YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED

Travis Greene is a well-known recording artist who has toured around the country, leading others in praise and worship before God. He never dreamed he would someday lead a church. However, in 2015, he felt the Lord calling him to start a church. When he called his wife, Jackie, she confirmed that it was from God. After praying and asking God where to go, they felt called to move to Columbia, South Carolina to start Forward City Church together. The first two years were great—large crowds came, people were getting saved, and everyone was excited until Pastor Travis wanted to change things up. 

He explains, “I didn’t want to do the same things. I’ve always considered myself to be a man of excellence, where good isn’t good enough. I had huge goals for our church. I’ve learned that if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind. If you’re not innovating, you’re stagnating.” Not everyone agreed with him. Many felt that good was good enough and some people left the church. “That season was hard, brutally hard,” Travis admits. Refusing to give up, he and Jackie kept moving forward as a team. During the same time, Travis visited a pastor friend with a large church and thriving ministry. As he drove Pastor Travis around the campus, Travis found himself being happy for his friend but angry with God. He didn’t understand why this pastor had everything while he was struggling to keep his head above water. “This ain’t cool, man,” he silently told God. “I never asked to pastor a church! I never asked to move to South Carolina! I’m working my butt off, and I have no money, no new building, no joy!"

In that moment, he felt God ask him what he would do if he gave Travis a million dollars. Travis responded, “Probably build something.” As the silent conversation continued between him and God, Travis knew that even though he prayed for more money, a bigger building, and more people, he wasn’t prepared for it yet. “And just like that, I understood. I was praying for the wrong thing! I was praying for stuff when I should have been praying for the strategy to lead. I wanted miracles but I should have been asking God to help me manage what I’ve already been given,” he explains.

The paradigm shift in his thinking that day changed everything! He went back to Forward City Church, focusing on maximizing what they already had. “When we stopped focusing on what we thought God needed to do for us and instead focused on what we needed to do for God…Doors started opening.” 

Today, they have purchased and are settling into a forty-four-thousand-square-foot facility that was a former Best Buy store. Forward City Church is growing and continues to help the unchurched and overchurched move forward in their relationship with Jesus.
 
NOT SURE WHAT TO PRAY FOR?

Pastor Travis understands that talking to God can sometimes feel overwhelming. We may ask ourselves where to start or what to ask for. Pastor Travis says we should pray about our day and for His plan for the season we are in. He explains, “That dual prayer—to pray for the day and pray for the season—is important for everybody. We need to talk to God about the day and about the year. And really, we should be talking to Him about everything.” 
In addition, Pastor Greene offers the following practical tips for prayer:
    •    Examine your prayers - Consider whether you are praying for things that are aligned with God's will and purpose, or if you are treating God like a "genie in a bottle" and praying for things that are not in line with His plans.  
    •    Be willing to wait and work as God allows - Be patient and faithful as you wait for God to answer your prayers, rather than becoming frustrated when things don't happen on your timeline. Be willing to put in the work as God directs.  
    •    Believe in God's miracles while being a faithful steward - Maintain faith in God's ability to perform miracles, while also being good stewards of what He has already provided.  
    •    Navigate beyond feeling trapped to thriving in God's purposes - Instead of feeling stuck or trapped if your prayers aren't answered as expected, focus on thriving within God's purposes for your life.  
    •    Learn to use what's left instead of focusing on what was lost – Shift your mindset to make the most of the resources and circumstances you currently have, rather than dwelling on what was lost or not received. 
 
SINGER/SONGWRITER

Greene’s latest CD, “Strike the Ground” features 12 songs and a variety of artists. Greene is known for incorporating several different genres into his sound. Following his emergence in 2007, he gained notoriety by topping the Billboard gospel chart with 2015's The Hill. The album spawned several Grammy-nominated hits, including "Intentional" and "Made a Way," the latter of which stayed at number one on the Hot Gospel Songs chart for 13 weeks. After taking home seven Stellar Gospel Awards, Greene earned another Grammy nod for "See the Light" for 2017's Crossover: Live from Music City. He picked up a fifth Grammy nomination for "Won't Let Go" from 2019's Broken Record before returning in 2021 with Oil + Water. Both collaborations with Forward City [Tent Revival and Strike the Ground] appeared in 2022 and 2023. 

