A series of nightly meetings, supported by three dozen Madison area churches, began last night with a message on "Jesus the Overcomer" from professor Brian White. Brian White is a professor of English Education at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids University.
Tom Flaherty, who introduced Brian White, is pastor of Mad City Church and organized this series of nightly meetings. He invited support from evangelical churches in the Madison area, and reported that the pastors of 35 churches have united to bring these meetings with the theme of "Freedom in Christ" to Madison. Brian White will be speaking all four nights.
Neither Brian White, nor Tom Flaherty, nor pastor Roger Olsen who prayed before the message, nor Brian Montrey, who led the worship band, currently attend Lake City Church, at 4909 E. Buckeye Road, where the meetings are being held. But each of them attended Lake City in past decades, when it was known as Madison Gospel Tabernacle, and were discipled in ministry by this congregation with deep roots of ministry on Madison’s east side.
"Do you have a recent testimony of freedom?" professor White asked the 600-700 worshipers who filled the sanctuary. He talked frankly about his own struggles. "God is on your side," he said. "He is not against you. He is for you."
He stressed the importance of complete surrender in order to achieve complete freedom. "What I want is relief, but what God wants is belief," he said. But he also stressed the responsibility that believers have to learn to live differently and think differently in order to achieve the freedom that God offers. He pointed out that God freed the Israelites from Egypt but he did not pick them up and set them down in Canaan, they had to get their themselves.
The meetings continue through Saturday, beginning at 7pm each evening. No offerings are being taken during the meetings but worshippers are invited to make a financial contribution. The contributions are being split between The River Food Pantry and Second Harvest Food Bank.