Historic open-air car park crusade
The serious problem currently facing Malaysian churches is not a shortage of funds or lack of resources. Rather, it is the lack of young people in the churches and this poses a serious threat to church development, whether rural or urban.
In response to this growing threat, some Klang Valley pastors got together seven years ago and started the "Awakening for Jesus" (A4J) revival movement. Primarily, this movement seeks to help churches raise a consecrated new generation committed to mission and entering into the end-time spiritual harvest through the power of the Holy Spirit.
A4J, in partnership with NECF Malaysia, recently held the "ONE" Kingdom Revival Conference at FGAKuala Lumpur which was attended by Christians from 77 churches from various languages and denominations, including people from Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, China and the Philippines.
The main speaker was Rev. Philip Mantofa, the Deputy Senior Pastor of the 42,000-member Mawar Sharon Church in Surabaya. Other speakers included Rev. Ewen Chow and Rev. Jonathan Chow from Bread of Life Christian Church Taipei, Rev. Yosep Moro Wijaya and Rev. Yudi Koesmanto from Mawar Sharon Church Sumatera and Sulawesi respectively, and Rev. Jonathan Loh from FGA KL.
The Real Pastor
Aday before the A4J conference, Rev. Philip spoke to about 250 pastors and ministry leaders at a special meeting organised by NECF. Speaking on "Raising a Passionate Church in Challenging Times", he shared passionately on his experiences and how he served his people out of love.
He said that contrary to popular belief, prayer and fasting do not bring revival. Rather, revival happens when God's people live holy lives, obeying Him, protecting the Holy Spirit's desires and be completely sold out to Him.
Evidently, such people are more inclined to fast and pray, he observed. Obeying God and living holy lives are the daily grind that every Christian, especially pastors and leaders, has to do. They are hard tasks as they demand denying self, taking up the cross and following Him.
For pastors and leaders, this would mean dying to any desire for position but instead, recognising that ministry is about influencing people through humble service, he said and called on pastors to repent from hypocrisy, carnality, pride and the desire for position.
"Pastors are to serve God's people wholeheartedly from a holy, truthful heart and out of a deep love for His people. We must be willing to lay down our lives for our sheep," challenged the 35-year-old pastor whose congregation includes a youth church of 8,000 people.
He also advised people thinking of becoming pastors to be free from financial encumbrances so that they would not be beholden to their congregation. Otherwise, they may not be able to speak the truth for fear of losing their income.
Open-air car park crusade
Rev. Philip also spoke at three public night meetings at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium outdoor car park. It was a historic moment as this was the first time such a large-scale public evangelistic crusade was held there.
Over 12,000 people - mainly youths - attended the crusades where 4,000 people responded to the altar call and more than 820 confessed faith in Jesus.
Guest performers for the crusades were Jovy Theng (producer and singer in Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), SiEn Vanessa (Gospel Singer from Taiwan), Joshua Band from Taiwan and Malaysia Drummers for Christ.
Rev. Philip, who has been deeply burdened to pray for Malaysia, challenged the people to remain faithful to the country. For a whole two hours, the people then sang "Malaysia is filled with His Glory" and there was a strong presence of the Holy Spirit as the people wept and prayed for Malaysia.
Two generations united
Rev. Ewen shared that there is an "independent spirit" among the younger and older generations in churches where the youths are doing their own things while the older generation does not trust them.
Quoting Malachi 4:6, "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…", Rev. Ewen urged the youths to honour the older generation. In so doing, they can inherit the rich spiritual heritage from the older generation.
On the other hand, the older generation should trust the youths and give them spiritual covering. There can only be victory when the two generations are united just like the unity of Moses' staff and Joshua's sword.
Through this conference, partici-pants were awakened to the fact that for revival to hit Malaysia, there must first be unity between the younger and older generations, and between denominations and language groups. |