To learn more about Forward City Church, please visit: www.ForwardCity.tv. To purchase Travis' book, "Are You Praying for the Wrong Thing?" please visit: www.TravisGreene.tv.
 
 
 

Seven-year-old, Maya, and her family lost their home when a category-4 typhoon hit the island of Guam. “I was crying because our house was destroyed,” shared Maya.

Maya’s mom, Jessleen, works as a teacher’s aide. She makes just enough for daily expenses. There was no way she could afford to repair their damaged home. They were living in a vacant house next door.

“I feel sorry to my children because they don’t sleep good. They feel really hot at night. And also, mosquito,” said Jessleen. “I really lost hope because I think with everything I lost, it’s gonna be hard because it is only me working. I don’t have even enough.”

Maya even asked the Lord for help. “I prayed to God that we have our home fixed. Please help us to live in there,” said Maya.

Operation Blessing soon repaired and rebuilt Maya’s damaged house. Now, the whole family has been able to move back in. Then, with help from a local pastor at an Operation Blessing partner church, Jessleen prayed to be a Christian.

“My kids are really happy too to see their house rebuild. And it is better than before. Now my kids can sleep good,” Jessleen. “I thank God He answered my prayer. And we have a new home. Thank you, Operation Blessing,” said the family.

“I noticed I was having a lot of pain in my right wrist and then it moved quickly to my left wrist, and the pain accelerated into a discomfort that was constant…like a burning,” says Julie.

The pain started in early spring of 2019 for Julie and was quickly making it difficult for her to maintain her active lifestyle and do the things she loved most.

Mike says, “Julie is a really unique person and does a lot of tasks, both chores and fun, with her hands. She loves dealing with the horses. I mean, the horses is her passion.”

Her husband, Mike, a retired family physician, did his best to help relieve her pain.

Mike continues, “My initial thought was that she had carpal tunnel syndrome. So, I bought her some braces and had her wear them pretty much day and night, and she wasn’t getting relief. And I started to get concerned that we weren’t dealing with carpal tunnel…”

“I kept having to look to Mike to pick up the slack. And we have all these plans and things we wanted to do. And all of the sudden I saw myself in a light where I would be a hinderance. It was very concerning,” Julie says.

After weeks of unrelenting pain, Julie went to a specialist who ran a blood test...it came back positive for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

“I was devastated. It is a horribly crippling disease. Here is a woman who was so active in everything that she did from horses to working to scuba diving. And my first thought was, that’s all going away,” says Mike.

Julie says, “I said, ‘Lord, I’m supposed to be your hands and your feet, but how am I supposed to do that if I can’t even use my hands.’”

Julie began taking medication which helped. But with their annual mission’s trip to Guatemala just a few weeks away, both were concerned that her ability to work and serve would be very limited.

But Julie wasn’t about to give up so easily.

“I knew God would heal me. I knew it. And if I was reading the Word and I would see a Scripture that leaned into healing or God’s promises, then I would repeat that Scripture over and over,” says Julie.

Then in July, days before they were to leave on their mission’s trip, the couple sat down to watch The 700 Club, a show Julie has been watching and supporting for years.

Julie recalls, “We were sitting on the sofa. And Gordon came on and I was expecting another news segment or story or something, and he started praying and having a Word of Knowledge. And we bowed our heads and started praying. And then all of a sudden he started talking about, ‘There’s someone out there with arthritis in the hands…’”

“There’s someone, you’ve got arthritis in both hands, and it is painful to move your joints and God’s just restoring everything to you, He’s restoring nimbleness to your fingers. Just do what you couldn’t do before and realize God has just done a wonderful miracle for you,” says Gordon.

Mike says, “I immediately looked up. And I looked over at Julie and she was looking at me and I’m thinking, “I can’t believe that they just said that. And they’re talking about you.”

