Silent Revival in Vermont
When you are in the middle of the forest, it is difficult to see the overall landscape. That is how it feels sometimes serving in the mission field of Vermont, especially during the recent flooding event. After five weeks of walking alongside people who have had their lives turned upside down and asking why people would come and help them for free, I realized the open door God was giving us to share His love to people who would never enter a conversation with us before. I prayed with seven people to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior during the past five weeks, then was able to give five local pastors 32 decision cards from people who wanted a follow up visit from the local church. Yes, there is much darkness in Vermont. Yes, there is much devastation in Vermont. But YES, there is also much Kingdom opportunity in Vermont.
After five weeks of non-stop serving through assisting with Flood Recovery Groups, I was able to sit back and praise God for those folks who showed up every morning at 8:00 a.m. around the flagpole to pray. We prayed for the opportunities God would bring the teams that day, thanked God for the local pastors who opened their churches to house the teams, praised God for the local pastors with the local contacts that helped build bridges between the Faith Community Recovery Groups and the secular Vermont Organizations.
God reminded me of the church from Georgia who called on day one of the flood and asked what we needed and proceeded to get the word out – fill a trailer in 2 days – spent 2 days on the road to get it here – unloaded then went home and said let him know what else we need. Ministry partners around the country not only called and sent teams to help in the recovery effort, but also sent financial assistance to the churches in need. I was overwhelmed with how God opened the storehouses of Heaven and flooded us with so many blessings. Many of the same ministry partners have reached out to help in the rebuild phase, for which we are currently meeting and planning.
On top of all that, God had one more gift for me, something that rocked my world. It was a report from the Association of Religious Data Archives (ARDA) that puts out a report following each US Census. I have been waiting for over a year for this this report and when I refreshed the site last week – there it was. Not only did Vermont move from 47 to 42 in the US for Evangelicals, which means Vermont leads all New England States with percentage of Evangelicals, it shows that the number of Evangelicals doubled from 2010-2020, from 3.62% to 7.25%. God is pouring out His Holy Spirit upon the church in Vermont in a way I can only describe as a type of “Silent Revival”.
As I pondered the impact of this report, my mind thought of the last 60 years of life in Vermont. While God led some amazing people to share the Gospel here in Vermont, such as Bob and Susan Brindle, Merwyn and Linda Borders, Aubrey and Peggy Jones, and so many more; at that same time (between 1968-1975) there was a movement to get 200,00 disenfranchised youth to move to Vermont, get residency, vote and take over this small state of some 450,000 people (at that time). The leadership of this movement was Abbie Hoffmann, Gloria Steinem, Ralph Nadar and others that encouraged this takeover called MOVE (Mobilization to Open Vermont for Experimentation). The project was successful and the once Conservative State became a bastion of communes and progressively liberal thought that has permeated the culture and the political landscape of Vermont. What a battle that ensued for the souls of Vermonters.
But as we can see by the graph above, God always has His faithful remnant who continue to serve the King and His Kingdom. It was Merwyn Borders who showed Terry and Kay Dorsett the beautiful little village of Washington, VT, in 1993, that captured their hearts and led them to leave the comfort of South Carolina to come and begin their life long adventure of serving God here in New England. During these years while the moral fabric was deteriorating and the political landscape became progressively liberal, God was silently calling His army to position itself all around this state. Church planting and state partnerships began to flourish. Slow and steady growth started to happen and we are seeing the results.
It was in 2011 that God brought us back to Vermont to share His Love with the people of this region. What we experienced since then has been a life of miracle after miracle. Before we left Vermont in 1987, one was hard pressed to find a Christian event to attend once a month, now there were Christian events every weekend. There were about 30 churches in the Vermont region back then, and now there are over 50. Between 2010 and 2020 more than 20 church plants began that are still thriving and multiplying. The national partnerships ramped up big time during these years. Many mission teams came to assist in prayer walking to prepare areas to receive Gospel seeds. They helped with block parties so planters could build relationships with the local community. Many teams came to help with Vacation Bible Schools and Back Yard Bible Clubs, as well as sports camps and construction projects. All this was done so God could show His children how He uses us to push back the darkness one soul at a time. The Gospel will always be the backbone of ministry, but God continues to use obedient, ordinary people to do Kingdom work.
As that last decade was drawing to a close, we witnessed a new movement beginning within the Evangelical churches across this state. Evangelical churches were serving together across denominational lines for the purpose of growing a Kingdom community in our region. Para-church ministries grew and the result has been a stronger witness for the Gospel. Those small rural Vermont churches began to join together and go on mission trips to serve, as well as to receive mission teams that came to serve Vermont. We now have Vermonters serving around the world and churches sending teams globally to serve and support. Little Vermont that was completely written off has become a steady mission-sending area. As the BCNE realized recently – “The Mission Field has indeed become The Mission Force”.
My prayer is that we stay out of God’s way and just obey His calling upon our lives. We must trust God in this and not try to control what God is doing. Movements of God tend to cease when we begin to manage, manipulate, and manufacture what God is doing for our benefit. The first three letters in all of those words is “Man”. When man gets in the way, the glory of God seems to recede. As the Holy Spirit of God continues to pour out His life-giving breath upon us as we lay down our lives to serve King Jesus, remember, others will come after us and reap the seeds we are planting today. I know we say we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, but I like to say we walk on their backs – and as we do, we press them into the foundation that is built on Jesus Christ and press them into that foundation. Let’s leave the next generation something to build upon, and as they do, we will be pressed into the foundation of the Kingdom Work in New England.
Keep your eyes open, God is on the move in New England.
Russ Rathier serves as the Vermont regional coordinator for the Baptist Churches of New England.
