Come one, come all
People are responding to the gospel in a way Bob Crites has not seen in the nearly 30 years he has been at Sagemont Church.Ā
āItās almost like a revival mentality,ā said Crites, the churchās chairman of deacons. āWe expect to see people saved every time we go to church.ā
Sagemont is a historic congregation located in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that is also one of the nationās most diverse metro areas. The churchās attendance has increased by about 800 people since March, and so far this year it has baptized more than 260 and tallied at least 450 professions of faithānot counting the 400 recorded on Easter Sunday alone.Ā
āWeāve been very intentional at encouraging the church to pray for lost people by name and to learn how to share the gospel,ā said Levi Skipper, Sagemontās senior pastor. He added that church leaders have sought to cultivate a welcoming culture so people will want to invite their friends, coworkers, and neighbors to church.Ā
āMy commitment to them is that Iām going to preach Jesus every single Sunday,ā Skipper said. āYou will not come in and hear me preach and not give an invitation to accept Christ.ā
Skipper, who most recently served as a vice president at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, preaches verse by verse through books of the Bible and always ends up at the cross, he said. āI share the gospel, I encourage people to pray to receive Jesus, and then I encourage them to come forward.ā
An average of 20 people have been going forward each Sunday to signify a commitment to Christ, and Sagemont has been ushering them onto a discipleās pathway defined by four steps: worship, connect, grow, and go.
āWeāve been very intentional at encouraging the church to pray for lost people by name and to learn how to share the gospel.ā
āLevi Skipper Tweet
On Easter, each person who entered the worship center received a card with three options to indicate a level of commitment. During the sermon, Skipper asked everyone to take out their cards and respond. Some indicated they were already members of Sagemont, others noted they had prayed to receive Christ that day, and others wanted more information.Ā
Everyone dropped their cards in buckets on the way out of the service, and Sagemont began following up on those that needed to take the next step.Ā
Sagemont also has been intentional about leveraging events to move people along the discipleās pathway, Skipper said. In July, 300 volunteers were trained to share the gospel with thousands of people at a patriotic event on campus.Ā
āYou train them how to do it, but then you have to give them an opportunity to do it,ā he said of evangelism. At the patriotic event, the pastor and volunteers walked around sharing the gospel conversationally.Ā
Another way Skipper teaches the congregation to share Christ is by using a similarly worded invitation during the sermon each week. āI do that on purpose because in doing that, Iām actually training believers how to share Jesus. They probably donāt even realize theyāre being trained.ā
āIām always in the service ... asking the Holy Spirit to move in our midst and seek out people who are lost.ā
āBob Crites Tweet
Some older men in the congregation have told the pastor they pray every Sunday specifically for the invitation. āI would not want to underestimate the fact that the Lord could just be answering one of those guysā prayers,ā Skipper said. āTheir prayers mean more than they would ever imagine.ā
Crites is among those praying.
āIām always in the serviceābefore the invitation and while the pastor is preachingāasking the Holy Spirit to move in our midst and seek out people who are lost or those who are stagnant in their faith and convict their hearts and move them to more fellowship in Jesus,ā Crites said.Ā
Ken Heibner responded to the invitation earlier this year. āIf you could see the change in Ken, itās pretty remarkable,ā Skipper said. ā … Itās amazing what the Lord has done.ā
Heibnerās children, ages 12 and 8, had accepted Christ at Sagemont, and the youngest was being baptized on Skipperās first Sunday as pastor. Though his wife usually took the children to church, Heibner was there that day for the baptism.Ā
Skipper soon took Heibner to lunch and shared Christ, but he wasnāt ready to commit. The pastor then invited Heibner to a small discipleship group with other men. Eventually, Heibner decided to follow Jesus.Ā
āThe reason why I liked Levi is there wasnāt any kind of pressure to accept things,ā Heibner said, noting that it took time for his eyes to open to what he had been missing. The group of men encouraged him by telling their stories of coming to Christ and by helping him feel like he could ask questions, he said.Ā
Before he was saved, what seemed like hypocrisy from churchgoers had kept him away, Heibner said. āMy experience with Sagemont hasnāt been that way. Itās like everybody that Iāve met is pretty genuine, and theyāre all there for the same reason.ā
Critesāand the entire congregationāis excited to see the changed lives.
āOnly the Holy Spirit can do that, and weāre so thankful that Heās moving in our midst right now,ā Crites said. āItās been fun.ā