“When he was done praying, I stood up and I took off my wrist guards and I said, ‘I claim that, that’s mine, that’s for me!’ Julie exclaims, “By the next morning there was no pain. There was no pain.”

The two went to Guatemala as scheduled, and Julie was able to work and serve pain free.  After returning, Julie went in to the doctor for a second check-up and more blood work.

Julie says, “The second set of blood work came back and my Rheumatoid Arthritis was back into normal range…I was healed…”

“I was awestruck. I knew there was no medical reason for those test results to come back normal. Because once your diagnosed with it, you always have it. And now seeing something first hand that I can’t explain away other than it was a miracle,” Mike says, “It has just catapulted my faith into areas that I just didn’t think I would get at as quickly.”

Completely freed of pain, Julie says she no longer needs medication. She’s ecstatic to get back to all the things she loves, especially her horses. But above all she has a greater understanding of just how much God loves her.

“God cares for everything in my life, not just the big things, but He is involved in the most intimate details in my life. And I want to serve Him. And I want to bless Him and I want His name to be glorified, not mine,” says Julie.

DOWN AND OUT 

“I was a baby-faced nineteen-year-old and Patti was barely seventeen when we got married in McCleary (Washington), in the same church where we had met as children, the same church my dad had pastored…,” Kent remembers. “By the time I was twenty-one, Patti and I started evangelizing full-time, traveling from church to church across the United States wherever anyone would invite us.” Kent and Patti settled in Washington state in 1978, where he worked as an associate pastor, and soon had a son, Joshua. They both adored him from the start. Their life together in the coming years was simple and sweet.  

By the mid-80’s, though, Kent began hearing some rumors that Patti was unfaithful. Though she denied it, and Kent didn’t want to believe it, it wasn’t long before others’ suspicions were confirmed. She left Kent twice and returned, then finally did so for good, leaving their son with his dad. “I was devastated,” Kent says. “The temptation to commit suicide loomed largely in my mind.” Kent stayed with some friends, looked for a job, and enrolled eight-year-old Joshua in school.  

About a month later, he went to pick him up from school, and was told he wasn’t there – that his mother had picked him up. Kent was incredulous and, once again, devastated. He wouldn’t see his son again for a year. “At thirty-two years of age, I was broke and had absolutely nothing going for me but my faith in God.” Though utterly broken and soon to be divorced, Kent clung to the belief that God was still faithful and loved him, and received the love of good friends who encouraged him.   

A WORD FOR CBN

By 1994, Kent had married Candy, started evangelizing again, and they’d had a daughter, Jasmine, and a son, Nicholas. That same year he was invited to appear on The 700 Club to share about Baby Nicholas' premature birth at 27 weeks, and how the Lord spared him. A few months later, Pat Robertson invited Kent to speak at a “tent revival” meeting taking place at CBN. “I looked out into the crowd jammed with people whose faces were filled with excitement and anticipation. Just then, God spoke to me and said, ‘I want you to prophesy, and this is what I want you to say.’ NO!, I thought. I knew that Pat Robertson and Michael Little (CBN’s President at the time) were not big fans of outside prophetic ministries because they had seen the gift of prophecy abused all too frequently. ‘I ain’t doin’ that,’ I protested to God.” He argued with God for a bit, then chose to obey. When it was his time to speak, Pat introduced him. “'Thus saith the Lord,’ I said. I looked right at Pat and said, ‘God says you have left your roots. And you need to come back because there is a revival that needs to hit this place …’” Expecting to be terribly embarrassed and told to sit down, Kent was surprised at how receptive Pat and the audience were. “Pat stood behind the podium and said, ‘We have heard from the Lord. We need to get on our knees and repent. Pat led the way as multitudes of men and women fell to their knees, weeping, repenting, and asking God for cleansing and a fresh touch of His Spirit.”  

