RRI
Note: Steve Beard's website can be accessed by clicking here.
The Pensacola Outpouring
by Steve Beard
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From the July/August 1996 issue of Good News magazine
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The final evening after a week of revival services is always bittersweet.
After all, the Lord has done so much in the lives of those around us. We
have been challenged by the preaching, inspired by the praise and worship,
and transformed at the altar. God's presence seems almost palpable. In
response, we make heartfelt commitments to spend more time in daily worship,
Bible study, and prayer.
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After all of this, the evangelist packs up and travels to the next
town. Slowly we adjust to the absence of the fiery sermons and altar calls.
Not long after, we appoint a committee to plan for next year's revival.
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What would happen, however, if the evangelist never left? What would
happen if revival never ceased? How would we adjust?
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That has become a major question at the Brownsville Assembly of God
in Pensacola, Florida. On Father's Day Sunday, June 18, 1995, evangelist
Steve Hill shared about a life-changing experience of literally being overcome
by God's presence and overwhelmed by his love several months before at
Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London. When Hill asked how many
would like to receive a refreshing of the Holy Spirit, more than 1,000
people responded. As he laid hands on people, the Spirit of God swept over
the congregation in an unusually powerful way.
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The morning service lasted till 4 p.m. Needless to say, the Lord had
more in mind on this Father's Day than merely taking the dads out for lunch.
One year later, Hill is still there preaching. From all indications, the
church has happily adjusted and are praying, "More, Lord, more!"
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Since that Sunday, more than 20,000 people have made public commitments
to Jesus Christ at the Brownsville Assembly--many of them actually running
and diving for the altar. Punk rockers and lawyers, strippers and bankers,
truck drivers and crack addicts have all found new life in Christ at the
church. One couple who had been divorced for a year discovered one another
at the altar after each had independently given their lives to the Lord.
They are now remarried.
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Simultaneously, untold thousands of Christians from virtually every
denomination--including United Methodism--have experienced renewal by receiving
prayer. Pastors testify to having received a fresh evangelistic anointing.
Some believers respond to the prayer ministry with unusual manifestations
such as trembling, groaning, shaking, and falling under the power of the
Holy Spirit. Men and women from all socio-economic levels flock to the
church in search of salvation, deliverance, Holy Spirit empowerment, and
physical healing.
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The Brownsville Assembly now holds revival meetings every Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. Cumulative attendance has been
more than 650,000. On weekends, people arrive in the afternoon in order
to find a place in the 2,300-seat church. The parking lot is usually still
filled after midnight. License plates indicate that some have driven from
halfway across the United States. As word has traveled across Christendom
regarding what has become known as the "Pensacola Outpouring," international
visitors from throughout the globe have made pilgrimages to the panhandle
city.
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The revival has caused the church to make several adjustments--all
of which they were more than happy to make. The financial burden alone
includes additional phone lines, child care helpers, drinking water, electricity,
and parking-lot security.
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"We've prayed for revival for two-and-a-half years, and we knew one
was coming," says Pastor John Kilpatrick of the Brownsville Assembly. "But
this magnitude has shocked us."
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Preparing for revival
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Dr. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world located
in South Korea, was praying in 1991 for revival in America. He believes
that the Lord led him to point his finger at Pensacola on a map of the
United States. "I am going to send revival to the seaside city of Pensacola,"
Cho sensed the Lord saying, "and it will spread like a fire until all of
America has been consumed by it." Pastors in the area have been mindful
of the prophesy ever since.
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Pastor Kilpatrick sought God's direction for their Sunday night services.
The Lord reminded him of Matthew 21:13: "My house will be called a house
of prayer." He asked the women of the church to sew banners in order to
focus specific prayer on issues such as spiritual warfare, family, souls,
leaders of our country, healing, pastors, peace of Jerusalem, schools,
and revival.
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The night that the banners were paraded in, Kilpatrick didn't know
how to divide the congregation evenly between the banners, but he noticed
that as each banner was carried in, different people began to weep. As
the banner representing prayer for the leaders of our country came in,
he lost all composure himself. At the Spirit's leading, he encouraged the
congregation to go to the banner that they had cried over. "As soon as
I made that announcement, everyone got up and joined others around a particular
banner," Kilpatrick explains in his book, Feast of Fire. "No one was left
in his or her pew and the people were evenly distributed. Prayers were
lifted up that evening as our congregation set a precedence of intercessory
commitment that continues weekly to this day."
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As the weeks went on, the congregation saw many prayers answered, but
there was a special emphasis around the revival banner. More and more people
joined the prayer for revival each week. "They would gather around it for
long periods of time, seemingly in deep travail and especially intense
intercession," reports Kilpatrick.
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Pastor Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill are both very quick to
point out that what is taking place is not only for Brownsville, let alone
for the Assemblies of God. Instead, this revival is for all. Southern Baptists,
Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and independents have all been touched.
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One group that has been wonderfully blessed is the United Methodists
in the Pensacola area, most notably the congregation at the Pine Forest
UM Church.
