City Transformation

I caught wind of an inpromptu meeting scheduled for last night at one of our local churches. The meeting's topic was Transformation Culpeper hosted by Rick Heeren. Rick has captured the attention of many cities and states around the world with his book The Elk River Story and his coaching/teaching of how to transform communities for Christ. Elk River, Minnesota is a small town that was radically transformed by a group of local Christians who committed to praying for the community to become Christ-centered with and emphasis on reaching the marketplace and public officials.

I have not yet read the book nor have I ever attended any of Rick's meetings or seminars previously. I simply had heard the story and was aware of a previous effort to transform Culpeper led by Dr. Randy Peck.

As I watched a video Rick showed us and listened to his presentation, I was lit on fire with excitement by the Holy Spirit. One of the first phrases the narrator of the video uttered when the story of Elk River began was "changing the spiritual climate of your community". The message I preached for the last two weeks at City On A Hill Church was "Being a Thermostat: Impacting the Spiritual Climate of Your Life and Our Community". Further, the video and Rick's presentation went on to explain the means by which this is accomplished. They outlined some key components including Prayer, Fellowship, Ministry and Evangelism. The key components I included in my sermon series from Acts 27 included Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, Evangelism and Worship - practically the same ingredients.

Pray Culpeper was a movement to transform Culpeper that went on for two years. It wained and has no current membership or meetings occuring. I shared with the small group of people who attended last night's meeting that I am living proof that God heard his people's cries during those two years. God loves Culpeper, cares about the community and wants to transform Culpeper into the city on a hill that it is supposed to be. The spiritual warfare that has gone on in this community is now being met with the Lord positioning His servants, and I believe that God has called me and others to rise up with the shout, "Here am I, Lord. Send me!" for such a time as this.

The Lord wants to radically transform Culpeper into a community of light in the midst of darkness. He wants the Body of Christ to minister to the needs of the community in practical and relevant ways so that the leaders of the community might lead with a Christ-centered mindset. The simple question remains for each one of us:

Will I stand up and be counted among those who will say, "Here am I, Lord. Send me!"?