Nate Pickowicz: Reviving (New England)

Nate Pickowicz is pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, contributor at Entreating Favor, and author of the upcoming book â€œReviving New England.â€ As the fires of Reformation were dying down in Europe, they raged in New England. Those fires have been all but snuffed out now in both, and Nate wants to see them re-lit. He and I talked about the history of the American Reformation in New England, and what the church needs to do to foster revival, not just in New England, but around the world.

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Outline of the Discussion

Reviving New England is an upcoming book that Nate is working on that is a manifesto to work toward true revival in New England and beyond. Nate grew up in New Hampshire, just a mile from the church he currently pastors, and is saddened by the darkness that has come over a place with such a rich Reformed history.
The Gospel was preached much more commonly in New England just a generation ago, but now people must travel further and further to find a church that preaches the Gospel.
New England was once a light to all the nations with wonderful preachers like Jonathan Edwards and many others. It started as the Puritans fled Europe, where the fires of the Reformation had been dying down, in order to more faithfully live out their lives.
At some point, the Reformed heritage flipped, and most of the churches became more Arminian.
While New England's history is both rich and sad, it's not unique. Unfortunately, Europe started the Reformation, but is even further away from that history than New England is.
The goal is not to get more people to act like Christians, but rather to preach the Gospel and pray that God would use it to save more people.
We need to be a people that are committed to faithfulness, not only to God's Word, but to God Himself. He will not bring Revival if we don't preach the Gospel, or if we are sick with sin.
Bringing Back the Pulpit – While Edwards and Whitefield were travelling around preaching the Gospel, pastors most of us have never heard of were faithfully preaching the Gospel in their own churches. Likewise, pastors today need to return to preaching the Word of God faithfully from the pulpits.
Tilling up Hardened Soil – The chapter title comes out of Hosea 10:12, which says:

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the LORD,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (ESV)
Repent and Believe does not just mean to confess and be done, but to live in a constant state of confession and obedience to God.
Tearing Down Fences – New Englanders are very individualistic, tending to keep to themselves. It's necessary that people move past this and have a better sense of community within the churches in order to foster better fellowship and blessings that come through the church gathering together.
Fellowship is also a safeguard set up by God to keep us away from sin. If we forsake the assembly of believers, church discipline won't work on us because we're not engaged in our congregation anyway, so being sent out from it will be no big deal.
Church Planting – There are three different levels to church planting:
- Rededication – A call for faithful churches to fix more minor issues. Generally these are churches that already seek to be faithful.
- Revitalization – A call to bring more damaged churches back to faithfulness. These churches need to examine how they are run, the focus of the teaching, and get pointed back in the right direction.
- New church planting – Starting a new church where there is no Gospel presence.
The Universal Church needs to (and does) work together to help each other. In our age, we can connect to other believers around the world and help them strengthen their own local churches and encourage them to faithfulness.
Individual believers, as well as entire churches, are greatly encouraged when we hear that others we don't even know are praying for us.
The Harvest – We need to preach the Gospel and be faithful, and leave the rest in God's hands. There is no formula or incantation that guarantees revival.