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A family revival
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Marilyn and Ted Bridges attend Pine Forest. Prior to the revival, they
had been separated for more than six months. "I thought things were going
along real well, but evidently they weren't," says Ted, a retired Army
colonel. "I wasn't a drunk, but I abused alcohol. It was really weighing
on my heart."
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Marilyn told Ted that she would come back if he would hold his drinking.
"I could see that he was coming to grips with it," she says. "We were struggling
because his anger was coming back. I could see him dealing with that anger,
but he still had a long way to go." Shortly before the revival, the two
of them ended their separation. However, neither of them could have anticipated
the transformation in their marriage that was about to take place.
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On the first night Marilyn went to the services, she came home at two
o'clock in the morning. Her husband said, "Good gracious, where have you
been?"
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"To the revival!" she responded. Marilyn told him he needed to join
her. Although he didn't want to go, Ted gave in under one condition: "I'll
go, but I'm not going to stay until two o'clock in the morning. I'll take
my car because when I get tired I'm coming home."
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At the conclusion of the service, the ministry team attended to those
desiring prayer. "I knew that if this was really of God then there was
going to be some kind of dynamic force there," says Ted. "And there was."
Ted received prayer and "it was like my legs were knocked out from under
me, and I couldn't get enough of it after that." They returned the next
night. Ted received more prayer and knew that he was different.
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"I still have a long way to go," says Ted, "but I'm a lot better person
than I was."
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"From that very first night that Ted and I were together at the revival,"
Marilyn told Good News, "God healed all the hurt of 30 years of struggles
that we had had. It was a miracle."
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The revival has had an effect upon the entire family. Their 19-year-old
daughter Leah remembers the night well. "I was praying for Dad too," she
says. "The Spirit of God fell on me as I was praying for my father and
I started crying. I had gotten to the point where I couldn't talk to my
father because I had so much anger. And he had told me many times, `Sorry,'
but I had not let that go, and that was sin in my life. God was pulling
that out." Reconciliation within the Bridges family has been one of the
blessed outcomes of the Brownsville revival.
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Needless to say, Ted's life has not been the same. It was not long
thereafter when he stood up in church and said, "There cannot be anything
going on in your life that is important enough to keep you away from the
revival service. You need to go and experience it." He couldn't contain
himself. "I had to say it," he says. "And now I can't keep quiet."
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An initially skeptical pastor
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The Rev. Perry Dalton, senior pastor of Pine Forest UM Church, was
on vacation when the Brownsville revival broke out. Youth director Linda
Smith alerted him to what was going on. After all, she had begun attending
on the third night with members of her youth group.
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Dalton was encouraged to attend but initially thought to himself, "I
don't really need this. I'm a very happy pastor with a growing church where
a lot of things going on." Nevertheless, he agreed to go, secretly hoping
it would die before he got there. Of course, it didn't. "After the first
or second revival meeting, I realized that God was doing something here
and I needed to be a part of it. And my church needed to be a part of it,"
he told Good News.
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The relationship between Brownsville Assembly and Pine Forest UM Church
is wonderful, reports Dalton. "There is a real ecumenical spirit towards
the Methodist Church. There has been no effort to steal sheep away," he
says. "There has been no effort to ask [UM] people to give their time back
to Brownsville. There has been every opportunity to include them in what
they were doing." Dalton is one of several local pastors that participate
in Friday evening baptism services at Brownsville.
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"I have more committed Christians now than I have ever had," he says.
"The Brownsville situation really created a holiness in the lives of the
people, a real desire for righteousness."
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Because of the revival, Pine Forest UM Church has made a few adjustments--primarily
by offering several different kinds of worship services. "That has worked
fairly well," reports Dalton.
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Of course, the manifestations--particularly the shaking and trembling
under the Holy Spirit among the youth--can create quite a stir. Recognizing
that manifestations are certainly not common within contemporary United
Methodism, Dalton says, "We don't encourage the manifestations but we don't
discourage them. I don't really see it as an obstacle or a problem. I had
never seen the manifestations within the Methodist church before this,
so my concern was what it was doing to my congregation and how I was going
to come back and relate to it."
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The revival also caused Dalton to examine his own Methodist roots.
"I have a new appreciation for the Wesleyan revival." Some of what he sees
in Pensacola is reminiscent of what John Wesley observed in his Journals.
"That's part of my heritage I didn't know," he says.
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"The aspect that is new to me is the depth and length of time that
this has gone on," Dalton says. "What God has done here is let it go on
long enough that it has had some good lengthy results."
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Youth ablaze
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Most of the young men and women in the Pine Forest youth group were
Christians before the revival. As one girl described the situation, "We
were Christians before, but now we're on fire."
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"Before this summer, I was backslidden," says Jennifer Coe, 17, president
of the youth group. "I knew right from wrong. I knew enough to know that
what I was doing was wrong, and I was miserable where I was at." Throughout
the summer, God had created a spiritual hunger in Jennifer. She has been
a part of the revival since the second night. She prayed, "God, I just
want more of you." She didn't know what to think of all of the aspects
of the revival, but she knew God was there. "I could feel the presence
of God so strongly," she told Good News. "It was like soaking in his love."
