Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A Glimpse of Revival - the Czech Way!
Some time back I wrote about the changing spiritual climate in the Czech Republic and the quiet kind of work of God we are sensing around us (read some of it here or here on page 4.). I am encouraged to tell you that since then we have seen some more signs of a spiritual revival in the country.
Last year I met a group of Czech Christian businessmen here in Prague (we met through one of our friends from Mountain Christian Church). These people use their natural influence and business contacts to share the gospel. They have done so for years and they have been praying for a revival for years as well. And for years they have been seeking and asking various church leaders for help in discipling new believers (this without much success). We got to know each other and decided to work together - each of us bringing whatever gifts and resources we have. We started meeting and strategizing and came up with an initiative called Following Truth. It has the following mission:
Following Truth is a Christian movement, which considers healthy spiritual life and faith in God as a foundation of rich and well rounded life, strives to overcome the atheist legacy of the past several generations, and to rediscover faith in God for as many strands of our society as possible. We strive toward general promotion of culture and quality of life in our country. We hold dear the rich spiritual, cultural and human legacy of St. Ludmila, king Wenceslas, Jan Hus, Jan Amos Komenský, the Moravian Brethren and scores of other nameless believers, whose faith, perspective on life and living legacy still enrich our society today.
Our goal is to provide people opportunities to encounter the Christian faith, to support them in their search for the essence of faith and in applying the practical consequences of following Jesus to their everyday lives. To accomplish this we organize public meetings, study groups and various public awareness programs. We support people on their journey of discovering truth by publishing informational and study materials, by providing various study and self-study opportunities for children, youth and adults so that everyone can develop as a unique person, reach his or her God-given living potential and become one of the leading personalities of our society as well as the wider European and global society.
One of the first things was to create a list of discipleship resources for new believers. We also created a website and organized the first evangelistic meeting for our friends’ business associates and their families. And here is the advertised glimpse: about 300+ people came to the event, half of them responded to a call to express their faith in Jesus or to rededicate their life to God and 54 of them indicated that this was their first time to publicly confess their faith in Jesus. It was a powerful time - you could sense the Spirit working in people’s hearts through the preaching and the testimonies. It was awesome to see something like this happen in the atheistic Czech Republic! Now the follow up work begins.
