Wayne County churches set to host reviveOHIO
Local members of the planning committee, Joe Szeker, left, Kelly Gearhart, John Graham and Erika Bendfeldt review a Wayne County map as they invite church congregations across the county to join the coming July revival outreach.
ReviveOHIO, an evangelistic and discipleship training ministry, has been invited to Wayne County for a weeklong outreach July 18-25.
This ministry has been engaged across Ohio for more than eight years. Wayne County churches are teaming up with reviveOHIO’s mission of uniting and equipping local believers to go out into their community to pray for people, share the good news of the Gospel and make disciples of Jesus Christ. ReviveOHIO will bring a team of missionaries and volunteers from Ohio and across the U.S. to partner with local believers in this effort.
“This is a shift from the traditional method of just hoping everyone in the community decides to go to church on Sunday,” said Mark Burd, state director of reviveOHIO. “We want to follow the example of Jesus himself and go into the marketplace where people are and personally invite them to know him. This is a great way to reach out and love our neighbors without cramming religion down their throats. Jesus wants us to be his church, not just attend one on Sundays. He wants us to fish for people (Matthew 4:19) as a part of our daily lives.”
ReviveOHIO Wayne County is a weeklong outreach that will do the following:
—Launch with a community-wide worship service on Friday, July 18 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined community gathering location. The event is free to attend.
—Daily outreach throughout the week with prayer at 7:30 a.m. at the host church, followed by breakfast at no charge and a short training session at 9 a.m. before hitting the streets for community outreach. ReviveOHIO will provide trained missionaries on each team to help local participants strengthen their faith-sharing skills.
—At noon each day, teams will converge at a different church around the county for worship, testimonies, donated lunch and training at 2 p.m. for the afternoon outreach.
—At 5 p.m. daily, the day will culminate at Church of the Saviour for a community dinner, followed by a 6:30 p.m. worship service.
Before Wayne County’s invitation, reviveOHIO has assisted 19 other communities across Ohio in this kind of outreach, which began in Darke County on the western edge of Ohio. Burd said participants in each of these prior communities have been impacted by the unity they’ve experienced and in sharing of God.
He said from the beginning, the phrase “the new normal” was coined to describe the revival that has since been growing across Ohio. Since the kickoff, more than 50 public schools have invited reviveOHIO into team practices, before- and after-school assemblies and gatherings, and clubs and sports teams.
“We simply encourage them with prayer and share the very positive, encouraging words of the Gospel’s good news,” Burd said, adding these students are now praying and sharing with other students, sports teams and with rival schools.
According to Burd, many reviveOHIO outreach teams also have been welcomed into local jails, fire and police stations, recovery centers, nursing homes, and many businesses during these revival weeks. He said in addition to the initial impact of prayer and sharing the Gospel, the ongoing focus on discipleship growth and follow-up continues beyond the outreach week and still continues in most of the communities reviveOHIO has been to. Burd said local leaders have been praying for God to bring revival into Wayne County.
To join this effort or to learn more about reviveOHIO Wayne County, visit www.reviveOH.com and click Contact Us, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/reviveOHWayneCounty, or call or text the team at 850-738-4831.