JOSHUA

After his divorce, Kent saw his son, Josh, for only a few weeks each year, but made it clear that he was welcome to live with him and Candy whenever he wanted. When he was 16, Josh decided to take him up on that offer. About the same time, his parents learned that he had been sexually abused by a family acquaintance ten years earlier. Josh told his family, “At age eleven, my desire for male affirmation turned sexual.” While living with his dad, they finally talked about it all, and Kent asked if he was struggling with homosexuality. Josh admitted he was. Kent arranged for him to spend time with friends who had a deliverance ministry, which seemed to help for a time, but before long, Josh was dabbling again with the lifestyle. He moved out of their home and “came out” as openly gay. “We chose to love him no matter what, even though we did not condone his sin. That wasn’t an easy balance to maintain,” Kent admits. “We prayed for Josh for fourteen years.”

They then asked for the prayers of five couples they knew, who joined them in praying that Joshua would “come to himself,” like the prodigal son in the New Testament book of Luke. Not long after, Kent received a call. It was Josh, who said the Holy Spirit had come upon him and told him He was setting him free from homosexuality because of the prayers of people who love him. Josh received counseling from a pastor friend for quite some time. He met the pastor’s niece, Carrie, and eventually married her.  

In time, Josh and Carrie had two boys, and he became the chef for the homeless ministry of his parents’ church, making meals for hundreds who showed up each week. Life was good for many years, until January of 2022. Josh suffered a brain aneurysm and spent the next twenty-five days in the hospital. It was a harrowing time for the family, as they prayed fervently, expecting the Lord to heal him. On February 6, Josh’s temperature spiked to 108, and his oxygen level dropped to only 20%. “I still believed that at any moment, he was going to open his eyes and snap out of it, and we’d celebrate what God had done,” Kent remembers. “I walked to my son’s bedside and laid my hands on Josh. My hands were still on him when I felt him take his last breath. It was 3:02 in the afternoon. I knew at that moment that he had died.” Josh was only forty-three.  

Though Kent accepted God’s sovereignty, he struggled greatly with this painful providence. “I grappled with what we had experienced: I had believed that God was going to heal Josh … He didn’t. Josh died. What does a preacher who believes in a God who heals do with that? At first, he was angry and told God so. “’I will never pray for another sick person,’ I said. ‘Why should I? It doesn’t work. You said if we ask anything in Your name, believing that we will receive, it will be done. How can You expect me to get back on the platform and pray for others when I no longer believe it works?’” It took time and prayer, but Kent, and all the family came to the place of trusting God’s goodness again. “Do I still have questions about Josh’s death? Absolutely. But I choose to trust God. I know the goodness of God is working for us, not against us” 

THE RETURN 

In September of 2020, Kent was invited to be one of 90 speakers at a gathering called The Return in Washington, DC. The purpose of the two-day event, held just six months after the COVID outbreak in America, was to focus on God and “return” the nation to its spiritual roots through prayer and repentance. Kent had prayed all day, asking God what He would have him share. With only minutes before he would be introduced, he still had nothing. Then it was time. “I stepped briskly to the podium in front of the enormous crowd that now numbered about 130,000 people on the National Mall, with millions more watching online. I still had nothing prepared to say, but as I leaned into the podium and opened my mouth, completely uncertain of what – if anything – might come out, the Holy Spirit hit me, and I boldly spoke.”  

Kent went on to prophesy about the Church taking dominion over the powers of darkness in the nation, about an unprecedented move of the Holy Ghost and His pulling down strongholds, a release of divine healing, a breaking of the spirit of Jezebel, and about churches filling up throughout the nation. The entire message was just over four minutes. Afterward, life went on as normal until just after Christmas. That Sunday, hundreds of new people showed up at his church. Over a six-week period, they went from 150 to 600 attendees, and now have 1000 members, with more than 10,000 watching online from 100 countries. Clearly, the message he had given at The Return had resonated and given people hope. 

To purchase Kent Christmas' autobiography, Turning Sorrow into Joy, please visit his website: www.KentChristmas.org. For more information about his church, Regeneration Nashville, please visit: www.RegenerationNashville.org.