September, 2018: News for Those Who Pray for the Revival Ministry of Dr. Rick Flanders

THE SEPTEMBER UPDATE

News for Those Who Pray for the Revival Ministry of Dr. Rick Flanders

September of 2018 was a wonderful month of revival blessing, and I rejoice to give you the basics about what happened where I was.  I preached in these places:

• The Straitgate Church in Minneapolis.  After spending Labor Day and a little more time with our daughter and her husband (Pastor and Mrs. Mike Foster) in Florida, and then going down and back to the Bill Rice Ranch to move our daughter Susanna home to spend several weeks with us until her wedding day, I drove to Minneapolis to enter into a revival effort with the folks of the Straitgate Church downtown, September 9-14.  On the first day of the campaign, a Sunday, we saw some folks respond to the public invitation to get help about being saved, and about being sure that you are saved.  In the first meetings, learned from the New Testament about how Jesus feels about people in a big city.  We also looked right in the eye at the obstacle that prevents real revival at Straitgate.  This is one of the most remarkable churches I know anything about.  It was started more than thirty years ago in the heart of the city.  Do you know (it’s in James 4) what the obstacle to revival is in this and many other congregations?  These people are reaching the inner city with the Gospel, but they need a renewal and a new start.  I really think that the Lord has given it to them.  We won’t forget the amazing prayer meetings or the answers to prayer, day after day.  We also won’t forget nor abandon the reviving work God did in the hearts of many Christians.  Acquaint yourself with the Straitgate Church (a fundamental Baptist ministry), pray for them, and look for news about what God does with them in the heart of Minneapolis.  While here I also got to see the work of the Hope Academy, a Christian school established in the neighborhood of Straitgate to change the lives of kids that live downtown.  Two of the teachers attended the revival meetings, and I visited their classes on Friday.
• The First Baptist Church of Park Rapids, Minnesota.  For a long time I was looking forward to joining with Pastor Josh Hawn for a six-day revival campaign at his church, September 16-21.  The pastor approaches his ministry in this rural church with a revival perspective, and I think we worked together well.  More than one night the folks brought unsaved people to the meetings to hear the Gospel.  One night a lady who had been visiting and was the subject of many prayers, came forward to help about being saved.  We also saw members make important revival decisions.  There were some really good prayer meetings that were characterized by the very real presence of Christ (Matthew 18:18-20).  We are talking and praying about my coming back to this part of Minnesota (not far from Fargo, ND, from which city we had some visitors) for future revival efforts.  An afternoon was given to a pastors’ meeting in which I preached and taught about revival, and gave an overview of revival history.  The attendance at all of these meetings this week was good, and the Lord did us all much good.  I should tell you that right near Park Rapids are the headwaters of the Mississippi River (where the great river originates).  I go to visit his lake before I left the area.
• The Victory Baptist Church of Marysville, Michigan.  On the 24^th, I flew down to the Bill Rice Ranch in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to attend the advisory board meeting, and returned on the 26^th.  We attended the party for our grandson Isaac Flanders’s second birthday on the 29^th, and drove down to the Port Huron area on Sunday, September 30, to preach for our friend Pastor Don Barth at his revival-based church while he is on a mission overseas.  I preached from Matthew, John, and Romans, on the subjects of unbelief (as a blockade to mighty works), the moral implications of choices we make, and the joy of being a Christian.  We had a great day, marked by the public home-coming of a prodigal son, who got right with the Lord the day before!  Also, as always at Victory, we had too prayer meetings, which in a way in the secret of the remarkable power of this church.  I am to preach there again the next Sunday.

In October I will be going south for several open doors in North Carolina and Tennessee.  But first I will be preaching at the great “Old School Gathering” at Fundamental Baptist Church in Kinross, Michigan (up north in the U.P.) on the first.  Then October 10-12 I am to be preaching in chapel and teaching in several classes at the wonderful Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC.  The on October 14, I begin ministry at the Calvary Baptist Church on McMinnville, TN, in a revival campaign that continues through the week.  The next week, beginning on the 21^st, I am preaching revival meetings at the Spring Meadow Baptist Church of Franklin, TN, through the 26^th.  Finally this month, I will begin a revival campaign at the Gospel Light Baptist Church of Spring Hill, TN, on October 28.

Many important events to promote revival are coming up, and this is the time to redouble our prayers for the Michigan Revival Conference, which will take place November 12, 13, and 14, morning and afternoon, and evening, at the First Baptist Church of Bridgeport.  Pastors’ meetings connected with the MRC will be happening at Kinross on October 1 and at Bridgeport on the 4^th (call me about these at 989.863.0784).  We are organizing a conference choir, recruiting ushers and nursery workers, and setting up many important things for this year’s Conference this month.  Let me urge you to pray every day for this important effort, and to consider coming to Michigan for the conference.  Speakers will include me, Chris Miller, Jim Van Gelderen, and Dave Young.  If we pray, it will be a mighty event!

Note the fact that I am to teach the seminary course, History of Revival, at Baptist College of Ministry, January 10-18.  Call them at 262.251.7051, about how you can take the class and stay in the dorm, and in any case, pray for us as we have this life-changing class (a theological, Bible, philosophical, and history course).

Don’t forget my mission to Kenya, which will begin on January 21.  Read over the attached report on 2019 Overseas Missions, get the details, and consider helping me get there.

I certainly appreciate and count on your friendship and prayers.  Let’s go to the Throne of Grace over and over again in October.

RICK FLANDERS