Once upon a Time…..

All good stories begin that way… “once upon a time.” The now infamous testimony that is known as the “Steve Curington story” happened 14 years ago. One of my mentors, Dr. Wendell Evans, always said, “Greatness is not measured by years, but by decades.” Reformers Unanimous is now over 10 years old, but let me, as the International Director, share with you the “greatness of God” through this ministry in the past decade.

Once upon a time, on April 1, 1996, Reformers Unanimous began as a Bible study in the basement of North Love Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois. The pastor, Dr. Paul Kingsbury, asked Steve Curington to write a tract using his testimony. Six hundred of these tracts were given out following an evening service at this church. The next day, the phone rang 17 times and has not stopped ringing since then! At that time, no one really knew what God had planned for this man and this ministry. This small Bible study was growing into what is now the largest faith-based addictions program in the country. This man with the amazing testimony was growing into the leader that God needed for addicts in America.

One of the greatest benefits of working daily near Bro. Curington is to hear him speak from his heart of the grace of God in developing this program and ministry. Recently, Bro. Curington spoke of those early memories. “In the early days of the RU class, I would get the students in a room and would lecture as I taught one of the Ten Principles. Next I would preach to them, for the remainder of the evening, the truths that God was using to develop me. One day, I was visiting students to come back on Friday night, when I heard a student ask another student ‘isn’t that the place where that red head stands and yells for two hours? I’m not going back there!’ That weekend I went with my family on a trip and I went into the woods with my Bible and begged God for clear direction for this program. It was then that I noticed the trees that were around me. Some were fallen on the ground, others leaning on live ones, some were tall, small, some were growing and others struggling, yet if they could talk what a great story they could tell. That evening, God clearly gave me the format for Reformers. If our students could talk – they could say something that would be beneficial to everyone involved, including them. God gave me the Talk, Talk, Talk format.”

Over the past fourteen years, the Reformers Unanimous program has been transformed through Spirit-led promptings just like the one mentioned above. God is growing a great ministry; and He isn’t finished! Today, over 760 chapters have been started across America and in some foreign countries. I am honored that God brought me to work in the ministry of Reformers Unanimous in its early stages. Because of this, I have seen the hand of God in the growth of this ministry.

God has used this tool to reach more people for Christ than any of us could have ever imagined. And the story is not over! Everyone knows that a good story ends with “and they all lived happily ever after.” Hebrews 11, the great “hall of faith” in the Bible, ends with “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” The story has not ended for these great men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, because their story lives on. Lives are continuing to be influenced by their lives, by their fruit.

So when will we end this great story? Not until we are “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thess. 4:17) Until then, Reformers Unanimous will continue to grow, influence more lives, and reach more people with the only Truth that makes free.