David Pawson on Completing Luther's Reformation - Part 4

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Thoughtful Thoughts 20.6.25 by John Dunning.

The Reformation & beyond Part 4; God @ work

1). INTRODUCTION 

Luke kept on making the point, “And the gospel spread…” in spite of all that man did, and today's story shows God is just as much at work today as ever. God uses an individual each time to do all this… Next week we will look at what God did in India and elsewhere…

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2). LESSONS FOR US… passing on the baton…

Kimball / Dwight L. Moody (April 1855)

Billy Graham credited his conversion to an evangelist called Mordecai Ham, but what was the back story? The Billy Graham story began 80 years earlier when a Sunday School teacher went out of his way to talk to one of his Sunday School children about the Lord, on his day off, in 1855. Kimball was a Sunday school teacher who sought to win each boy in his class to the Lord personally. Kimball went to the shoe store where one of the boys was stocking shelves. That young man was Dwight L. Moody. In the stockroom on that Saturday in April 1855, Kimball gossiped the gospel and Moody believed the gospel and received Jesus Christ as his Savior. 

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Dwight L. Moody / Wilbur Chapman (1881-ish)

That led on to Moody conducting massive evangelistic outreaches, where thousands became Christians, including Wilbur Chapman. The date for that event I couldn’t see, but Chapman became a minister in 1881. 

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Wilbur Chapman / Billy Sunday (1886/87)

Chapman became an evangelist who preached to thousands at a time. On a day off during the 1886/87 baseball season, a professional ball player, Billy Sunday, decided to attend one of Chapman’s meetings and was converted. Billy Sunday quit baseball and became part of Chapman’s team, before conducting his own evangelistic outreaches. 

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Billy Sunday / Mordecai Ham

Chapman accepted the pastorate of a large church, but Billy Sunday took over by holding the evangelistic crusades himself. It was then that another young man was converted whose name was Mordecai Ham who was a known racist.

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Mordecai Ham / Billy Graham (1934)

Mordecai Ham became an evangelist. But as he kept his cultural racism, I believe he didn’t complete Peter’s package in Acts 2:38, by receiving the Holy Spirit. That meant that his evangelism was aimed at white people. However, Billy Graham was converted under Mordecai Ham’s preaching in an outreach in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November, 1934. What happened was, Mordecai Ham went to the American town of Charlotte in North Carolina to hold an evangelistic outreach. Students decided to interrupt the meetings of Mordecai Ham and Billy Franklin Graham decided to see what would happen. Billy Graham was convicted in his heart by the message and so the next night he went back to hear the preacher again. That night he was the only person to respond to the preacher. He went forward at the end of the call to repent and that became Billy Graham’s method of calling other people to repentance and faith in Jesus.

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Billy Graham 

Billy became the evangelist who preached to more people than any other person in history, reckoned to be at least 2.2 billion people. 

Billy Graham Colombian outreach

Because Mordecai Ham led Billy to the Lord, he allowed Mordecai to have an input, but when Billy saw a barrier being put up separating white people from everyone else, he tore it down and warned them he would refuse to speak or have anything further to do with them if there was a barrier. Billy became personal friends with Martin Luther King and got involved as best he could supporting Martin Luther King. And the map below shows that the rest is history…

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The countries that Billy Graham preached in…

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3). Spiritual warfare…  Luther’s reformation needs completing…

We come back to the point David Pawson made that Luther’s reformation needs completing. 

a). Billy Graham / Franklin Graham / Billy Graham Evangelistic Association…

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. signed a contract to use certain Anglican churches in N. England for evangelistic rallies. Later, the church refused to honour the contract in 2020, which led to a court case, which the church lost in 2022. 

Whilst they had wanted the money, it was more important to stop the church being used to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, so Franklin Graham took them to court and won. 

After losing the court case, they had to admit it was a mistake to break the contract. 

