If I could, I would like to share with you all something that we did last month with some of the men at the church, that had a great impact on the whole church family, and especially on the men who participated and myself, as the pastor. I had heard of people having a “Laymen’s Revival”, with the well qualified men of the church bringing the messages for each of the services. I had never attempted this before, and quite frankly, I didn’t think it would accomplish too much. I knew too many great speakers that I wanted to bring in for revivals. After much prayer about the matter, I felt that God could use this effort to speak to our people and to challenge some of our men to become more vocal and involved with ministry. I decided to ask men of the church who were very good men, but who had never spoken for a church service in any way. Some had taught Sunday School classes, but most had not even done that, or even prayed publicly in church. I knew that the men I asked would be frightened out of their mind to do this. I asked them to pray about it and let me know. Most said they felt there was no way they could do it without suffering a heart attack. I responded by saying, “You have prayed about this haven’t you?” They said, “Well, kinda’.” I said, “Good, then I will count on you to be one of the speakers.” I then called on most of the church people, privately, to pray for them and to call them and speak to them personally in church and tell them that they were praying for them. This caused each man to become focused and dedicated to be obedient to the task. I had one man for the Sunday morning service, and another man to give a three to five minute testimony about what God meant in his life as a Christian man. In the evening service I followed the same format. For one service I asked five men to be the speakers, with each one sharing three to five minutes like the others had done. Strangely, these men who were terrified to speak took about fifteen minutes each. God truly spoke beyond their own notes they had prepared. Some even used power point, that their wives had prepared. These are men who hardly know how to turn on a computer. Never in my ministry have I experienced the power of God moving upon laymen in our church like He did in those services. Our church has not been the same since then. These men have not be the same either. I don’t have time to tell you all that happened, but I strongly recommend that you consider challenging your men this way. Thanks, Dave Thomas