I am working on this post early Monday morning to post Tuesday since we probably will not have enough signal to post much this week at Elco Camp Meeting. Do not panic if you do not hear from us until after the weekend.
Fulfilling Your Calling
Most of you that read here on a regular basis know who we are and what we do. We have met many of you in churches all over the USA over the last many years. Thank you for riding along with us as we navigate our way through the Mile Markers of the highway.
There are others that come here periodically or even daily that we have met or become acquainted with online through us living in a bus or because we travel full time. It may be you get the part about the bus and traveling, but you are confused about what we actually "do".
We are evangelists. We travel throughout the year going to churches where we are invited. We may be there only one day, but usually, we are there for a week singing and preaching in the services. As evangelists, it is our desire to encourage local Pastors, encourage and strengthen local churches and to preach the message of the Gospel to those that have never heard it or never responded to it.
You can read more about our ministry philosophy HERE. That link sums it up pretty well.
Most weeks we preach inside churches. We have been doing this for our living for 16 1/2 years this stint and for about 2 1/2 years at an earlier point in our lives. We love the travel. We love the churches. We love to sing. We love to preach the Gospel. We love the privilege and opportunity to do what we do week in and week out.
More importantly than what we love to do is the fact that we are doing our best to do what we feel like we must do in service of our king. The Bible says, "And he (God) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:" Ephesians 4:11-12
Although we have done many things in life, it seems to us and to those that mentor us, that we fit in "and some, evangelists" best of all.
In 2000 I was the Pastor of a church in Wichita, Kansas when someone suggested having outdoor service in a city park. I had never conducted anything like that, but we gave it a try. Those 2-3 services were a turning point in our lives. I was hooked.
Later that year, I purchased my first tent, a GP Medium 16'x32' canvas army tent that would seat 50 people and I started having tent revivals on the church property. Some of those meetings I would preach and others I would invite someone in to preach.
It was in those early tent revivals that I developed the style of tent meeting that works for us. That is, pull people together to worship God fervently, preach the Gospel early in the service and then give the Holy Ghost a chance to work in peoples lives and spirits. Followed by prayer for those that have special needs.
We hit the road in 2003 and continued to sharpen the focus of our outdoor revivals. By early 2009 we felt the Lord directing us to do more than one or two outdoor revivals each year that we had been doing and in 2011 we had 8 tent revivals in a 30'x40' tent.
In 2012 we purchased the 48'x70' tent we still use today. It can be set up as 48' round, 48'x70' or 48'x92'. Most years since then we have conducted 11 or 12 tent revivals a year. Recently we have cut that number down to 7 or 8 each year in order to keep going strong.
We love having church under the tent. It is amazing how many people have never been inside the local church, but they will come near the tent or come under the tent and be touched by the power of God. We love witnessing that.
We never get tired of seeing lives changed by the power of the preached Word of God. The only thing that limits us is the physical strength required to do the work of tent revival, including work each night, set up and tear down of the tent, logistics and transport.
We have no complaints, we signed up for the work. But the fact is, I was was 33 when I first set up a tent and I was 44 when we first did 8 tent revivals in a year and I am 52 now. I am still strong, able to work and push the effort through, but I do feel the years when it is over.
Who am I kidding? I feel the years every step of the way. So we are trying to work smarter, find better ways of doing things and keep this up a few more years by God's grace.
A Pastor friend was commenting on the work and asking about all that was required recently. I told him the result was very much worth the effort. As I was relating to him and his wife that I would preach under a tent every night of the year if I was physically able, I noticed their eyes began to glaze over. I think they were trying to figure a way to get away from the nut case in front of them.😀
They could not understand why I would take the comfort of the church, the stability of having a congregation, the relative ease of preaching inside and exchange it for the work, hassle, finance, sweat, blood, tears and trials of hauling a tent around just so I could labor longer and harder.
That is OK. I am not offended. I get it. Every preacher, every church, every ministry, every Christian should find and abide in their own calling to the best of their ability.
I firmly believe that every preacher, every church, every ministry and every Christian should have some specific plan to reach out to those outside the church. Everyone should be doing something.
However, there is a danger in coming to believe that everyone should be doing exactly what we are doing, whatever that something is.
I have watched churches and ministries and men fall into this trap.
"We are working in" the jail, or prison or with the homeless or orphans, or tent revivals or feeding programs or fill in the blank. "Why don't people get on board with us? Don't they see how important this is?"
What we are trying to accomplish is important. It merits our full attention and effort. But when we believe that what we are working on in the kingdom of God is THE most important thing, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment.
That attitude puts us in a fanciful competition with other ministries for attention, applause and finance. The reality is we are NOT in competition, we are working together in different parts of God's vineyard toward the same goal!
Not everyone is called to tent revivals. Not everyone can do it.
Not everyone is called to street preaching. Not everyone can do it.
Not everyone is called to work with young people struggling with drugs or depression, or suicidal thoughts or all three. Not everyone can do it.
That is perfectly fine. We are all gifted and called into different areas of service within the Body of Christ. We should do what God has called us to do and equipped us to do and not try to fit the mold that someone else, with their own agenda, has declared as the best way.
If everyone is doing something to reach the lost and hurting, we will work best and come closest to getting the job done. Each one of us must find our place and do our assigned task to the very best of our ability.
We physically and financially support individuals, churches and ministries that are reaching people in a variety of ways that we could never effectively do ourselves. God had called them to their service and we cheer them on and pray for them fervently.
God has uniquely called and equipped our family for the service He has placed us in for this season in our lives. We will not be able to physically do this forever, but we are purposed to do it to the best of our ability for as long as God makes it possible!
We love tent revival. We love the atmosphere of tent revival. We thrive on the challenges of outdoor meetings and the chance to insert the Gospel into lives that have never been inside our churches. There are many, many other avenues of ministry that are beyond our skill set, but God has trained us for this!
We are trying to fulfill the calling that God has placed on our lives. We feel privileged, honored and blessed to be in His work, reaching for His people and laboring alongside His blessed people.
I want to encourage you to find your place. Grab hold of whatever handle God has put in front of you and carry your end of the load. Working together, in our place, in our calling, we can fulfill the great commission. I love that!
Thank you for reading today.
Davy
