Send the fire by Nate Hayes

In a city where the Anglican church has roughly 0.1% of the population in its pews how should
we respond? Should we resort to palliative care for the church saying, ‘let’s just die well’? Or
should we respond, ‘not on our watch!’? If it is the latter, what should we do? Have better
coffee? Cooler branding? Slicker systems? All are important, but I’m not convinced… How do
you make disciples in a culture who are dopamine addicted and whose attention span is 4
seconds less than that of a goldfish? I don’t think it is by using the tactics of the world. The
Church in the West has tried that for decades and it hasn't worked. We are the most
well-resourced Christians in history yet the numbers correlate more with decline than growth.

As followers of Jesus, we have been given the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the one
whose power raised Christ from the dead. The spiritual and moral wasteland that the Church is
surrounded by on the Gold Coast can be redeemed not by human means but only by heavenly
ones. Throughout the pages of scripture and church history we see time and again the people of
God turning their backs on God, rejecting his love, mercy and goodness. And time and again,
having lived for apart from God, find themselves on their knees in desperate need of him. There
is much that the Church needs to repent of. Pride, its self-reliance, its failure to pass on the faith
to the next generation, abuses of clergy and here in Australia its shocking complicity in injustices
committed towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. I believe this is a moment
in the history of the Western Church that we must once again humble ourselves, repent and cry
out for God to move in our city and nation.

At the dedication of the temple, God promised Solomon, ‘if my people, who are called by my
name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then
I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ (2 Chronicles 7:14).
There is much talk of revival in church circles at the moment, and rightly so! For a sovereign
move of God is surely the only thing that will catch the attention of our nation and lift its eyes off
of itself and on to God. God promises Solomon that he will bring renewal to the nation if his
people will humble themselves and pray, seeking his face and turning from their sin. We too as
Christ’s church on the Gold Coast must seriously consider this request from God. I believe if we
respond, God will surely hear us from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land. Stuart Piggin
defines revival as ‘an intensification of the normal activity of the Holy Spirit.’ God is no doubt
already working and doing wonderful things across denominations here in the Gold Coast. But
we must pray for an acceleration! For there are hundreds of thousands of people outside the
walls of our church buildings who do not yet know the saving grace of Jesus. Hundreds of
thousands who have not yet tasted the love of the Father and have not found freedom from the
snares of this world.

John Wesley famously said, ‘Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from
miles to watch you burn.’ As followers of Jesus, our first priority is to tend to our relationship
with Him. Like tending to a fire, we must tend to the fires of our heart, allowing the Spirit to fan
the embers into flame. We must create space to have intimacy with the Almighty. Every day the
Lord searches for hearts that are open to him, as he seeks to meet with, speak to and refresh us by
his Spirit. Too often we quench the still small voice of the Spirit with our worries, business and
distractions. As we allow God into our lives, he will begin to break our hearts for those who do
not yet know him. If we want to see wholesale revival in our city and in our nation we must
allow God to revive us, his Church, first. How might you allow God to blow on the embers of
your heart so that people might ‘come from miles to watch you burn’?

To end, the words of William Booth.
To make our weak hearts strong and brave,
Send the fire, send the fire!
To live a dying world to save,
Send the fire, send the fire!
O see us on Thy altar lay
Our lives, our all, this very day;
To crown the offering now we pray,
Send the fire, send the fire!