DARKE COUNTY — Pastor Steve Harman of Living Waters Ministry Church in Versailles, along with many other Christian pastors and residents in the area, are hoping an upcoming event will “Revive Ohio.”
In the effort, area Christians, in coordination with “Time to Revive,” a ministry out of Dallas, Texas, will be conducting “Revive OHIO” services at 7 p.m. from August 7 to 13, at EUM Church, 1451 Sater Street in Greenville.
Time To Revive was founded by Kyle Lance Martin. For the last nine years, the group has been traveling city to city around the United States re-training the church in how to take their ministry into the streets and reach the lost and hurting.
In January 2015, after being invited into Indiana by an Amish man, Time to Revive began its most successful campaign to date. What started out as a seven-day revival continued for 52 days. Since then, city by city, the ministry has continued to spread across Indiana.
After a successful effort in the Hoosier State, Time To Revive arrived in Darke County on a scouting trip to determine the need and the hunger for revival in the area. After doing so, the group felt a strong sense that God was calling them here next. It postponed bringing its ministry to London, England, this fall because group members believed God wanted them in this area.
As one of the local coordinators, Harman said, “Time to Revive and ReviveOHIO are primarily an evangelistic outreach. It’s about sending out laborers into the harvest. Not all, but much of the Church, has lost touch with our mission. We are to go out into the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), not sit inside our four walls and hope they will come to us. That happens very rarely in our culture today.”
“The Church needs to get back to her roots,” he added. “Time to Revive is helping to restore in the Church a passion for the lost, hurting, and broken people of the world. They are bringing with them the tools we can once again pick up and employ to accomplish our purpose.”
Representatives of Time to Revive have been visiting Darke County, setting up a network of pastors, churches, the business community, and more for the past several months. Things are now in place for the revival week. During that time, more than 130 people have already registered from out of state to come in and join the churches of Darke County in bringing the Good News to the streets.
In addition, there will be daily meetings beginning at 7 a.m. and running until 9 p.m. nightly that will accompany the Church’s prayer outreach.
Harman said the effort is bringing together many local denominations despite some differences.
“They are helping to unite the local Church,” he said. “We all have our theological and doctrinal differences, no doubt. But we all need to figure out how to work around that because the Church of Jesus Christ in Darke County has only one Head.”
A co-founder and pastor of Living Water Ministries since 1995, Harman is a lifelong native to these parts. Born and raised in Darke County, he said he has a “vested interest” in the evangelical outreach effort.
“Both my wife and I and all of our children graduated from Versailles High School,” he said. “Our parents, and my grandparents back several generations were native to the area. After high school graduation I worked locally as a service technician in the dairy industry for 20 years before receiving my call into ministry.”
“The passion of our ministry has been to ‘boldly proclaim the uncompromising Word of God in a manner simple enough for all to understand, yet powerful enough to transform lives.’ Time to Revive’s ministry meshes well with our mission, so perhaps that is why my heart is so in tune with all they are doing,” he explained.
Harman hopes the venture will not only revive Christians in Darke County, but energize believers across the globe.
“Evangelistic Outreach is vital and I pray that thousands will be reached,” he said, “But is it enough? Look around at the world today? It is rapidly spinning out of control. Something needs to change. Government does not hold the answers. Law enforcement is not the answer. Social programs are not the answer. Better education is not the answer. All of these are nothing more than stop-gap measures. Man does not hold the answer, only God does! Darke County needs a revival! This state needs a revival! This nation needs a revival! The world needs revival!”
Churches participating in the revival include: Ansonia Methodist Church; First Congregational Church, Greenville; Christian Missionary Alliance, Greenville; Greenville First Assembly of God; Pleasant View Missionary Church, Gettysburg; Trinity Wesleyan Church, Greenville; LWM Community Church, Versailles; The First Heavy Metal Church, Greenville; Union City EUM; Trinity Evangelical Lutheran, Pitsburg; True Life Church, Greenville; Gordon UMC; St. Matthew Lutheran, Greenville; Lighthouse Christian Center, Greenville; Ansonia Christian Church; and Ansonia Church of God, among others not yet confirmed.
For further information, visit the Time to Revive websites at www.timetorevive.com or www.reviveoh.com and the Facebook page www.facebook.com/reviveohio/.