So this time, on 21 June 2025, Franklin Graham is holding an outreach in London at the venue at this link…https://godlovesyoutour.org.uk/

As we can see, it's the church which is in need of being evangelised. Luther’s reformation needs completing… as this next story proves…

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b). St Marks Church, St John’s Wood, London, burned down without anyone knowing why. (Google it). When the news was still breaking news, I looked up the church website before they took it down and took a photo quickly because there I saw the Rev Aiden Platter’s letter which included; “We also offer a free psychic reading online for those looking for a little soul searching”. Any evangelical will understand better than that vicar what is wrong with that. Luther’s reformation needs completing.

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c). “You cannot serve God and money.” (Jesus).

You need to sit down for this next piece of evidence that the church needs reforming… 

In the town where my sister lives, a friend of hers operated the town’s only Christian bookshop. It doubled up as a drop-in centre. Her non-Christian husband paid the rent to support his wife, because the little Christian bookshop ran at a loss. 

The shop owner believed that the altruistic nature of the shop as a Christian witness and drop in centre would result in a less commercial attitude to the rent review… because of who the landlord was… so she explained the loss making venture to her landlord, as an appeal to stop the rent hike, but the landlord put the rent up yet again anyway, making it impossible for the shop to continue as a Christian bookshop/witness, so the landlord rented out the shop to be a “Vape” shop instead. 

So what kind of landlord would do that? 

The Church of England is the kind of landlord that did that.

One would expect “Vape” shops to put profitability first, but bearing in mind Jesus’ words that you cannot serve God and money, who would have thought that the church would put extra profit from a Vape shop before the gospel of Jesus Christ? So one wonders who the church is serving…

A female Anglican curate of the local “evangelical Anglican” church promised the owner of the Christian bookshop that she would ensure the clergy would support the bookshop, which of course didn’t happen either. 

The British government recognised the danger of vapes, and brought in laws banning the sale of “single use vapes”, for the sake of children, just to try and control the worst of the dangers to children. Acts of Parliament have been needed to raise the level of morality and try to keep the lid on the dustbin, but one would think that the church would be taking the lead, rather than serving no useful purpose. 

As and when another Vape shop moved into town, the original one became a small garden shop. Luther’s reformation needs completing.

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d). I’m all right Jack…

I used to think that putting money into the coffers each week was to support that church.  

When I used to be an Anglican I was disappointed to find out that the bishop takes a cut for his central funds and to support the dead and dying ones. Evangelical Christians now are joining “free churches”. Luther’s reformation needs completing.

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e). Mr Worldly Wiseman…

In the city of Norwich, the church owns expensive waterfront properties. In spite of that, the bishop put an enormous fairground “helter skelter” in Norwich Cathedral, charging $2 a ride.  

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NORWICH CATHEDRAL, (UK)

Bishop on Norwich Cathedral roller coaster

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And it’s not just Norwich, but Rochester Cathedral has put in a golf-putt course filling the centre of the church, leaving the aisles free. 

ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL (UK)

So many people are walking away, that many C. of E. churches in Norfolk are now art and craft centres. Other dioceses are selling empty churches to developers which are marketed online. Luther’s reformation needs completing.

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f). Push back…

Multiple congregations in Cornwall are finding their protest voice…

https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/christians-in-cornwall-are-saying-no-to-on-the-way

Luther’s reformation needs completing.

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4). EPILOGUE… 

I have provided enough evidence that Wesley’s heartfelt concerns would still be warranted today. Rather than paying attention to clergy for spiritual advice, why not make sure that their advice is in line with what the Lord asks of you. Read Acts 2:38 to see how Peter answered an earnest enquirer, who asked Peter what he had to do. Peter answered; “Repent, be immersed and receive the Holy Spirit”. 

Luther’s reformation needs completing.

Next week;

I was going to provide a dream of John Wesley’s but that will have to wait for next week as I am out of space. Next week we will look at a theme which follows on nicely from this week, even though the series on the reformation is sort of concluded, albeit prematurely.

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This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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