The Morning After...

My church has just finished a five day crusade with a group called, The Power Team. These are world class athletes who love Jesus. They come in and break bricks, bend steel, rip things up, and preach the gospel. It is radical in your face type of evangelism!

I pastor in a small rural Scandinavian community. We practice "Minnesota nice." No one wants to do or say anything to offend anyone else. This was a major stretch for our community. Let me just say, Uff-da! It worked!

In five days of revival we witnessed 75 first time decisions for Christ, and hundreds of people who have rededicated their lives to Christ. Our whole town is buzzing over this event. In five days we had more than 1500 people come through our doors. We had about 50 volunteers work different aspects of the crusade every night. Many people attended faithfully every night of the crusade, getting here as early as 5;30 PM and staying until past 10:00 PM every night!

Now what?

The team has left to go home. The church is put back into place like a church. There is no crusade to prepare for. Where do we go from here?

My plans are to challenge the congregation this week to keep going. I want the new converts to discover what their spiritual gifting is. I want to challenge those who rededicated their lives to start using their spiritual gifts. I want to challenge the committed to help the younger Christians with the assimilation process. I want to challenge the community to go win their world for Christ.

The crusade is just a small piece to the puzzle. We must be prepared for the follow-up. There is a major reason why a lot of seeds do not produce fruit. I believe it is because all too often we fall off of the mountain top experience and there is no one to help us climb to the top again. Assimilation is very important. It is also virtually impossible for the pastor or pastors to do it alone. We need your help!

Let's make a full and hard push to make this crusade 100% effective. Let's open our homes, our wallets, and our lives to help guide people into the kind of lives that God has called us to live. Let's not judge, ridicule, or speculate about the type of people God calls. Let's just do those things that build each other up. Because you're all a part of the team, God's Power Team!