English
Korean
Spanish
LUBBOCK?Neither age, physical abilities, or even blindness could squelch the enthusiasm of the members of Southern Baptist churches in Lubbock as they labored for two weeks to invite the entire city to Easter services. The Lubbock Baptists were among those attempting to share the gospel with the entire continent by the year 2020 as part of the North American Mission Board’s new evangelism
initiative, called “GPS: God’s Plan for Sharing.”
“It should be called ‘God’s People Sharing,'” quipped Brenda Bourgeois, director of children’s ministries at Redbud Baptist Church in Lubbock and team leader for Promoting Missions Opportunities at the Lubbock Area Baptist Association (LABA). She said the response from within LABA has been encouraging.
The response from her own church has been exciting, she said. Bourgeois was hard pressed to keep up with the Royal Ambassadors and Girls in Action teams she took out on April 1?a Wednesday night?to canvass the neighborhood around their church. In one hour the group of 26 first- through sixth-graders hung promotional materials on the doors of 400 homes.
With Easter as the culminating event, NAMB’s GPS pilot program goal was to have each household in six cities across the country receive a flier with the plan of salvation and an invitation to attend a Southern Baptist church in their zip code. As one of the pilot cities, Lubbock had approximately 100,000 homes to visit. Each participating church distributed the packets within their zip code.
The program is also being piloted this year in Georgia, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and California, with an official beginning nationwide in 2010.
It was no small task as churches within each zip code vary in size and physical ability. But what they lacked in numbers they made up for in enthusiasm. Ed Sena, LABA director of church services and plants, said 77 of the association’s 106 churches signed on to participate in the project despite abbreviated planning. The project was introduced just before Christmas and once the holiday season had passed the initiative was introduced to Lubbock-area churches. Although some of the bigger congregations already had Easter-week commitments, Sena said the majority of churches readily agreed to participate.
Such was the enthusiasm throughout the association.
Pastor Randy Bartley of Slide Baptist Church, a congregation that averages 28 in Sunday School, reported eight church members distributed 1,400 invitations on April 4 in their zip code of 16,000 homes.
“We had the largest zip code and we’re a pretty small church,” Bartley said.
There were about four churches in the Slide Baptist zip code that coordinated efforts to complete the canvassing before Easter. Sena said Easter week that he believed the goal of reaching every household in Lubbock would be reached.
Churches began reporting back on April 8 with canvassing results.
Prior to the canvassing, each participating church hosted a prayer walk?or, as in the case of Slide Baptist Church, a prayer drive?to cover their church neighborhoods before the plan of salvation and church invitations were distributed. Bartley said his members had to cover a 20-mile area, so walking was not an option.
The RAs and GAs of Redbud Baptist Church prayer walked their neighborhood the Wednesday before the distribution. Bourgeois said the students took the task very seriously. But the day of distribution lacked the solemnity of the previous week, she said.
“They were so funny. They were fighting over whose house they were going to do next,” Bourgeois said.
94-YEAR-OLD PARTICIPATES
Although she could not run the distance of her neighborhood, 94-year-old Lois Langley, with the aid of a walker, distributed the GPS bags to the homes on her block.
“She’s just amazing,” Bourgeois said of the retired IMB missionary to China.
The Saturday distribution by the members of Redbud included Langley and about 77 other members. Even a toddler chattering “People … Jesus,” helped place the
gospel tracks on doors.
Shon Wagner, pastor of Redbud Baptist, said it was “crazy” how readily his congregation bought in to the idea of inviting all of Lubbock to church this Sunday.
During the course of the walk, Wagner said he was struck by the number of households surrounding his church and the sobering realization of how few are associated with a church of any kind.
Bartley had a similar eye-opening experience. He said he hoped, at the very least, that recipients would consider going to church Easter Sunday even if it was not at Redbud.
Sena said the association has promoted a “kingdom mentality” as they fulfill the GPS plan. No church has been territorial, claiming an area around its church as its own, he said.
The gospel packets, provided by NAMB, contained a NAMB flier with the plan of salvation. Each of the churches provided additional materials about their church?location, service time, ministries, and, in at least one case, an invitation to Vacation Bible School this summer. Some packets had as many as 10 church fliers included with the gospel tract.
Bourgeois was thrilled to receive a call about VBS at Redbud Baptist just an hour after returning to the church after canvassing.
“We have been getting almost instant feedback,” she said. God has blessed the entire associational effort, she ad
