PotW: Dr. Kevin Queen; Releasing Potential: Revival and Summit

College is a time to change the trajectory of your future. It sets the spiritual climate for the launching years of early adulthood and beyond. What better time, then to catch fire for the Lord? Revival, then, is the reason Dr. Kevin Queen, Campus Pastor at 12Stone Church and Summit speaker for IWU’s Spring Summit series. This year, Dr. Queen is emphasizing the value of revival, both individually and corporately, outlined through practical steps.

kevin-queen1-666x444“Revival comes with a confession of sin, removing doubtful things from your life, practicing instant obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit and confessing Christ publically,” Dr. Queen explained. Dr. Queen stressed that revival in the Indiana Wesleyan community could have enormous consequences. Engaging with the spiritual climate of the school, Queen articulated his desire to see the academic community commit to complete surrender. He encouraged this surrender as crucial to seeing and experiencing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“Revival requires we give God all the chips we’ve been playing with,” articulated Queen. “You can’t give God some areas of your life, keep some, and expect to see a revival in your life.” Queen further clarified this idea of surrender, stressing the importance of obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit as central to Revival.

“There are individual convictions some sense strongly, that might not be applicable to others. That is not a measure of who is most godly. You just need to be obedient to how you feel the Lord leading you,” Queen continued, “there are so many things like that: you have a conviction but then you repress it, and it becomes a gray area. Revival involves doing away with those gray convictions.” With this message of repentance and revival Dr. Queen has been encouraging and challenging IWU students. Leading up to Summit, the spiritual emphasis week held at the beginning of each semester, leaders, students and faculty have all been praying for revival. Catching this vision, Dr. Queen mentioned that in this community of Christians, revival could hold enormous potential.

Eager to see this revival, Dr. Queen explained that revival would mean conversations centered on Christ, with His thoughts controlling actions and thoughts. It would allow for an unleashing of the potential of God’s people.

“When revival comes, God invades a community. Through prayer, Heaven touches the earth. Up there comes down here. People come alive to him,” Queen said,” The lost turn to him. People are set free from addiction. The heart is made clean. The Bible can speak with meaning and authority. It is a joy-filled environment. When the river of revival comes the streams spread throughout the world.”kevin queen summit

Tomorrow night Summit will end. With it the lights will be taken down, the band will cease playing, and the formal experience will end. However, it is the prayer of Dr. Queen as well as students and faculty throughout the school that the work of revival will begin where Summit ends. Queen encouraged students to continue to go deep with the Lord following this time of Spiritual Emphasis- but he stressed that students should not attempt this alone.

“Find a group of people to keep you accountable, pray together, read the Word, and find some dead mentors- spiritual giants who have walked this life before,” suggested Queen. “Don’t try to do this alone, seek encouragement from others.”

Dr. Queen is a campus pastor at 12Stone Church in Georgia where he has pastored for twelve years. He is married to his best friend, named Rea; they have four children. The IWY Community is deeply grateful for Dr. Queen’s presence at IWU this week for Summit.

The Office of Alumni and Church Engagement has selected Dr. Queen as this week’s recipient of the Pastor of the Week recognition. Rev. Carder, Director of Alumni and Church Engagement presented him with a “Pastor of the Week” coffee mug and journal. Carder said, “Dr. Queen is well-known and someone that has impacted our students and the broader church through his ministry.” The honor of being Pastor of the Week is a way to give recognition to the wonderful ministry influence and leadership pastors provide in spiritual formation.

 

Written by Katherine Arch, Story Teller for Alumni Relations. Katherine Arch is a Senior English major at Indiana Wesleyan, and a member of the Track and Cross Country teams. She is passionate about sharing people’s stories and celebrating their unique divine potential in written form. Katherine also operates a website called “Join the Ranch” at jointheranch.weebly.com. It is about pursuing God’s purpose for her life and vocation.

 

Photo credits: http://12stone.com/staff/kevin-queen/; Mia Anderson