New Update

Yes it has been about a month since my last post, but many things are happening in my life. Most importantly, I am working full time and getting paid for it. Woo Hoo! Makes my wife happy. The only thing with working full time (general contracting) I can't minister full time. I do have another big change. I have been led of the Lord to do ministry in Kenosha, WI. I am leaving Life Church in Gurnee, IL my last day being May 24, 2009 and I will be ministering out of Pray House Assembly of God with Ron Auch the Lead Pastor there. I am also ministring with Pray-Tell Ministries based in Kenosha, the organization I am licensed through. Ron is president of the ministry and in we are in the process of praying as to what God would have us do with the ministry. The ministry primarily taught people how to increase their intimacy with God through prayer. That point will still be a standard of the ministry, but we are praying for the possibility of other directions. Our ministry board primarily has youth and college age singles pastors, so who knows where God will lead. I would like to see a church plant directed at 18-30 year olds with a 24/7 prayer worship center. Only God knows and we are open to His leading. So this is an exciting time for the Williams' family. God sending us somewhere new again to serve. We are expecting great things. May God receive all the glory.

Thoughts

Usually every Thursday evening I attend open prayer at a church in Kenosha, WI. The church is only a couple miles from my place, so it makes it easy to run over for the hour prayer at 9PM. I was talking to the lead Pastor afterward about his church. The church is growing in numbers and we discussed that in time the church was going to have to add another service. God had been moving in the church, probably due to the huge amount of prayer that takes place there. Now this church would probably not be thought of by many of the circles I have hung with as being anything real special. Not cutting edge as they think of themselves. The building is functional, not super eye catching like some churches, when you do visit, the people are very friendly, and you actually feel like they are happy you are there. The worship team or band is not the power bands you see in many churches that have what looks like professionals playing. The teaching Pastor himself may not be seen as the flashiest looking speaker out there. He looks like me, short, bald, and chunky, with a dry sense of humor. The reason the church is growing is due to the fact as I stated earlier, God is moving in the place and in the people who attend there. There have been services lately where they did not get to the preaching due to the move of the Spirit. Where God's Spirit is, His people will be also. God's Spirit draws people into His presence. Also, the church preaches meat, not milk, big difference. It reminds me of, 1 Corinthians 2:13 "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. {13 Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual men} NIV ."

I was reading also in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 this morning, "1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. "

Today, in many churches, there is much elequence, wisdom, and persuasive words. You can doubt me, but I have seen and heard them. Pastors have reverted to "words" to draw people into their churches along with programs. Paul said he did not come with words, he came "with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." That is what is lacking in the church today. No Spirit, no power. The church has reverted to men's words, men's plans, men's designs, men's programs, everything having to do with drawing people into the church using man's wisdom. After years of hearing words that have no depth, in churches that have no Spirit, people are leaving their church for other churches, but they are not finding what they are looking for because many churches are the same. Even the Mega-Churches are seeing this. I have never seen so much church hopping as I have seen in the past ten years or more. The last five have been unbelievable. The younger generation has said, "forget it, I am not even going to church". Many in church leadership refuse to change and continue with their own ideas or use someone elses of how church should be, even though they are not growing spiritually or in numbers. The churches that have recognized that they are stagnant, have moved to change. People want more. God is calling His people to more. The spirit within us yearns to know God. Milk and no Spirit doesn't do it. Paul knew, he wrote what was needed. The Spirit of God. Something that is absent today in th church. Pastor's have told me they don't go there, or they don't need it, or the Spirit is over rated. Over rated. Can you believe that? They wonder why they have a revolving door in their churches, or the people are basically dead in their pews.

The church I went to prayer in, well, guess what? The church was built on the fundamentals of the Word. The Lord revealed to me in prayer that the foundation of the church was deep, and the prayers of its people was extending the foundation deeper. It was a foundation that He the Lord was going to build upon. He was going to grow it. I could see it in my mind. The early church was very fundamental in it's structure and mission. Its foundation was deep. It grew into a power house. Maybe we should go back to that. Allow God back in, and take man out.

Starting a new revolution, using ancient ways, one church at a time. Changing the landscape, changing our world.