A wave of repentance and revival is sweeping across the nation and destroying the “seeker sensitive” church model.
For one congregation, what started as a time of consecration and repentance has led to its Gen Z group getting baptized in a radical move of God. In Corpus Christi, Texas, New Life Church is seeing young people operating out of a spirit of boldness like the Jesus People Movement.
“It has been a spirit of repentance, a spirit of conviction, not legalism … there is a deep conviction, like hey there is a real holiness of God,” says Mike Fehlauer, senior pastor of New Life Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.
It all started in 2018 when Fehlauer read Jesus’ letter to the seven churches and was convicted himself in what he calls his “job performance review” through the lens of the seven letters.
The church body looked to what really matters to Jesus. They left the church growth model behind, and what has followed is like a page out of the book of Acts.
On Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s campus earlier this year, students gathered on the plaza and many were getting baptized in the fountain during the 53-degree weather, and were filled with the Holy Spirit. The church isn’t just seeing a spirit of boldness operating through the college students but through middle and high schoolers as well.
In a matter of weeks, they saw 14 Bible clubs form at 14 different schools, all led by students.
“Kids are getting saved, teachers are showing up, they are being ministered to and touched by the Lord,” Fehlauer says.
Churches nationwide are praying for revival and waiting for it to one day come, but Fehlauer says pastors have to realize how hungry the people sitting in their pews are.
“Not only are they hungry for the Lord, they are hungry for truth,” he says.
Fehlauer says the Holy Spirit is ready to move in churches across America, but He can’t move where there isn’t any room.
“The Holy Spirit will fill all the space you are willing to give Him but we also discovered it’s the only space He can fill,” he said.
The revival at New Life Church Corpus Christi, started in 2018 and it hasn’t slowed down. It has only continued to expand. The church is seeing people with terminal diseases healed, blind eyes opening, hearing restored and spontaneous baptism even throughout the week.
After most churches leave the “church growth model,” they fear their congregation will wane, but Fehauer says they have more people now than before.
Now starting this fall they are adding an additional six Bible clubs in elementary school, “it really is a movement,” Fehauer joyfully proclaims.
Despite the widespread agenda to bring confusion to the identity of the youth on their gender, churches like New Life aren’t just taking a defensive approach. They are taking the gospel to the school and are seeing incredible testimonies of lives being completely transformed by the power of God.
“We aren’t here to make friends,” Fehauer says, but “in the midst of insanity like this whole gender thing, that spirit just wants you to sit down, shut up and be quiet. We’ve got to be willing to stand up, and we can do it in love, we don’t have to be knuckleheads about it.”
The collective body of Christ is the only voice Jesus has to share both His grace and His truth.
As more churches leave the playbook behind and turn their services over to the Holy Spirit to have His way, the more the spirit of boldness will continue to flow nationwide and shake the dead back to life. {eoa}
Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor at Charisma Media.
