Cincinnati pastor commits to pray for spiritual revival
The Layman Online, May 27, 2005
The pastor of a Cincinnati congregation has launched a campaign to pray “for the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual revival … and across America.”
In his personal blog, Russell B. Smith, pastor of Covenant-First Presbyterian Church, says he is “praying for the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual revival at Covenant-First, in Cincinnati, and across America.”
Smith describes his blog, The Eagle and Child (a name that is familiar to C.S. Lewis fans who know of his favorite Oxford pub), as “seeking the true, the good, and the beautiful – and how they point to God.”
And in his May 24 blog, titled “A Running Theme … Revival,” Smith writes about how, in the past two weeks, “I’ve been confronted repeatedly with the theme of Spiritual Revival.”
Smith compared his revival theme to how “churches in our presbytery are talking about congregational transformation. We’ve had a consultant who has given us some great information about cultural change, structural change, and orientation to the mission to which God is calling a congregation. These themes are good and should be addressed – but we also need to stress the primacy of the need for a move of the Holy Spirit. If we would truly experience transformation, we need to beg God to grip us with his personal presence. We need to worship in Spirit and in truth. All the technique in the world can’t help us if we don’t have this spiritual power working in our churches.”
So, Smith has committed himself to pray for spiritual revival, saying: “Before I crack open Scripture … I’m praying that God would grip me with his Word. … As I agonize over certain challenges of ministry and life … I’m praying that Christ would show himself to be in charge of all things.”