By Message Staff
PITKIN – The Holy Spirit is moving in the small rural community of Pitkin.
More than 250 people gathered for the beginning of a tent revival Sunday, Oct. 16 and throughout most of the week, the crowds did not diminish but grew. The focus of the revival according to a Louisiana Baptist pastor was apathy – a problem facing many Christians today.
Branden Martin hoped by the end of the revival those who made a decision to face this problem will commit to a change that he believes could transform Pitkin and surrounding areas.
“To me, apathy is one of the major plagues in our churches today,” said Martin, organizer of the revival and pastor of Westport Friendship Baptist Church in Pitkin. “We get in this attitude about church and it becomes routine. We are cold and stagnant as churches as a whole.
“Church has to be a place that’s alive when the world walks in,” he continued. “With apathy and any other characteristic in our life that isn’t Godly, it starts with us individually. It has to start with one person. The cure for apathy, the remedy for spiritual awakening, is not in the big steps. It’s not about doing something big. It’s about the small steps of everyday living.”
The revival began Sunday, Oct. 16, and ended Friday, Oct. 21, with between 230 and 250 attending most nights. While the majority of decisions have centered on the sin of apathy, at least two people came forward to make a public commitment to accept Christ.
During a time of invitation on Tuesday, Oct. 18, a teenage girl walked down the aisle with her grandmother. The young girl not only asked for healing from an illness but also wanted to declare her intention to follow Christ.
One moment that left Pastor Jason Townley speechless came after he preached the message Monday evening. During the time of invitation, a woman passing through the area came forward to share how she had stopped after seeing the tent. She admitted that she needed prayer not only for God to heal her of pancreatic cancer, leaving her 18 months to live, but also for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
“I thought, Only God through his providence could direct someone all the way from Alabama to be in a place where His people and His presence was working mightily for her to see,” said Townley, pastor of Pine Ridge Baptist Church in Melder. “Please pray for her, her name is Kacey. Just think if we were hidden in some building she would most probably have kept going that evening.
“Kacey is a reminder to every one of us we are living with desperate people all around us and its past time the Church of the one true God comes out of hiding,” he continued. “It’s so wonderful when the church leaves the building and people have easy access to find those who care and will pray and help them where they are and above all point them to Jesus.”
