; so sick you don’t care for the food of the Word? Say to God, “Speak, Lord,” and as you confess, he will show you life. Praise comes as you listen to his heart (v. 21).
Merchants In Peril (Psalm 107:23-32) were ordinary folks going about their business. They sailed with their wares to faraway ports, but the wind churned the waves. Up and down. Down and up. They were discouraged and their lives seemed as out of control as drunken sailors. Nothing they could think of worked. So, they cried to the Lord. Are you living a rollercoaster life, longing for balance? Are your daily schedules out of control and you’re at your wit’s end? Dare to say, “Speak, Lord” and watch God hush the waters as he guides you into his haven. Praising God, you’ll know the tempest can sound its fury but your heart will be stable because God spoke and you listened.
As the psalm continues we are reminded of God’s sovereignty, knowing he allows pressure-packed days to bring us to himself so that he can bless us. “Consider the great love of the Lord,” Psalm 107 concludes. That’s what happens when we open our ears to hear God address us with a strong hand.
In 1996, if you sense you are a wanderer, a prisoner, an afflicted one, or a roller-coaster Christian, say “Speak, Lord,” then make time to listen!
by Steve | Jan 10, 1996 | Archive - 1996
Archive: Re-Imagining Community gathers in Minneapolis
By Jeanene Hoppe
The 1995 Re-Imagining Conference continued where the previous two conferences left off in challenging basic tenets of the Christian faith. Held November 3 and 4 in Minneapolis, the gathering featured feminist theologian Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Missionary Sister and professor of liturgy, worship, spirituality, and feminist studies at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut. The theme was “Sounding: Re-Imagining the Word.”
More than 400 Catholic and Protestant men and women representing 23 states were led through song, ritual, dance, small group discussion, and drama. Throughout the meeting there were blessings to Sophia, who, according to the program guide, is “a figure who appears throughout scripture as a female personification of the wisdom of God.”
The conference focus was not as much on the biblical word as the personal words expressed by the participants as they were led through a meditation ritual to express the word that is “sounding in my life now” or “words the world is waiting to hear.”
During a part of the program entitled “Listening to ‘Sophiaword,’” a symbolic dance called “Unbind Her” was presented to the tune of “Amazing Grace” in which a woman completely bound in cloth strips is unwrapped so she can again see and move. This led into a presentation by Winter called “Unbinding the Word” in which she explained that before the written word existed there was ritual and experience and centuries of oral interpretation with a lot of “embellishments.” Eventually the stories became text and “these recorded memories are suddenly said to be God’s words.” This, according to Winter, puts us “in a bind,” and when we dare to change the words it becomes a problem.
The real problem, according to Winter, is that relying only on Scripture is “like peering at the universe through a straw,” which is ridiculous. Though claiming to be rooted in biblical tradition, Winter prefers not to be “bound by what is between two covers.” This was illustrated in “Garden Story,” danced and narrated from her book Noah and Her Sisters: Genesis and Exodus According To Women. The Noah in this title is one of the daughters of Zelophehad from Numbers 26, a story told according to Scripture. It was about women overcoming the patriarchal system of their day. In “Garden Story,” however, she begins with the Genesis text, which is “a myth in culture … a legend,” and “doesn’t stay with it.”
Many conference participants found this obvious as they asked for explanations afterwards on who Lilith is? (Adam’s sister), why no sin? (we have enough guilt—the fall is Adam and Eve falling in love), and the serpent? (not a negative but a symbol of transformation). The danger, says Winter, is in “taking a story and making it Scripture.” Referring to biblical stories, Winter says, “With just a little bit of imagination, you can make them your own.”
The ritual of milk and honey was repeated as in the previous annual conferences. However, instead of the liturgy previously used, which stirred so much debate, the following explanation from the May 1995 Re-Imagining Newsletter was included: “The oldest of the communion texts of the early church holds a well kept secret in its ancient rubrics. How many cups? Three, not one … the first cup offered to the newly baptized was a cup of water … those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness were given water to drink for the inner washing of the spirit. The third cup is now our one and only, the cup of the new covenant, the chalice of the fruit of the vine. What is missing from our memory is the second cup, a cup of milk and honey. This missing cup was given to ‘the children of God for the healing of the bitterness of the human heart with the sweetness of Christ’s word.’ So reads one of the oldest worship texts we possess.”
