MIRACLE IN GREENWICH

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice..." (from Romans 12:15)

"Miracle in Darien," by Bob Slosser is a well known book in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian circles. It tells the story of the revival and miracles that broke out at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in affluent Darien, Connecticut under the ministry of the Rev. Terry Fullam over thirty years ago.

Don't be surprised if before long you're reading a new book called, "Miracle in Greenwich". With all of the gloom and doom and bad news we're all reading about, hearing about, and talking about, most of us are totally clueless that God is doing some very exciting things in our day!

There's a very good Assemblies of God Church in Greenwich, Connecticut where the Lead Pastor is the Rev. Glenn Harvison. The church is called, "Harvest Time Church". The church has a beautiful church facility on a very beautiful and choice piece of property in Greenwich, Connecticut. Like Darien, Greenwich is a very affluent southwestern Connecticut community. In fact, I'd say Greenwich is probably the most affluent community in New England.

Some might challenge the "New England Monnicker" when in comes to Greenwich, CT. If you look at a map, Greenwich, Stamford and several other communities are actually located on a piece of land that juts out south and west of the rest of the state of Connecticut. The real estate seems like it would be better suited to be part of the state of New York. In fact, that area is solidly part of the New York City Metro Area. They watch and listen to New York radio and television stations and they root for New York teams. Culturally, they're New Yorkers and not New Englanders. YET, the fact is that IS part of Connecticut and thus New England, and I want to report to you that God did something special at Greenwich this past weekend.

Pastor Ken Gott of Sunderland, England was the guest speaker for several special services. The church, which is a very good and very committed church, experienced a mighty move of God such as they've never experienced before.

Pastor Glenn Harvison posted this on his Facebook page on Monday, Morning, May 14: "The River of God has come to Greenwich. I saw it released and pouring down the altar and flowing down the center aisle. If you're hungry join us at 7:00pm tonite. I am still wrecked. Shook all night long."

There are many other Facebook postings from Pastor Glenn and people in his church. Some may be surprised to find me promoting these happenings as in many respects I've tended toward some of the more "conservative" end of the Assemblies of God spectrum. It's true, for example, that in many respects First Assembly of God of Framingham was more like a Baptist church than a Pentecostal church, HOWEVER, I remind you that even at the old and conservative Framingham church we had a number of special services where people were "slain in the Spirit" and supernatural things happened. I've been around Pentecostalism for a long time...over 35 years. I have seen all the "foolishness", the "false anointings" and the "fanaticism", and I've rejected a lot of that. HOWEVER, I've also HUNGERED for a genuine move of God to hit New England...where masses of people would be saved, experiencing new life in Christ, where masses of people would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, where healings and miracles would become commonplace, and most of all, where people would fall in love with God to the point that they would not care what ANYONE thought. That is apparently happening in Greenwich, Connecticut!

I've been down to the Greenwich church before. I sat in a class taught and facilitated by Pastor Harvison at the Southern New England District's Annual Conference a few years ago. I was captivated. Glenn is a very humble and unassuming guy, yet he shared how God worked miracles for their church, in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country to get their piece of property, build their building, and see miraculous answers to prayer again and again and again. I went down to a special two-day event there not long after that. I met and talked to a lot of folks from the church. Half of the church people live in Westchester County, NY and in fact the church's "next door neighbor" is the Westchester County, NY Airport.
These were not "flaky" people at all. For the most part, these were educated, middle and upper middle class people. They were the kind of people "with their feet on the ground"...not ready to take off in some spaceship to a comet or anything like that. The church struck me as very Biblically sound...even "conservative" in some respects, but very hungry for God.

Media gurus expect sensational moves of God to happen in storefront churches in Harlem or in the hills of Kentucky with "people who don't know any better". Now, sometimes great moves of God DO happen in places like that. But maybe God has moved so powerfully in places like Darien and Greenwich to remind us that our most educated and sophisticated communities are NOTHING without Him. Plain and simple- We need to come to the end of ourselves and WE NEED GOD.

Barack Obama is not going to save us and neither is Mitt Romney. And, some of you know I like Ron Paul. Ron's a great brother in Christ, but he's not going to save us, either. We need God!

Right now, I'm driving 50 miles one way to church to attend Bread of Life in Westminster, MA. It would be REALLY tempting do make a day of it and drive down to Greenwich next Sunday, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to pray for God to move in MY life and in the church where I worship.

Yup, it's barely New England but it IS New England. God is moving at Greenwich, Connecticut. Imagine if God were also so moving in all the churches of New England.

Know what? He wants to!

We just have to open up our hearts.