The American Renewal Project hosted 13 North Carolina pastors’ luncheons in 2021 featuring North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson. A total of 2,700 North Carolina pastors and spiritual leaders participated in those events.
On Primary Election Day—May 17, 2022—50 pastors and spiritual leaders ran for local offices across the state, and 25 won.
The Washington Post reported on the North Carolina effort in a seven-minute feature video.
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, 10 of the spiritual leaders were elected to public office across the state. Three of the 13 newly elected North Carolina State House members are pastors, and two spiritual leaders were elected to the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
All this has taken place in obedience to Jesus’ ekklesia kingdom assignment from Matthew 16:18: “And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my ekklesia and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Ed Silvoso asked in his book “Ekklesia”: “Could it be that we have confined to four walls once a week what is designed to be a 24/7 people movement out in the marketplace, transforming our cities and nations?
“If the church is so important, why did Jesus mention it only twice in the gospels? And why is there neither a command nor instructions in the Bible on how to plant one?
“The New Testament examples of church are vastly different from the contemporary notion that it is a place where members go, usually once a week. Back then, church always referred to people, never to buildings, and it was made up of individuals who operated 24/7 ‘from house to house’ all over town as a transforming organism, not as a static institution (Acts 2:46; 5:42). Its objective was the transformation of people and of society, rather than acting as a transfer station for saved souls bound for heaven.
“During Jesus’ 33 years on earth, three major institutions shaped the life of the Jewish people: the temple, the synagogue and the ekklesia. The first two were religious. The third was secular.”
With that as background, we professed in our last piece that we believe that “the next Great Awakening is beginning.” Rather than being based upon wishful thinking, this is grounded in A.W. Pink’s exposition of the book of Joshua: “It would indeed be strange if we apprehended how that on the one hand Canaan was a free gift unto Israel, which they entered by grace alone; and on the other that they had to fight for every inch of it!”
Every church in America, therefore, must have a pastor, elder, deacon or congregant running for local office in 2024, 2026, 2028 and thereafter if America is to resurrect spiritually.
It remains to be seen whether we will get mercy, in light of over 63 million babies having been murdered inside their mothers’ wombs, with oceans of red ink and endless stretches of red tape (and $31 trillion in debt) and homosexuals and befuddled men under the spell of the biological disfigurement of transgenderism being paraded around as healthy and normal by Big Business, Big Tech, Bud Light, Fortune 500 and the Biden Administration.
Yet, Scripture is replete with examples of God turning graves into gardens.
The current measure for success in contemporary American Christendom—bodies in seats, massive budgets and multiple buildings and campuses—has been an utter disaster in terms of salt & light as preserving the American culture. Nevertheless, “Is anything too hard for God?” (Gen. 18:14).
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), England’s ‘Prince of Preachers’, offered insight into the futility of opposing God and the indestructibility of His Church. In his 3-volume classic, “The Treasury of David,” which he shaped and polished for over two decades, he sets forth:
“In Spain, two monumental pillars were raised on which were written: I. ‘Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having extended the Roman Empire in the east and west, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to ruin.’ II. ‘Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods.’
“We have here a monument raised by paganism over the grave of its vanquished foe, but in this ‘the people imagined a vain thing’. Neither in Spain nor elsewhere can be pointed out the burial place of Christianity; ‘it is not, for the living have no tomb.'”
As to the resurrection power of Christ, this writer joins the apostle Paul in acknowledging that “This is a faithful and trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance and approval, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15).
As believers enter the public arena, Solomon showed in Proverbs 24:10 pertinent perceptiveness regarding the battle ahead for Christians: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is limited.” Dr. Bruce K. Waltke, the foremost living authority on the wisdom literature found in the Old Testament, put it in these words: “A person reveals the degree and extent of his strength by his conduct in crisis.”
Distinguished Old Testament scholar and former Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, William McKane, will have the last word on it: “It is when a man is hemmed in and trapped by adverse circumstances that his powers of endurance are stretched and an estimate of his toughness and stamina can be made.”
Gideon’s and Rahab’s are beginning to stand. {eoa}
David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project
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