“Daddy, you have to tell them that Jesus is coming soon!” Six-year-old Meleah Bryson obviously shares her daddy's passion to spread the good news.
This message was well-received recently by the Roseburg Church and community when Lynn Bryson, currently at Andrews University and a former pastor of the McMinnville Church, presented an 11-part series entitled “Prophecy Speaks Now.”
Bryson says he always had the desire to return to Roseburg Church where he grew up to present such an evangelistic series. During his 23 years of pastoring within the Oregon Conference, he was not able to accomplish this, as he was caring for his own congregations. As a student currently working on his Master of Divinity degree, he was given an assignment to present a 10-sermon series for his field evangelistic preaching class at Andrews University, and he knew exactly which church he wanted to approach.
“Seeing all that is taking place right now in the country and world, such as relentless wars and rumors of wars, huge unprecedented storms, unheard of terrorist acts, increasing pestilences, earthquakes, civil unrest in the land, and you name it, I felt deeply moved by the Holy Spirit and the Word that now the Lord had opened up an opportunity for me to return to Roseburg for an encouraging series of meetings revealing that Bible Prophecy is speaking now as never before," Bryson explained.
His style of presenting biblical truths was captivating partly because he shared of himself on a personal level. In fact, the fourth meeting in the series was his story of struggle, titled “Hope in Crisis, Pain and Death.” People sat transfixed as Bryson spoke of his plane crash in 1986 while on a church-building mission trip in central Mexico. He nearly died and was told at age 24 he would never walk again.
In attendance was Nancy Worley, his physical therapist from that time. She said, “There was no medical evidence that he would walk again, but I was not going to take his hope away.” Despite the prognosis back then, he clearly had hope and determination, as he walked with crutches up and down a ramp to speak from the podium for the Roseburg meetings.
Sadly, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor following his recovery from the plane crash. He again miraculously recovered. As he shared these events in his life, tears were shed by those in attendance, some of whom knew him during his recovery periods. Many were touched and seemed to appreciate his willingness to be vulnerable and open.
Tray Williams, Roseburg Church head elder, greeted attendees each night and later said, “What I heard over and over again was that people really appreciated it because it came across as a heartfelt message from Lynn and didn't come across as a rehearsed evangelistic series.”
Annie, who is fairly new to the area and attends the Roseburg Church, said, “What I like was that ... he was real. You could see his heart was in what he shared, and he wanted us to know Jesus.”
An estimated 100–125 people attended the meetings, which were held Sept. 19–27, 2014. However, Bryson's outreach did not stop at the meetings. He visited schools during the day, including Sutherlin Christian School, Roseburg Junior Academy and Roseburg High School, where he spoke for the Christian Club.
Bryson says, “The response received in Roseburg from longtime members and those whom the church and pastor have been working with was tremendous. We had requests for baptism, and I understand that there are groups of members now spending more time in studying the messages of Daniel and Revelation. In Revelation chapter seven, there is a vision of four angels who control four winds of strife, and another angel approaches them with a loud message calling on them to hold the four winds until a seal has been placed in the foreheads of God's servants. Now is the time that we, the church, need to be pleading for His seal to be affixed in our foreheads. Now is the time to seek the Lord as never before and determine in our hearts and minds to be faithful to the calling He has given His people to prepare the way of the Lord.”
Bryson chose the picture for the seminar's brochure and banner to remind attendees that “Nebuchadnezzar’s image is no longer standing alone on the Plain of Dura but is standing right now, as it were, in the streets of our world, reminding us that as prophecy was fulfilled then, it is about to be completed in our generation like never before. We are living at the last portions of the feet of iron and clay, and the toenails are about to be clipped, and all the empires of the world crushed by the stone coming, which is the kingdom of heaven.”
“With such a response as we had in this series, I feel like my goal was met for Roseburg and Douglas County," Bryson says. "I will add, however, that we are living in unprecedented times. On one hand, it appears that everything is going on as usual, and on the other hand one can sense the winds of strife are leaking in all around us. For 170 years since 1844, the message of the Three Angels has been preached around the world. The Protestant Reformation of the church has been in action for over 490 years, and, as Israel of old, it appears in so many ways that we are nearing the close of our probation. Would now that God's people take again the task seriously to ready our hearts and be willing participants to reap in the final harvest in a world where Babylon is crumbling all around us, and our King is soon ready to mount His horse and gallop in with heaven's army for the final rescue.”
