I’ve been in San Diego CA for the last two days and didn’t arrive back home in Florida until early this morning. I went out there to meet with Rev. Sam Rodriguez.
It was a very rewarding trip.
For those of you who do not know him, he heads up what is now the largest evangelical organization in the world with 340,000 churches and 250 million members. I say “now” because he only had 16 million and 40,000 churches prior to this trip.
While I was there, his Board of Directors voted to accept 300,000 internationally based churches and their members into their organization, and with that vote their organization became the largest Christian organization in the world.
Sammy is Hispanic and so is the organization (NHCLC) where he serves as President. CNN and Fox News named Rodriguez, “The leader of the Hispanic Evangelical movement”. NBC/Telemundo called him “America’s most influential Latino Evangelical leader”. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez was nominated by TIME magazine for their “100 Most Influential People in The World” list in 2013 and his description of the Latino faith community emerged as their April 15, 2013 cover story, The Latino Reformation.
The Wall St. Journal identified him as one of America’s most influential Hispanic Leaders, and the only religious leader on the list. On the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, Black Christian News Network identified Rev. Samuel Rodriguez as one of the top “10 White & Brown MLK’s of Our Time”. The San Francisco Chronicle described Samuel as one of the 6 Leaders of the New Evangelical Leadership. Charisma Magazine Identified Rev. Samuel Rodriguez as America’s most influential spirit-filled Christian Leader in the political sphere.
Whew!
His website says it this way: “By God’s Grace, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez stands as one of America’s leading Christian voices and lives to build the Kingdom of God, reconciling a platform of righteousness and justice”.
The purpose of my visit was to finalize plans of how we can unite his organization with our Renewal of America movement in total solidarity. That is exactly what he wants to do and we are going to make it happen!
His vice president Tony Suarez told me that when he heard me speak at our Renewal of America Founder’s Forum meeting in March he couldn’t believe it. He thought he was hearing Rev. Sam instead of me, because he’d heard him say exactly the same things of which I spoke, such as the need for Christian unity, organization, communication, mobilization, technology, and a strategic plan, and that when we do all of that, God will bless us and we can indeed bring about revival and a Great Awakening in America and restore sanity, and morality to our nation once again.
I told Tony that God was speaking that same message not only to Rev. Sam and me, but to leaders all over America and indeed the world. I know this because when I speak with them and explain the vision that God has given me, they tell me that God gave them exactly the same vision; (it’s not my plan; it’s God’s plan).
It was an awesome meeting. At the end of it, I asked that we pray about it and Sammy led the prayer. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard him preach, but he is a powerful charismatic speaker. Let me tell you, that man can pray too! As he began to pray that God will enable us to convince America and the world that we must return to our God, I felt the power of the Holy Spirit begin to flow through the room and fill it with His glory. Yee Haw! What a rush!
I wish everyone could have been in there with us. It was as though God was confirming to us that we are abiding by His plan in obedience, and it’s like a pleasing aroma to Him.
Dr. Rodriguez reaffirmed the same message that God had already expressed to me, and one that I’ve made known to you in this column more than once. We are almost out of time and we must move quickly!
He also confirmed that in order to succeed, the two main things that we need the most are prayer and money. We are working hard on both and have organized a prayer meeting with the leading prayer group leaders of America (and the world) for the end of June at Honey Lake to kick off our campaign.
We have raised some funds, but need much more. Our goal is to eliminate the need for donors at some point by developing self-sustaining business models that provide income streams without the need for donors, but until we reach that point we will need some donations. Some projects are at a standstill until we receive the funding that we need.
So I ask you first and foremost to pray for this nation and that the Renewal of America movement can have a positive effect on renewing faith in God throughout America. If you love this country and are fed up with what is happening to it and you love Christ and are willing to stand up and be counted as one of His, then get off the couch and join us and do something. For now we need prayer and money; later we will need volunteers to begin organizing Christians all over America and then the world.
It’s getting exciting folks! It makes me wonder what God will do today. I have conference calls all day long and meetings for the remainder of the week with Christian leaders from all over America. I cannot wait to see what God will unfold next.
Psalm 133
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
April 30, 2014 – Click here to listen