God brought it all together that day in the pickup. Nathan Lorick was driving back to Malakoff, Texas, wondering how in the world he could do the job if the Lord called him to it, yet he was flat-out stoked by the bigger-than-Texas-sized challenge of it all.
Twenty-six million people, 300-plus languages, urban, suburban, rural and all shades of ethnicities. And mostly lost.
Two years earlier on a missions trip to Thailand, Lorick had witnessed to a man in his language using a video testimony and had used it several times to share the gospel when communication broke down. Now, as Lorick was driving, that experience began to mesh with the challenge of venturing into evangelism strategies for an increasingly melting pot culture.
Turns out, the Lord did call. Last year, 31-year-old Lorick left the pastorate of First Baptist Church, Malakoff, to lead the evangelism initiatives of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) — a task that calls for a statewide strategy to marshal the efforts of 2,400 congregations to share the gospel message statewide, from Pecos to Paris, and beyond.
What God laid on Lorick’s heart debuted March 5 as the “1Cross” app — a free download for mobile devices that allows users to access three-minute gospel testimonies in video form using native speakers of 40 languages so far, with a goal of every known language spoken in the United States being available.
“God has given us a gift in that He is bringing the world to us. It’s a huge missionary opportunity,” Lorick said.
According to the Washington-based Migration Institute, 2011 Census data shows 35 percent of Texas residents age 5 and up speak a language other than English, with about 90 percent of immigrants speaking what missiologists call a “heart language” other than English.
Some estimates say more than 300 distinct languages and dialects are spoken among the 26.5 million Texans, with large metro areas such as Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth having nearly all of those represented.
So far, the app has been downloaded about 2,500 times with very little promotion. Inside the app, if a user chooses a language from a video menu, he will see a professionally videotaped testimony in black and white, three to four minutes long, from native speakers of Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, several dialects of Chinese, Farsi, French, Hindi and various others. Each speaker, after sharing a personal testimony, offers a simple prayer of faith and repentance if a user is led to pray along. The converted are encouraged to register their faith stories so that the SBTC may help them connect with the nearest church of their language.
The day after Lorick announced the app at the Texas convention’s Empower Evangelism Conference in Irving, a pastor called the SBTC office to tell how a church member who downloaded the 1Cross app already had led a woman at his workplace to Christ after he shared with her in Spanish.
“Many Christians out there are uncomfortable sharing their faith, but I really believe people generally desire to share their faith. This is a tool whereby anyone can share the gospel with anyone else regardless of background, language or nationality,” Lorick said.
“When you survey the different languages,” Lorick said, alluding to the app’s name, “there is only one cross that can transcend all language barriers with the saving message of Jesus.”
“Our prayer is that pastors would engage with this technology and mobilize their members with the ability to share the gospel regardless of language and cultural barriers,” Lorick said.
By late March, the app had been downloaded in 10 countries.
The app is available for iPhone devices and for Android. To download, visit 1Cross.com.
(BP)
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