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These young people have become very serious about intimate worship
and repentance. "I just want to go praise God," says Tamara Nowin, a 17-year-old
who attends Aldersgate UM Church in nearby Molino. "I wasn't really committed
until I went to Brownsville. I knew there was more I had to give up. I
saw how powerful God was and I didn't understand why I was holding on to
these things anymore. I just wanted to give it all up."
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"The first thing it affected was my desire to worship the Lord," says
Terrie Taylor, a youth counselor at Pine Forest. "I had a new hunger to
praise Jesus. I was excited about coming to church. I don't think I ever
really worshipped until now. I had a new hunger to read the Bible. I noticed
right away being able to focus on Jesus without any distraction in my quiet
time."
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For the two year before the spiritual awakening came to Pensacola,
youth pastor Linda Smith had encouraged the young people to pray for revival.
She even helped initiate what would become the Pacesetters Bible School
in order to provide in-depth theological and Biblical studies for young
people. She has "never seen such fast-forward spiritual growth" in all
of her years of ministry. Smith believes that this generation holds the
promise of great spiritual destiny. It has been through her encouragement
and discipleship that so many youth in Pensacola are seeking the deeper
things of God.
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The young people claim that the change in their musical tastes is probably
one of the most noticeable responses to the revival. The majority of them
have given up on secular radio altogether. Instead, they prefer to listen
to Vineyard-style praise and worship music.
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Brian Hansen, 17, got rid of a sizable musical collection. "It was
tame music compared to what's out there, but when you put it next to God's
light, it's still moral filth," he told Good News. "It was a big purification
thing in my life and God blessed me though it."
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Others in the group spoke of their declining interest in television.
"Ricki Lake was the best talk show in the world," says Janet Webb, 17.
Now she only watches Christian programming and the news.
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"God has changed so much in my heart," says Missy Gandy, 14. "Before
the revival, being a Christian meant not doing certain things and coming
to church once a week. Now its a lot more. It's my life. It's everything.
It's wanting to live for God, and that's all I really want. It's my heart's
desire."
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Caleb Phillips, 14, is relatively new to the youth group. He has only
been to Brownsville once but he says that the changes in his friends and
the around the church are obvious. "Our Bible studies have been stronger,
more powerful; we can sit there for hours and talk about God."
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Caleb has been involved in many youth groups because he is part of
a Navy family that travels frequently. "I never would have even imagined
a church group like this," he said. "At other churches, you go on Sunday
and Wednesday night, and it becomes repetitive....I've gotten to the point
where I like coming to church. I used to do different things so I wouldn't
have to go. I'd be sick that morning or something else. Now I even enjoy
the preaching. God really opened my ears so that I could hear and understand."
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The revival has also given many of the young people a deep realization
of God's love. "Lately, God has been trying to tell me that he is going
to be my Daddy," says Erin Butler, 15. "Not `O Heavenly Father,' but Daddy.
I'm starting to find verses in the Bible about the Father. Whenever I pray,
I picture myself running up and sitting in his lap and hugging him really
tight. I tell him everything like he was my daddy."
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"Before the revival the whole concept of God was a philosophical discussion
for me," said Brian Hansen. "The theology and the ethics were interesting,
but I couldn't understand how God could be personal to me. After this revival,
he became so real to me. I used to be plagued with doubts and now they
are gone.
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"When we pray we are not praying to a God who is an infinite number
of miles away," he continued. "Our God is closer to us than anyone else
can be."
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The Pine Forest youth group is confident that it is part of a special
generation that is in the midst of a historic moment. Some of them testify
to having seen angels at Brownsville and other visions from the Lord. Others
have shaken under the power of the Holy Spirit while in school--public
and private. Yet Terrie Taylor simply summarizes the change within the
members this way: "Increased hunger for the Lord and for witnessing. They
had that already, but it just grew. An increase in their wanting to speak
and share with others. An increased burden for others to get saved. There's
fire in their hearts."
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Spreading the fire
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"A revival of this magnitude occurs once, perhaps twice in a century,"
says youth pastor Linda Smith. "True revival, according to church history,
is spontaneous and occurs sovereignly among church people much like spontaneous
combustion where the conditions are perfect to create a fire." With all
the prayer offered for revival, Pensacola was ready for this outpouring
of the Holy Spirit.
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"What's happening lines up with the inner witness of believers," says
Smith. "It lines up with church history, and it lines up the Scripture."
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Those in Pensacola are looking to spread the revival fire. Like others
of her generation, college student Leah Bridges is grateful for the revival
but does not intend to merely live off of the fumes of old memories. "We
need to come back to this river to be cleansed and washed and renewed,
but He is telling us to take it other places," she says. "I have no idea
how long God's going to have this revival here, but if it does stop, my
heart's desire is that we're not sitting around going, `Remember the days
when we had revival at Brownsville.'"
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She believes that her generation must take the revival fires to other
cities and countries. "I feel like that's the burden God has laid on my
heart and many other youths. My generation, we are the ones that God is
going to use."
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Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
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