In evangelism, it’s ‘both/and’ not ‘either/or’

FORNEY?In an effort to meet the evangelism needs of today’sshifting social demographic, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention has created a newinitiative that combinestraditional andmodern methods for more effective outreach to maximize the number of new believers won and baptized.

After years of churches trying to navigate through new social norms that discouraged door-to-door contact from institutions such as churches, SBTC evangelism leaders say pastors are now thinking in terms of an evangelistic approach that combines traditional methods with a more modern, relational tone.

The new evangelism endeavor utilizes one-day events called the “One Day School of Evangelism” and ishosted by strategically placed churches throughout the state.

The first events took place this fall in the cities of Lubbock, Forney, and Austin and have attracted pastors and church leaders with a distinguished roster of guest speakers and teachers. Attendees come to be equipped and trained in order to have a greater evangelical impact on their surrounding communities.

First Baptist Church of Forney hosted the second event this fall as 109 pastors, church leaders and lay people attended on Sept. 18.

“We believe in the crucial nature of evangelism,” stated Senior Pastor Jimmy Pritchard said. “We’re losing the souls of America and the only way we’re going to get back in the fight is if we begin to emphasize evangelism again.”

He went on to discuss how the methods of evangelism have shifted with the times.

“It’s different in that there’s too many who are over-emphasizing relational evangelism and getting away from confrontational evangelism, doing the friendships but never sharing the core of the message,” Pritchard said. “Both strategies are good, but we should never be afraid to confront somebody with the reality of the gospel. As we’ve tried to get a little bit too cultural, we’ve moved away from the basic elements of the gospel.”

Don Cass, SBTC director of evangelism, said:”We want to equip as many people in evangelism as we can. And we have the opportunity at an event like this, a regional event, to bring in top speakers and address the subjects that would really communicate to the churches and deal with the needs of pastors and staff people.”

Commenting on the locations of the One Day events, Cass said, “It’s a regional thing, and everyone is welcome. Specific regions means we’re carrying the training out to where the churches are rather than asking them to come miles and miles to a meeting. We hope to have five events next year in various parts of the state.”

Pritchard encouraged other churches to consider hosting a One Day event .

“Anything that can help in the gospel and ministry is worthwhile,” he said. “If there’s a facility or geographic location that can help church leaders get some training and exposure that they wouldn’t otherwise get, that’s an investment in kingdom work which brings its ultimate reward from the Lord.”

The One Day School of Evangelism enables attendees to receive maximum training in one location and in a concise amount of time. The events run from 9 a.m.until 4 p.m., and session topics focus on multiple angles of effective evangelism for today’s pastors and congregation members.

Subjects include reaching the lost through Sunday School, reaching post-modern women, contemporary approaches to giving an invitation, building evangelism into student ministry, balancing evangelism and biblical discipleship in the church, how to be relational and intentional while sharing faith, winning Catholic friends and family, sports evangelism events, how to use the home for evangelistic events and how to witness effectively to Muslims.

The 2008 launch of the One Day featured ministry leaders such as Ken Hemphill, Jaye Martin, Darrell Robinson, Stan Coffey, Norman Flowers, Malcolm McDow, John Meador, Jerry Pipes, Rudy Gonzales, Toby Frost, Tracy Jones and Cky Carrigan.

Ken Hemphill serves as the National Strategist for Empowering Kingdom Growth as part of the Southern Baptist Convention. He spoke to the attendees in a message based on Luke 15. He touched on three parables from that chapter and illustrated how the stories translate as an inspiration to witness and see the full value of winning a soul for Jesus Christ. He referred to his message as “a motivation to witness.”

“You get the three stories of the lost there,” he said about his message from Luke 15. “There’s a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. In the first story, there’s a lost sheep. And the key element to that story is thatthe shepherdwas literally willing to risk his life for the sheep. It was because he knew and understood the condition of the lost sheep.”

“So, what motivates us to go to our neighbor, even if we’re afraid to do so?” he asked.”It’s because ifour neighborsdon’t know Christ as their Savior, they are eternally lost.”

Hemphill went on to say, “The key phrase of the first two parables is that he searches until he finds. How long do you search and witness to that neighbor? Until you find.”

Hemphill said that the second parable about the lost coin is to illustrate the value of the lost.

“That lost coin was probably all the widow had,” he said. “Why does she spend so much time looking for that one coin? It was all she had between her and death. The point of the story was the value of the lost coin.”

The message of Hemphill and the other teachers at the One Day School is a simple one: be intentional. It is a call to action for pastors and their congregations to go and seek the lost, to find and rescue them.
Cass acknowledged the lower number of baptisms in recent years and pinpointed a solution.

“I think we’re understanding today that it’s a ‘both and,’ not ‘either or’ approach to evangelism,” he said. “We went from knocking on every door in every neighborhood to saying that we couldn’t knock on doors and needed to build relationships instead. It ceased to be intentional, and baptisms plummeted.”

“Now we’re coming back to the place of realizing that it’s both,” he said. “You’ve got to have events that are intentional, and you’ve got to have relational evangelism. All of that working together to put as many hooks in the water as possible so we can catch souls for Jesus. Whatever you do, be intentional.”

In addressing attendees, Jerry Pipes encouraged them to “find your Jerusalem ” and “think strategically.” He shared a national initiative of “every person sharing, every person believing by 2020.”

“You’ve got to take responsibility for your street,” Pipes said. “Invest and initiate events.”

Darrell Robinson encouraged attendees when he stated, “God already has the army in place that can take Texas for Christ.”