This event was organized by the Re-Imagining Community based in Minneapolis, which was founded in response to the 1993 Re-Imagining conference. The community has one staff person and volunteers who will now begin work on the 1996 Conference where they expect 750-1,000 participants.
Available at this conference was a newly released book from Pilgrim Press called Re-Membering and Re-Imagining—a collection of stories from 95 different people who came to or were affected by the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference and its ensuing controversy.
By Jeanene Hoppe, member of Grace United Methodist Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, where she teaches a Sunday morning adult issues class.
by Steve | Jan 7, 1996 | Archive - 1996
Archive: Too Much Instruction—Not Enough Direction
By Duffy Robbins
I’ve been involved lately in some intense one-on-one ministry with a teenager in our area. We have spent long hours together, some of it in the midst of real trial, sometimes with heated conversation, sometimes wondering if we are actually accomplishing anything at all. There have been hours of instruction, honest confrontations, earnest rebuke, and even some tears along the way. It hasn’t been easy. But I am committed to the process because I want my teenage daughter to learn to drive our car safely.
Sometimes, after her lesson is over and we are safely back at home, we will laugh about various conversations that unfolded in the heat of the lesson.
Daughter: “Dad, why did you grab the steering wheel like that?”
Dad: “Because, sweetheart, it didn’t look as if the elderly lady was moving fast enough to dodge us.”
Or, Daughter: “Dad, you didn’t have to pull up the emergency brake. I saw the tree.”
Dad: “Yes, Erin, I know you saw the tree. It was laying against the hood of our car.”
Or, Daughter: “Dad, you didn’t have to yell; I was going to stop.”
Dad: “Yes, honey, I know we were going to stop. But remember, the object here is for us to stop without going through the windshield.”
There is some risk involved in this process. It isn’t always completely pleasant for either of us, and there are awkward moments along the way. But in the midst of this process I have discovered something very profound: People do not learn how to drive by going to classes and watching films on highway safety. Nor do they learn to drive by having an instructor who stands in the driveway and yells his instructions from a safe distance.
The only way to really help my daughter travel the road safely is by getting into the car next to her and giving her both instruction and direction. What she needs from me is not another study in driving. She needs to have me get next to her and give her an in-car demonstration. Maybe that’s what we mean when we use the word “incarnation.” It’s not teaching from a distance. It’s living in their midst. It’s not just instruction, it’s direction.
In the last few issues of Good News, we have been looking at some of the reasons so many youth groups suffer from what might be described as “faith failure”—the kind of up-and-down, hot-and-cold commitment that blooms bright and colorful a few times a year, but sits dormant and withering the rest of the year . What steps can we as youth leaders take to build consistency into the spiritual lives of our youth?
Surely, part of our problem is rooted in the fact that we have sought to define Christian education solely in terms of providing solid biblical instruction to our students. We have made the mistake of believing that if we give our youth good classroom instruction, they will automatically know how to travel the road safely for the long haul. Unfortunately, it is a method rooted more in convenience than experience, shaped more by time constraints than by vision and determination.
Jesus didn’t say I can teach the truth—he said I’m it. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Too often we make the mistake of exposing our youth to a Word become word, instead of the Word become flesh. What does that mean in a practical sense? It means we cannot do effective youth ministry from a distance. We cannot expect genuine discipleship to happen only through a Sunday school lesson. We cannot approach disciple-making as if we were some kind of youth ministry lifeguards who sit above an adolescent swimming pool and perform our jobs by blowing the whistle and yelling safety instructions from a distance.
We won’t keep kids from going under by yelling from afar. We keep kids from going under by getting into the water with them. We tolerate the splashing, the wetness, the loss of our nice warm place in the sun—and we offer direction as well as instruction. This is Christian education that moves beyond witness to the messy business of “withness.”
That may mean we have to overhaul the way we recruit volunteer leaders for the youth program, because now we are looking not just for instructors, but for spiritual directors. It will probably mean we have to redefine our role as leaders, because we understand that classroom instruction alone is not enough if we want our students to learn the road. (For a more hands-on discussion of what this kind of youth ministry looks like, see my book, Ministry of Nurture, Zondervan.)
The bottom line is that a lifeguard in the water is worth two in the chair, and a Dad in the car is worth ten in the driveway. If we are committed to helping our students go the distance in their journey with Christ, we must be willing to give them not just instruction, but direction.
