An Article of Faith

Wellington, Texas, is a rural community with about 3,500 people. A local church had been through a time of renewal. The pastor couldn’t quite explain what had happened. But he said, “This church is different. We are not the same church we were three years ago. We have a spirit of unity. The people love one another. They love the Lord and seek to obey Him. They have a burden to pray and a burden to see the lost come to saving faith in Christ.”

For two years prior to the renewal, the church did not hold the traditional spring and fall “revival” meetings. Instead, they focused their attention on seeking the Lord. They prepared to follow the Lord when He let them know what they were to do. As groups and individuals were praying, they began to sense a burden to give themselves more fully to prayer.

They had studied God’s pattern for revival and spiritual awakening. Because they realized that somehow God had revived His people, they anticipated that they would begin to see a harvest of lost people being saved. They were burdened that they were not seeing a harvest come.

The church learned from a study of the Jewish festivals that Jewish families emphasized counting up the 50 days to Pentecost. The emphasis on Pentecost is first-fruits, and the early church experienced the fulfillment of the first-fruits on the Day of Pentecost when 3,000 were converted (see Acts 2:37-42).

They also heard about Andrew Murray’s testimony about Pentecost prayer meetings the 10 days between Christ’s Ascension and Pentecost. As an entire congregation they committed to an emphasis on prayer and especially prayer for a spiritual harvest.

Beginning the day after Passover, families met daily to read a portion of Scripture and pray. The families began listing every lost person they knew personally and began to pray for their salvation. This continued for 50 days up to Pentecost.

For six weeks prior to Pentecost Sunday, the entire church studied a course on prayer and praying together – “Growing Disciples: Pray in Faith” by T. W. Hunt and Claude King. Each Sunday every Adult and Youth Sunday School class spent an hour praying together and practicing what they had learned about prayer. During their worship services volunteers spent the time in a prayer room praying for special prayer requests submitted by members. They also began praying through a growing list of lost people in their community.

On Pentecost Sunday four people made public commitments to Christ. Another person who had heard the church service on a local television channel came by the church and was born again that afternoon.

During the coming months this church began to see the Lord’s power released in bringing people to Christ. Four hundred were saved on their mission trip to Russia. Two hundred and 25 prisoners came to saving faith in their prison ministry. Even in this small community they saw 25 of the people for whom they had been praying come to faith in Christ.

Now they continue to pray, realizing that God answers the prayers of a people who are right with Him.

“Seeing the people,” writes Matthew, “[Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest’” (Matthew 9:36-38).

(Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.)