For those of you that perhaps were not at Legacy Church this past Sunday, I was able to give a brief report on my trip to Columbia, SC, and the Conference I attended called The South Carolina Renewal Project associated with the American Family Association (Don Wildmon, President). It was a great 24 hour time period of inspiration and instruction about the need our country has in this hour to return to its Biblical and moral foundations. Special speakers were like: Congressman Bob McEwen from Ohio, Pastor Larry Stockstill from Baton Rouge, Historian David Barton, and Speaker Newt Gingrich. There was also an assortment of attorneys and other pastors helping us understand better our role and limits in challenging our culture.

Pastor Stockstill, of course, challenged the 560 pastors attending to get their "houses in order". He mentioned personal character issues that still plague the ministry and how can we challenge a culture spinning morally out of control when our lives may be just as out of order. He reported on a meeting he attended with notable pastors from all across our nation and the tone amongst them is of great concern. We have just a short window of opportunity to begin to recover from the different onslaughts we have faced as a church and nation before it could conceivably be too late.

Congressman McEwen shared a great speech about simple economics and our country's slide towards socialism. This man impressed me (and as a politician, that is saying something). He reminded us that there are only TWO systems of economic: The Kingdom of God and Babylon. We all know that Babylon will ultimately collapse and that in the church we must make the Scriptural teaching of Biblical economics a priority to help the people with the impending collapse.

David Barton is an historian that intricately knows and understands the Christian foundations of our nation. As many of you know, I too, am well read in this area, but he is the absolute best when it comes to sharing the details and the behind the scenes stories of our great nation. There is absolutely no doubt that the USA was founded by Christians and is linked to Biblical covenant precepts. The evidence is overwhelming. I could spend pages sharing with you the stories he told about our early founders and leaders in this great nation. It was awesome.

Newt Gingrich is a smart guy as well. He is an historian and puts much of our current crisis and issues in an historical context that makes a lot of sense. I was impressed by his renewed passion for our country and the hour in which we live. He mentioned that the culture war we now face is no longer on just one front: secularism. Now we have another battle front called, Islam. Is it not amazing to you that an atheistic secularism would align itself with a religion of any sort. The truth is that these two philosophical fronts are doing their best to eliminate every vestige of Christianity. As difficult as it may be to believe, right now in Michigan there is a young Iranian Christian girl who is under indictment in a US COURT OF LAW for witnessing to a Muslim. Yes, you read that right. She may go to jail for witnessing to a Muslim. Do you know that at this very moment chaplains in the US military must have all their public prayers approved before saying them? What kind of intrusion is that by government in the affairs of religion. Last time I read the 1st amendment, there was to be no restriction of the "free exercise" of a person's faith. Folks, things are turned upside down and now is the time for us to turn things upside down again so they will be right side up!

I will confess that listening to the reports made me slightly discouraged and greatly concerned. However, there was a rumble in that room of pastors. I could sense a spiritual momentum starting to arise. I really believe that there is a "spiritual" tea-party about ready to explode in the land. I honestly believe that God is about ready to do something powerful to give our nation one more chance to aright itself. It is more than just politics, it is a spiritual battle that we must engage in through prayer, fasting, and declaration of our beliefs. The attorneys that were there clearly spelled out what churches can and cannot do. To be candid, aside from giving money to candidates, we can say almost anything without fear of reprisal. The problem is...will we? I was encouraged to see the ADF attorneys that were present told us that if we are challenged by the IRS or the any government agency, that they are anxious to go to court to secure the rights that should have always been ours. We need not feel alone in this battle.

When the conference was over, I know that over 500 pastors were loosed back into the state of South Carolina different people. I believe there is a roar from the men of women of God you will soon hear. God willing, this is the beginning of the greatest revival our nation will have ever experienced.

Planting a Cross, running a race, keeping the faith...

Pastor