A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article, with a picture from the Spirit Alive weekend, appears below. The Rev. Rodger McEachern is the minister of Forest Glade Presbyterian Church in Windsor, Ontario.
He is also a member of the Board of the Renewal Fellowship.
“We want to bring Jesus back into our church” was the cry of the heart for some of us during the early part of 1993. Not that Jesus had really left Forest Glade Presbyterian Church, but it seemed that he had. Over the years our love for Christ had cooled and our experience of his power and love had diminished within our congregation. The words of the biblical writer Paul rang true for us then he said, “I want to know Christ…” (Phil. 3:10). We desired to know Christ and have his will our delight, but we needed help. As is often the case when God’s people cry to him, “Help!”, the Lord answered one night while we were in prayer. He spoke two words to us, “Spirit Alive.”
Spirit Alive – a multi-year program facilitating renewal within a local congregation – upon investigation seemed to be the help we needed. Operating within the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition Spirit Alive’s purpose of assisting congregations such as Forest Glade “to come alive for Jesus Christ under the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit” (Carter Blaisdell) excited us. As the first Christians travelled from church to church, encouraging and building up their brothers and sisters in the Lord, the thought that a team of mature, “on fire for the Lord,” missionaries from other congregations would visit Forest Glade for several days to build us up in Christ convinced us that Spirit Alive was for us. By April 1993 the Session had invited Presbyterian and Reformed Renewal Ministries International (PRRMI) to conduct the Spirit Alive program among us.
A coordinator was appointed and six months of preparation and prayer began. We prayed a lot! Renewal begins with prayer. Spirit Alive rises and falls with the prayers of God’s people calling him to work mightily. As we prayed we did a lot of seeking. What was God going to do with us? What was God going to make of us as a result of Spirit Alive? We were expectant knowing that God was faithful, but we were also thrown into that uncomfortable position of trusting him completely.
Prayer is crucial to Spirit Alive. So is the work of nineteen committees. There were many practical tasks that had to be done from procuring billets for the team visitors to organizing small groups. As the saying states, “many hands make light work” and by the time the preparation was finished eighty-five per cent of the congregation had “made light work” of the tasks at hand. The number of individuals involved truly astounded us! It appeared that Spirit Alive was already underway for us drawing us into fellowship and unity with one another. Jesus was beginning to stir amongst us.
November 20, the start of the Spirit Alive weekend, arrived and we were ready. The theme was “Jesus is Lord!” and this was the expectation within the congregation – “Jesus come and work amongst us in love and power. Jesus come more alive to us!” The worship, preaching, testimonies, children and youth ministry, small group fellowship all revolved around making the expectation a reality for us, aided and encouraged by the twenty-four visitors from five American states and from England. They came to bless the Forest Glade congregation. All we had to do now was receive. What joy!
There are many memories and many stories to be told concerning our Spirit Alive and what the Lord did amongst us, and many more still in the making. One experience stands out that captures the impact Spirit Alive had on Forest Glade. It occurred during the last evening following a great time of worship and a moving communion service. Many of the congregation had gone up to the table to receive communion and then continued on to various “prayer stations” situated around the perimeter of the sanctuary. There they received prayer for forgiveness, healing, assurance, for problems, whatever their need, from team visitors paired with some of our own people. It was after this time of worship and prayer that one person from the Forest Glade congregation stated, “This is great! I’m sorry I missed the other nights.” Then to the person he was speaking with he continued, “Next year if I’m not here, I want you to come to my house and drag me here if you have to!” Such was the joy arising from Spirit Alive! The Lord was present!
Spirit Alive is a tool in the Lord’s hand that he uses to help bring about renewal in his people.
The coming of the Lord Jesus amongst us wasn’t just an adult experience. Many of the youth experienced him too! Prior to the first evening of Spirit Alive many of the parents had a hard time coaxing their teens to attend the youth ministry. It seemed the thinking by the youth was, “just another adult religious thing.” They were not easy to convince, but after the first night their parents couldn’t keep them away even if they had wanted to! Many of our youth grew deeper in their faith in Christ and the seeds of faith were planted in others. To our knowledge no youth made first commitments to Christ, though a half a dozen children did do so. Ten children who didn’t attend any church came from a nearby housing project. They were loved by their Spirit Alive teachers and literally captured by the Spirit who was alive among us. It was amusing, yet quite satisfying, to watch several of these youngsters run to their teachers with the Bibles they had been given the night before and tell their teachers, “I read about Jesus healing the sick” or some other incident in the life of Jesus, “last night in my Bible. And I told my mommy too!” The Lord Jesus wanted to come alive in our children and youth, as well as within us adults. There was little doubt for us that Spirit Alive had exceeded our expectations; many of us encountered the living Christ and we wouldn’t be the same. Jesus was back at Forest Glade.
Spirit Alive isn’t renewal itself, nor does it make renewal. Spirit Alive is a tool in the Lord’s hand that he uses to help bring about renewal in his people. We likened our experience of Spirit Alive to a farmer growing a crop. We spent many hours praying and preparing for our desire to have Jesus more alive in the Forest Glade congregation, like a farmer preparing the soil for planting. Spirit Alive was the means by which the seeds of Jesus Christ were planted. We believe during the Spirit Alive weekend these seeds germinated; Jesus came alive for us! The Bible tells us that this process of Jesus coming alive in his people is through the Holy Spirit. Jesus continues to grow amongst us; the harvest is still in the future, but we are waiting for a harvest that is thirty, sixty even a hundred fold.
What of the future? As mentioned above we wait for the harvest. Already we see growth; people wanting to meet in small groups, the desire to hire a person to work with our youth, the start of a pastoral care ministry. There is excitement and, perhaps most important, a deeper longing for our faith in Christ to be more real. As this is written we are in the process of starting the process for another Spirit Alive October 20-23, 1994. The theme will be the “Work and Person of the Holy Spirit.” We await the fall and the harvest the Lord will bring to us. May Jesus Christ be praised and the Father receive all the glory.