Resurrection in Greenville, South Carolina

The picture of spiritual death in this upstate S.C. church was a not-so-pretty one: Rigor mortis in the form of faltering faith, embedded sin, discouragement, and lack of leadership; and steady “rotting flesh” shrinkage of membership over a five year period (60 to 39 members). Ministry-level couples had come and gone over a seven-year period.
The only conversions were the dreams of yesteryear church-planting into the attrition rate of today as church members had steadily trickled out to join other congregations or to lose their faith altogether, leading to divorce and other consequences of faithlessness. Of those who remained, Sunday attendance was around 45, Wednesday meetings were sparsely attended, if at all, and one-to-one relationships functioned at a bare minimum of
teaching and “encouraging one another”. The adults’ sincere but feeble efforts to revive themselves (impossible to do, really) at times invited the scorn of their own few youth and teens, who themselves comprised a “dead zone”.

The Greenville church, to put it bluntly, was dead, a decaying and shrinking corpse, like the Shunammite widow’s son of 2 Kings 4:34.

Warming Up
Enter God, the only One who can breathe life into death.
This was by a methodology and power that only God can provide. “Through the working of his mighty strength”, he “raised (the church) from the dead”(Eph 2:19-20), and, as Elisha laid on the dead boy, “mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.”(2Kings 4:34). This is history’s first “mouth-to-mouth” resuscitation, but surely not the last, as upstate South Carolina is finding out.

With the financial help and sacrifices of the Columbia Church of Christ, a new leadership, Scott and Thereasa Kirkpatrick, of Atlanta, interviewed and were hired. And in a way very similar to Elisha, with only the power that God provides and a dream in their eye, they began reviving the “boy lying dead on the couch”. The church’s cold corpse began to grow “warm”(vs. 34)...

Life: The Power to Revive the Dead
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the church’s first baptism after the Kirkpatricks’ arrival was a “boy lying ‘dead’ on a couch”(2 Kings 4:32), a young college student who hung out many week-ends at a church member’s home. He mostly laid on the couch napping, watching TV, and occasionally getting up to visit the refrigerator! His house hosts had even nicknamed him “the Pillow”. The boy on the couch (whose faithful parents in NY had never given up on him and never stopped praying for him) “got up”, repented, and was baptized (his family driving all night from NY to attend). The “Pillow”
became a “Rock” of faith, and rolled, full-bore, into his very religious campus, where he began reaching out to his teammates on the football team.

This ignited a campus ministry with two more baptisms and numerous studies, at present. One of these baptisms was his teammate, who would not “let go” of God after his initial encounter, and literally wrestled with the Scriptures in an all-night series of studies, taking some weary but determined disciples along for the ride. Much like Jacob, he “wrestled with God till daybreak”, and was baptized that day, at church, in front of a
pulsating crowd!

But this is only the beginning of a full church resurrection. Through the preaching and administering of the word of God, constant prayer, and loving “hand to hand, eye to eye” contact with every breathing body remotely
connected to the church, and all existing members becoming fully engaged with one another and the mission, the church cast off its grave clothes and bloomed to life.

Those studying the Scriptures and considering the costs of following Jesus
increased from one “token seeker” to a faith-popping twenty-five. Restorations of former members began and two were restored, with more in the wings. An “all-cylinders-clicking” Youth and Family ministry and singles ministry was initiated after a newly appointed couple was sent to the Youth and Family conference in LA., and returned with exciting report. A “Harvest ministry” lead couple was appointed for exclusively following up with and training new converts.

The Reach of the Message
As word traveled that God was doing something among his people in this
religiously submerged area of the Bible belt, attendance steadily increased over a four month period from a paltry 45 to 60 to 75, then 90. Then, on Easter Sunday God by his amazing grace allowed the church, having “sneezed and opened its eyes”(vs. 35), to surge past the century mark with 102 present to hear the Word! During this same span, Wednesday attendance increased to 70, almost double what any Sunday attendance had been for an entire year.

When life is breathed into a dead corpse, and word spreads, the news rings out to far places. Prior to the Kirkpatrick’s arrival, there was another “dead boy” – so dead and cold to the message, that this teen-ager rejected the frail fellowship and his mother’s efforts, and shocked everyone by deciding to attend school in the coldest, most far away place possible – North Dakota. There, he spent the winter in a state of “cryogenic
spiritual preservation”.

God, of course, was fine with this plan. The boy was to remain there until the
Greenville church warmed back to life, a point at which the disciples could study the Bible with him by skype and by phone! Apparently, Jesus can even lie on people via digital transmission. After all, it is not about the flesh and the material, but he Holy Spirit working in people’s hearts. The boy, now a young man, is now counting the costs and the plans are to return to the previous “dead zone” – not for climate relief but to be baptized - “raised with (Jesus) through (his) faith in the power of God”(Col. 2:12), in front of a resurrected church.

The Range of the Message
When God comes forth to lie on people’s souls, he infuses life into all types, all backgrounds and genders. Three teen girls, previously frozen for years in a faithless holding pattern, are studying and getting close to a decision. One of these has been part of a church family since the age of four, and now has profound questions which challenge the sisters to dig deep in the Scriptures to help her find answers about the her own broken family, the workings of God in people’s lives through difficult circumstances, and much more. She made reparations in a number of areas, taking a stand against Satan’s “teen-age” temptations, and made her decision. The church was
once again riveted as it witnessed her put on Christ in baptism.

Another thing about lying dead: it can’t get any worse, and time doesn’t matter – unless Jesus returns. For one woman, she had been cold to the message for years while her son, a disciple, tried to reach out to her in another city. Suddenly, in Greenville, she warmed to the good news, repented, and was baptized. It is the heart, the way, and the timing of God. And so God works powerfully through the women’s ministry, with only
greater things to come.

All Things Reconciled
God wasn’t kidding when he inspired the following verse: “to bring all things in heaven and on earth under one head, even Christ.” – Eph 2:10. Fasten your spiritual seatbelts before reading this: God even stepped in and revived a brother’s “dead” screenplay lying on a shelf! The story is about a legendary 20th century figure. Over a twelve month period, the brother had shopped it to major Hollywood competitions and queried three thousand five hundred agents and producers from New York to Los Angeles – all to no avail. The screenplay was given up for dead. Suddenly, “out of the clear blue sky”, an email arrived from a well-established producer, and things began to progress at a rapid pace. That same producer also “happened” to have connections with a relative of the famous figure’s family. In the long, not-so-overnight process of Hollywood, inroads are being carved and preliminaries explored. It’s quite early, and deep-level permissions and endorsements are needed, along with one other thing: an army of prayer warriors to pray that this 20th Century visionary can be “brought back to life” on the screen in a movie that has not one curse word, act of violence, or sexual immorality! Where a little faith exists, God doesn’t mess around! He will breathe life into any thing, person, or idea to bring glory to himself.

Hope and a Future
Today, before the church, eyes wide open, lies a whole open field of possibilities: baptisms and additions to the body; community service and a HOPE ministry once again; a growing and thriving Youth and Family ministry; the new “Harvest ministry” for young converts; and a strong married group. And lost dreams, once buried in the ashes of sin and discouragement, are now brought back to life, as Jesus lies upon the church, “mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.”