Standing room only in the seminar room, and people turned away from receiving prayer because the room was dangerously overcrowded … just two memorable moments from our involvement in Spring Harvest!
Immediately after Easter, Cindy Strickler and I taught seminars and led prayer sessions at Spring Harvest, one of the largest Christian events in England.
The event was entitled “Immeasurably More” and based around the wonderful affirmation in Ephesians 3:14-21.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph. 3:14-21 NIV
We spoke at three one-hour long seminars, presenting some of the core teaching from Growing the Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
We were delighted to have more than 200 people present on the first day – crammed in a room with only 180 seats!
About 170 people came on the other two days, enticed by the advertised titles such as:
- “Running on empty?”
- “Keeping in step with the Spirit” and
- “Discerning the Spirit”
Encouragingly, one participant said it was the best teaching about the Holy Spirit that they had ever received at Spring Harvest.
Cindy and I repeatedly found that the topics and emphases we had allocated for each day dovetailed extremely well with Spring Harvest’s overall daily themes.
On the day that we taught about the value of sharing testimonies in building faith and obedience, we later discovered that guests were invited to share testimonies during the evening celebration – and the decision about this was made at the same time as we were teaching, but in an entirely different venue. I was able to share information such as this with the event’s Director, as a sign that the Holy Spirit was clearly at work guiding the content and approach.
We were also invited to lead an evening prayer session on ‘Receiving more from the Holy Spirit’, helped by a prayer team of 20 volunteers.
The session was so popular – which means that people were so thirsty – that a long queue formed outside the venue and the stewards had to turn away 60 people!
Mercifully, the Spring Harvest leadership team asked us to run a second session the following evening, to which another 70 people came for prayer.
We are especially grateful to the small team of Dunamites and Upward Challengers who made themselves available for intercession during every one of these seminars and prayer sessions. The prayer team in particular commented on the difference that the intercessory cover made for them.
We ran out!
The bookstall sold out of copies of our book.
The www.growingthechurch.org website experienced a surged in visits during the event.
We distributed hundreds of brochures about upcoming Dunamis events in England (including the full Growing the Church conference in February 2016).
And we had relationship-building conversations with leadership personnel from Spring Harvest, hopefully paving the way for future involvement.
This is the first time that Dunamis related work in Britain and Ireland has moved significantly outside of the United Reformed Church.
Our prayer is that we would continue to reach denominations and networks which have not yet encountered Dunamis at all.
Next year’s event focuses on the Exodus period – ‘Game Changers’ – and already I can see the relevance of a session on Event Intercessory Prayer, drawing on the Moses, Aaron & Hur praying during the battle with the Amalekites.
Rejoice with us, and please pray for future developments.
