Offering hope at Mount Zion AME revival
Some people have powerful testimonies of how God rescued them after hitting rock bottom.
Matthew L Watley was obedient to His word, and was able to stay on the straight and narrow.
“I was raised in the church and am a third-generation preacher,” he said. “I used to feel insecure about my testimony because I never had a harrowing experience from which the Lord had to perform a major miracle in order to deliver me.
“God showed me the fact that He didn’t have to bring me back from a near-death situation or addiction was itself a testimony of His keeping power.”
The Maryland-based preacher will speak at Mt Zion AME’s 2016 Fresh Start Revival next week. “I love the Island and its people,” said the 42-year-old executive minister of Reid Temple AME Church. “I’ve preached at a number of churches and am excited to experience the wonderful Bermudian expression of worship again.”
His message at the upcoming revival will be, no matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been or where you currently are on life’s journey, you can still have a fresh start with your faith.
“A fresh start happens as a consequence of the choices that we make and the choices that we fail to make, and God’s word is the key that unlocks the best choices that lead to our best lives,” Rev Watley said.
“As believers, we are constantly being reborn and remade; the joy of life as a Christian is knowing that we are redeemed for eternity and repurposed while on earth for God’s glory.
“What we often don’t realise in life is that our greatest new beginnings and fresh starts come at the consequences of real and sometimes harsh endings.
“Being saved, getting married and becoming a father have been the most profound and wonderful experiences of my life. Each of these have allowed me to DIE to my former self.
“Grief is always a part of dealing with death and so the Lord showed me how to release my former self so I could fully and joyfully embrace the new man, husband, father that he was calling me to be.”
Although he was raised in the church, Rev Watley said he was initially “extremely reluctant” to accept his call to the ministry.
“I had witnessed first-hand the burden and challenges that accompanied the call to preach the gospel for both ministers and their families,” he said. “I had a number of call experiences including a word delivered at a large worship service by a brother from Bermuda who confirmed what God had been speaking to my life.
“This is why Bermuda holds such a special place in my heart. I never decided to do ministry full-time, I just chose to devote my full energy and effort to ministry and God made it a full-time assignment.”
The biggest challenge was making time not only for the needs within the church, but the larger community.
“I often feel like the only doctor in an emergency room rushing from one challenge to the next and praying that I give each patient the best of my ability,” he said. “But the reward is seeing God’s hand of transformation in the lives of the people after 20 years. Nothing gives me more delight than seeing someone give their life to Christ and make the decision to join His church.”
He said he hopes that people leave next week’s revival with a greater confidence that God’s word can make a difference in their lives.
“All of us have gone shopping and regretted our purchases once we got back home; the joy of the gospel is that we never have buyer’s remorse,” he said.
“The people who come out next week will hear a word that not only will provide hope, but will also challenge many of the things that our culture professes to be true and good.
Ultimately, God will have the last word and if we chose to trust that word he will get the glory out of our lives and we will be better for it.”
• Attend the revival on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm. For more information visit www.mtzion.bm or call 238-0284.
The new year is the perfect time of year to have a fresh look at your faith.
That’s the word from Mt Zion AME Church senior pastor Jahkimmo Smith. He’ll host Fresh Start Revival; American preacher Matthew Watley will be the guest speaker.
What is a revival all about?
This will be a dedicated time where people can come together to focus on their faith. It’s called Fresh Start and, at Mt Zion, we believe anyone can become a new person in Jesus Christ. This event gives us an opportunity as believers to get refocused on the year ahead. We believe 2016 can be our best year yet, but in order to step into that we have to do it with God.
This two-night event is for people who want to be encouraged and inspired to go forward with God.
It’s for people who have had dreams and desires placed into their heart and need to be reminded that anything is possible with God. It’s not just for believers; it’s for the people as a whole who want to connect or reconnect with God.
It will be a wonderful atmosphere and a time for encouraging and inspiring people to go deeper with their faith.
What inspired the event?
January is a time when people are thinking about making a fresh start.
They set resolutions and make plans and goals for what they need to do differently. I figured the time was right for an event like this.
People make goals to lose weight or change their eating habits, so I thought, why not make goals that have to do with our relationship with God? I was talking about this very subject with Rev Matthew Watley, right, several years ago.
He happened to be doing something at his church called “new beginnings”.
It’s something they do almost every year. I thought we should do something like that in Bermuda.
What do you hope people take away from the revival?
I’m hoping people who turn up for this revival will get the encouragement and inspiration necessary to move forward into 2016.
I want them to leave with confidence that with God anything is possible. For those who’ve been disconnected from God I hope they will [leave] with a reconnection to their faith.
