Just a Moment…
Did you know there were two American revolutions in the 18th century? Before the political one of 1776 there was a religious revolution known as the Great Awakening. Susan and I enjoyed the movie produced by Sight & Sound last spring about the friendship between George Whitfield and Benjamin Franklin, The Great Awakening. We recommend it.
Numerous American colonists rejected the stagnant routines of their established churches and responded to a message that spoke to them directly. This revolution revitalized the biblical admonition to be born again. The result – scores of new churches were built independent of state authority. You see before the Bill of Rights there was no separation of church and state. George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards were the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson of this spiritual revolution. What was to be vastly more important than a temporal government established by the people, for the people was a religious movement that impacts evangelical Christianity to this day – and had an eternal impact in the saving of souls.
Happy birthday America! Next Sunday we will celebrate with our annual church family picnic. Please sign up for what you can bring. John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers predicted the holiday would be celebrated this way – parades, fireworks and picnics! Our evangelism can be divided into two categories: Come and see and go and tell. Our picnic is a wonderful opportunity to invite others to come and see what HBC is all about. The gospel will be clear in next Sunday’s message too.