JANUARY 2018

A Report for People Who Pray for Dr. Rick Flanders and His Revival Ministry

The Lord has been with us as we have begun a new year of preaching and teaching the Word of God, and praying for revival among God’s people.  Thanks for joining us in prayer.  Here is where the ministry of revival took me in January:

• January 9-19, the class on Baptists and Revival at the Baptist College of Ministry in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.  A good group of men in the ministry or in seminary took this helpful course from me at this revival-oriented school the first part of the month.  It is a Bible class, a theology class, a ministry class, and a history class all at once.  Right now several of them are doing serious reading on revival and revival history, and preparing a research paper.
• January 10, I preached a sermon in the Spiritual Life Conference at Falls Baptist Church in Menomonee Falls, WI.  This annual conference opens second semester of the Baptist College of Ministry and kicks off a new year spiritually for this good church.  Dr. Billy Ingram was the main speaker this time, but I got to preach, too.  The Lord certainly gave victories and revival.  I should also mention that word got out that the 9^th was my seventieth birthday.  I can hardly believe it.  But it was great to have my wife with me and to enjoy the clever things the folks at Falls did to celebrate!
• Sunday morning services, January 14, at North Love Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois.  I preached twice in the two morning services in this great church, which is the home of the world-wide addictions ministry, Reformers Unanimous, and I also taught Sunday school.  The sermon was on James 4:7, and spoke of being “a sitting duck” for the devil.
• Sunday evening service, January 14, at Grace Baptist Church, Appleton, Wisconsin.  Here is a church where I have preached in the past, both in a revival campaign and in Lord’s Day services, and God had me deal in this service with the matter of sin in our lives, which Jesus explained in terms of debt.  We focused on Matthew 6 and 18.
• January 21-26 preaching in the revival campaign at Gatewood Baptist Church in Garland, Texas.  For the first time in my life last year I came to Texas, and this month I went back.  The first venue for my preaching was a good church led by my friend Jose Moreno.  The congregation has taken some hits in the past few years, but now is clearly on the mend and on the rise under the care of a capable pastor, with whom I labored for revival in these days.  We saw people make decisions in every service, and got to explain the Gospel to several folks.  The Sunday after the campaign, Pastor Moreno saw some people make more big decisions, such as for baptism and membership.  It was a really good week.  Because I was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (for the first time in my life), I took Pastor with me to visit a few notable places.  We went to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I got to look over letters in the John R. Rice file at the library (his family deposited his papers there after this great man went to Heaven).  The librarians were gracious and helpful.  We also went to the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, where I was able to obtain a book on the church’s history, which includes the ministry of the famous fundamentalist, J. Frank Norris.  We then went over to the Arlington Baptist College, where we met people who could tell us more about Norris and show us memorabilia from his life.  It was really interesting.  These visits took just half of a day but were very valuable.  During our discussions, I was able to pass on lots of historical information to the pastor.  Along with other servants of the Lord in the past, we discussed the great Baptist preacher, B.H. Carroll, whose ministry as an evangelist, an educator, and a writer, impacted the Baptists and others in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  When it was time for me to head to the Austin area for the next set of meetings, we met pastor Lewis at Waco, and stopped at a cemetery there to see Carroll’s grave, and share a time of prayer for our own lives and ministries.  Of course, it was an unusual experience this month to meet my ride to a church in a graveyard.  I have attached an especially powerful article B.H. Carroll wrote, and I hope you will take time to read it.  He titled if, “My Infidelity, and What Became of It,” and it is his testimony of how God delivered him from the darkness of doubt and sin, and brought him to the light of Christ.
• January 28-31 preaching in a revival campaign at Faith Baptist Church in Temple, Texas.  Here is where I came to Texas last January, on a Sunday.  The pastor is Mike Lewis, whose father, who has the same name, preceded him in this position.  This time we gathered for several days to seek a revival in the church.  And God answered so many prayers!  We would all say that the Lord di d give us revival, especially on Tuesday night.  The messages were from John 13, Luke 19, John 21, Acts 8, Acts 4, and James 4.

In February, I will be preaching for revival in Rogers, Arkansas (4 through 7); Fargo, North Dakota (10 through 14); Pensacola, Florida (18-25); and Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, (26-March 1).  It will be a prayer conference at the Gospel Light Baptist Church of Rogers, a family conference at Fargo Baptist Church, Sunday services at two churches in Pensacola (Grace Bible Baptist on the 18^th and Pine Forest Estates Baptist on the 25^th), in the Bible Conference at Pensacola Christian College, and in the Victory Conference at Falls Baptist Church.  I hope I can meet some of you at some of these places, and I am counting on you to pray for me regularly again this month.

God is guiding and providing in the planning and preparation for revival events in Michigan that will take place in 2018, and that have been generated by last year’s Michigan Revival Conference.  A series of regional conferences and other meetings will be happening, and we sure do need your prayers.  I’ll let you know more about what’s happening in the next report.

Let me tell you also that in December and January, I researched and wrote down a study of the Messianic prophecies that prove Jesus is Who He claimed to be.  I plan to attach it to this report. You may find it useful in your witness.  Let me also tell you that the Ministry 127 website has informed me that they have posted another one of my articles.  You may want to check it out.

Thank you for your friendship and your prayers.  May the Lord send revival to His people everywhere this year!

RICK FLANDERS  Acts 1:8