What a Wonderful Month, June 2017

WHAT A WONDERFUL MONTH!

A Report on the Revival Ministry of Dr. Rick Flanders in the Month of June 2017

We are so very grateful for the friends who pray for us.  I am especially glad that many of you were praying for us in June of 2017.  Here are reasons why.

• BLESSINGS IN ALBERTA. The revival campaign at Victory Baptist Church in Sherwood Park (near Edmonton), Alberta, Canada, continued through Sunday, June 4.  We ended up with people coming to Christ and being saved, men publicly responding to God’s call to the ministry, the ordination of two wonderful preachers, the baptisms of new Christians, a real measure of revival in the church, and an opportunity to share the truth with a lot of folks who need help.  We needed your prayers, and saw many prayers answered.
• PREPARING FOR THE BIG CONFERENCE. When we got back to the States, I hit the ground running to prepare for the Michigan Revival Conference, which was set for June 18 through 25.  June 6 and 7, I got to preach in the Bluewater Revival gatherings that occur quarterly at the Victory Baptist Church of Marysville (near Port Huron, Michigan).  These were good meetings, and the Lord was preparing this remarkable revival-oriented congregation for the Conference, in which they proved to be among the most engaged.  Of course, June 11-17 was the week before the conference, and I began that critical week preaching for Pastor Terry Hose at the Lake Baptist Church in Lake (near Farwell and Clare), Michigan.  The theme was revival.  Pastor Hose was one of the men who joined us for the Pastors’ Prayer Retreat at Camp CoBeAc back in May, and I have found in him an earnest seeker of God, and an ally in the cause of revival.  It was a thrill to preach to the flock in this place about what revival is, and about how to obtain it by earnest prayer.  We ended the Lord’s Day at church in a wonderful prayer meeting.  The congregation came as a group to the MRC with their pastor, and has stepped up to the revival perspective.  Pray for them.
• THE MICHIGAN CONFERENCE ON REVIVAL. I personally began the Michigan Revival Conference in a prayer meeting on Saturday, June 17, at the Landmark Baptist Church of Clio, at 7 p.m.  A number of serious Christians including some of the Conference speakers were able to join us for this important pre-conference gathering to seek the Lord, including a couple from out of state who found out about the Conference and the prayer meeting as a result of unusual circumstances arranged by Providence!  The preaching sessions of the MRC began on Sunday the 18^th at the Landmark church, with me, Dave Young, and Jim Van Gelderen speaking.  Monday through Wednesday, the daytime sessions (a preaching service at 10 a.m., a “workshop” at 11 a.m., and another preaching service that started after lunch about 1:30, followed by a prayer meeting) were held again at Landmark, and the evening services took place at the First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, where Toni and I are members.  Our Pastor, Dr. R.B. Ouellette was also one of the Conference speakers.  We were all amazed and grateful to God for the large crowds that attended the sessions, and for the impacting effect the whole conference had on us all.  On Thursday, the Conference “moved” up north to Gaylord, where a rally session featuring two speakers was held that night at the Grace Baptist Church.  Friday morning, two speakers preached in sessions held at Grace, and Friday night, two more preached at the Fundament Baptist Church across “the bridge” in the Upper Peninsula at Kinross.  A Saturday afternoon service was held at Kinross, and the Michigan Revival Conference concluded in its final day on Sunday, June 25, in four services at Fundamental Baptist.  Without question, the Lord answered our prayers for this significant revival conference.  The attendance was amazing; the services were powerful; the speakers were helped and divinely-enabled; thousands viewed the sermons by live-streaming; the offerings were over-the-top and the needs met; many Christians said they were revived and that important issues were settled for them through the preaching of God’s Word; and pastors from every part of our state went home with a new perspective and new faith in God for victory and fruitfulness in their lives and ministries.  I cannot tell you how grateful we are that you prayed for this conference.  You can learn more about what happened by reading the report entitled “What We Learned at the Michigan Revival Conference,” and/or experiencing the Conference through the website at revivemichigan.com.  Keep the Conference in your prayers as leaders meet to learn from God what we can do so that the spirit of revival sent to us in the preparations for and the actual experience of the MRC will be spread and sustained in the Bible-believing churches of our state.

As you continue to pray for us and our efforts for revival, please take note of several appointments I have for later this summer:

1. Bethel Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon, meetings July 30-August 2.
2. An evangelism conference at Anthony Hayden’s church in Rochester, Washington, August 4-6.
3. The Christ-Life Conference, led by Evangelist John Van Gelderen and RevivalFocus Ministries at Ann Arbor Baptist Church (in Michigan), August 7-10.
4. A conference on prayer at the Madison Baptist Church in Madison, Alabama, August 19-22.
5. The Bended Knee Pastors’ Prayer Seminar at the Broadview Heights Baptist Church in Broadview Heights, Ohio, on August 24.
6. A revival campaign at Faith Baptist Church in Belvedere, Illinois, August 27-30.

I do again want to thank you for your prayers for my life and my ministry, and for the revival New Testament Christianity in our needy world.  Let me also suggest and recommend a couple of opportunities coming up for you to enrich your own life.  That Christ-Life Conference in Ann Arbor is going to be remarkable, and very helpful and practical for anyone wanting to learn how to abide in Christ.  It will be an amazingly appropriate follow-up experience for people who got to attend the Michigan Revival Conference.  I will get to preach in evening sessions basically about how a personal revival can end impacting others, and even the your whole church.  Go to RevivalFocus.org today to learn more about it.  Then let me suggest that you Ohio preachers phone Broadview Heights Baptist Church (440.546.0157) about the seminar on prayer to be held there on August 24.  These learning-and-doing meetings have been transforming for those who have attended them across the country.  Dr. Wayne Van Gelderen and I will be teaching.  This one will come just before the Ohio Revival Conference in Cleveland, September 24-27.  So please keep praying!