One Message, One Power (1 Cor 2:1–5) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

As Mitch and Sara Kimbrell prepare for a new chapter in their ministry, we join to voice our affirmation of their call and passion for gospel work. They head to New England, a land of hills and mountains, craggy seacoasts, charming villages, and crisp air. Crowding into less than 72,000 square miles Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island boasts diverse culture and liberal ideology. Once the heart of spiritual awakening in the American colonies, now New England almost glories in its antithesis to biblical Christianity. Our friends head to this region with our prayers and support. As they go we pray that they will hold fast to one message and depend upon one power. No other will suffice for life and ministry.

When the Great Awakening suddenly began in New England in 1740, it is recorded that “it broke upon the slumbering churches like a thunderbolt rushing out of a clear blue sky.”[1] No one predicted this awakening or organized it or manipulated it. God came among them in such sovereign saving power and majesty that multitudes repented and believed the gospel of Christ in a short span. Out of a population of 340,000 in New England in the early days of awakening, between 25,000-to-50,000 believe the gospel and became members of churches. In the broader thirteen Colonies, as many as 300,000 came to faith in Christ.[2] It happened quickly and powerfully.

A generation later, the Colonies engaged in a fight for freedom and survival. With amazing pockets of gospel work happening in that period, the general tenor of spiritual life unfortunately waned. The effects of the Great Awakening in many communities slumbered under the weight of Enlightenment thought and new nation birth pains. Mercifully, toward the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, a second Great Awakening began. Notably, Jonathan Edwards’ grandson Timothy Dwight, newly named president of Yale in New Haven, CT, challenged the deism and formalism of faculty and students with the preaching of the gospel. Revival broke out on campus and spread into New England and beyond. Its scope exceeded in size the previous awakening.

But one of the characteristics of this awakening differing from that of the 18th century was the introduction of methods to produce revival. Most notably, Charles Finney moved away from a theology that recognized the depravity of man and human inability to respond to the gospel apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit, to one of methods aimed to get an outward response. He got lots of responses. People no longer needed to depend upon the work of the Spirit for conversion. Just respond to the instructions of the preacher and presto, conversion.

Yet in Finney’s approach, quite evident in his Lectures on Revival and Systematic Theology, he moved away from the one message of the gospel. While enthusiastic and dramatic in his preaching, he moved away from dependence upon one power—the Spirit. Did he get responses? Yes, so much so that he is still admired by many today who seek to mimic his methods. But the result proved disastrous. Instead of a host of faithful followers of Christ, Finney’s methods filled churches with unconverted members. Before long many gave up and left the church since they had no Holy Spirit life that would keep them united to Christ’s body. In subsequent years, when others sought to reach these unconverted church members and others in the community with the gospel, they did not respond. Since that time, little gospel work has taken root in New England.

So we send our friends out into that setting where the gospel is desperately needed, where some have planted churches in recent years with great blessing, and where other churches are dying. How do they need to approach this work? For that matter, how do we need to focus on gospel work? Gospel work must focus on one message and one power. Let’s think a[...]