From church critic to lover of the church

Pastor Jake Clampitt, teaching pastor at People Church in Chicago, introduces himself as a former church cynic who walked into People Church fresh out of college convinced he had everything to offer. Twelve years later he loves the church because he never tires of seeing what God does through people who gather in His name. He pushes back on the false divide between thinkers and experiential people: the word of God and the experience of God are not at odds. His conviction was formed when he met his future wife while working at a Hyatt, saw past her mask to deep brokenness and self-harm, and realized he had nowhere better to take her than a Sunday Gathering. The person sitting next to you doesn't need a good church service; they need the power of God to be real.

A drought, not just a forgotten God

Summarizing the Old Testament in a sentence, Israel worships God and things go well, Israel abandons God and things go badly, Pastor Jake notes that we get stuck in the same cycles. Elijah confronts a nation "limping between two opinions" in the middle of a literal drought. The message asks how we become the kind of people who learn to end the drought, under the title Until It Rains, by looking at three things: the kinds of places God chooses, the kind of church He builds there, and the kind of people He uses.

The kinds of places God chooses

From 1 Kings 18:25–29, the prophets of Baal cry out all day and there is no voice. Pastor Jake observes that false gods never answer; they lack the voice that spoke creation into being. Mount Carmel was normally lush and green and was Baal's home turf, so Elijah called the showdown surrounded by evidence of the drought. God picks places where the only explanation is God, "so that all may know that he is God." He recalls bringing speaker Reggie Dabbs to Naperville North and watching the school's most troubled senior stay for every session, and he urges listeners who sense a call they have been resisting to embrace it; he ran from his own call for fifteen years before God caught up with him.

The kind of church God builds there

Reading 1 Kings 18:30–39 and seeing Elijah as a picture of Christ, Pastor Jake describes the church God plants in dry places. It rebuilds altars rather than building new ones, reclaiming cities and people that already belong to God. It is not afraid to draw attention to itself; Elijah invited all Israel to come near, which is what every Christian does when they bring someone they love to a Sunday. It gets on the offense, because gates are defensive and Jesus promised the gates of hell would not prevail against a church that advances. It sacrifices, because big vision requires something on the altar. It is not stingy with a scarce resource, pouring water on the altar in a drought so no one can logic their way out of the miracle. It cares about the lost, since Elijah prayed that the people's hearts would turn back. And it is a church where the fire of God falls, which may look less like running the aisles and more like hearing God when you couldn't before.

The kind of people God uses

In 1 Kings 18:41–46 Elijah does not go home after the victory because the drought, the real problem, has not ended. First he prophesies to Ahab before anything in the circumstance has changed. Pastor Jake tells of fasting for his wife's freedom and sensing the Holy Spirit say to eat because the battle was already won; the next day he prayed six words over her, and she never harmed herself again. Second, Elijah prays, bowing low until he hears the sound of rain that has not yet fallen. Third, there is the servant, who is told to look again seven times. Most of us are the servant, and Pastor Jake served his own pastor's vision for twelve years, learning to look again at what God had spoken until he could see it in the church and in himself.

Until it rains

How long do we pray, prophesy, serve, host Groups, and bring sacrifices? Until it rains. God did not plant Elan Church in Naperville to be a community bless-me club but to stand on a Mount Carmel surrounded by evidence of the drought and refuse to move until His provision comes. Pastor Jake closes by inviting anyone without faith to borrow his for a moment, because the dark stories really were dark and the light really is light.