We have seen an unusual move of God here at New Life Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.
We started out just planning on meeting four consecutive Wednesday nights in July, beginning July 11.
It was obvious from the start that God was up to something. The first Wednesday, we had over people 100 respond to an altar call for repentance and salvation. The second Wednesday, another 100-plus people came forward.
Due to the responses, we planned a baptism Wednesday, Aug. 8. That night, we had 10 baptisms. We then added three additional Wednesday nights. The following Wednesday, we didn’t have any scheduled baptisms but saw 200 people respond—many actually running to the altar. We baptized 31 people that night! So far, more than 120 people have been baptized in the last two weeks. Last year, we only saw 238 baptisms.
The revival first started when senior pastor Mike Fehlauer developed a deep hunger to see more of God’s presence as a response to the post-Christian society.
While the church normally holds a midweek service only the first Wednesday of each month, Fehlauer felt the Lord tell him that if we wanted more of God, we needed to give Him more, we needed to give Him the room to move. So we added each Wednesday night service to our calendar during the month of July.
It wasn’t enough. We soon added Thursday and Friday night services.
Part of the revival involves Communion. We have several stations throughout the worship center and during worship people, on their own, are coming to the Communion tables and worshipping through Communion as a family, friends and so on.
Each service is livestreamed on Facebook. As a result, we’re beginning to see other church leaders from our community come to the revival and tune in via livestream.
One of our members—completely unaware the staff has been praying for an awakening to take place—had an open vision of what we are now beginning to see.
Here’s what Molly Shlumpberger shared:
Last night as I was falling asleep I was half-awake and half-asleep. I began to see the church, our church, and there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people at the door just waiting for the doors to be opened. It was not a Sunday service day. It was almost frightening, the behavior that people were displaying to just get in the door. Like clinging and pressing through, so desperate to get in. The people looked like something you would see on The Walking Dead, and they were literally piling on top of one another, smashed up against the glass waiting to get in.
No one was angry or evil or mean. They just looked that way, but they just wanted in the doors. Their clothes were torn and their skin was gray. I mean they looked just like a Walking Dead picture. Someone came up and had a ton of keys on a key chain and was fumbling around to open the doors. I asked the Lord at that moment, “What am I seeing?” And He said, “I’m coming, revival is coming.” At this point in my mind, I’m trying to figure out if I’m imagining this or if what I’m seeing is really real.
The inner vision continues to play out like a movie, and once the doors open, there are literally people lying everywhere from the doors throughout the entire church. In the atrium, worship center down the hallways. You had to step over people to walk anywhere.
Then the Lord said, “They just want to be in my presence.” It was like people just knew coming there was going to fix whatever it was. No one spoke; it was just hundreds of bodies all over the place.
I laid in bed trying to figure out what I was experiencing. I prayed, and I spoke life and words calling people to the church. I cried, and I honestly still don’t know what to call what I saw. My dreams are more parables, and the visions I had before were more me in the Spirit. This was like an inner vision movie because I was awake but I didn’t have to figure any parable out. It was pretty straightforward.
It’s pretty powerful. Keep in mind, she has no point of reference regarding what massive revivals look like, as she is a relatively new believer.
When she asked the Lord the meaning of the dream, He said, “I am coming. Revival is coming.”
One of our staff also had a dream where he saw the staff standing together, and He looked and Jesus was there. He said Jesus spoke to him and said, “I am coming.”
When Fehlauer considered adding additional services, he realized it would most affect the youth, since they held services each Wednesday night.
Fehlauer called the youth pastor, Alex Garcia, to get his input.
Garcia told Fehlauer, “You may not be aware, but many of the staff have been fasting for a while now for God to move.”
Fehlauer hadn’t known. The staff, on their own, had been praying and fasting.
We believe a big part of what we are seeing is a result of people’s hunger for more of God’s presence and power in their lives. It’s been pretty remarkable.
Testimonies
- A young lady brought her entire family to a “Heaven Come” service. Her father had resisted God his entire life. Her mother has been consistently praying that he would come to Christ for 20 years. At “Heaven Come,” that prayer was answered. After hearing the sermon on repenting from sin and turning to God, the man responded to the call and was water baptized alongside his son.
- This testimony took place in the months leading up to the “Heaven Come” services in April 2018. A young lady had been diagnosed with vasovagal syncope. It’s a condition where you randomly lose consciousness with little to no warning. For nearly two years, she suffered from this condition, showing no signs of improvement from the medical intervention. She would lose consciousness two to four times a day for about 20 minutes at a time making it impossible to drive a car, regularly attend classes and hold down a job. It was controlling her life as well as creating a financial burden on the family. She had even been asked to leave her previous church because her episodes where a “distraction” to the congregation. During a Sunday church service, she lost consciousness and passed out. An ambulance was called and after about 20 minutes, she regained consciousness. At that point the young lady received prayer for healing. It’s now been four months since that day and she hasn’t had a single episode. She’s even driving again. When asked about her condition, the young lady said, “God has healed me.”
- We had an 11-year-old boy whose parents divorced, and depression was overcoming him, so much so that he tried to commit suicide. He was in the hospital for a few days, and when he got out, his mother brought him to one of our “Heaven Come” services and the young man came down, gave his life to Christ and then decided to get baptized right then. The change in his face was amazing.
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Pastor Mike Fehlauer became the lead pastor of New Life Church in 2011. In addition to being known for his relevant teaching style, Mike believes the local church and the message of Christ is the only hope for a city and a nation. Pastor Mike graduated from Olivet Nazarene University with a bachelor’s degree in theology.
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