It was 1998 and hunting season had just begun when Hurricane Opal struck. Runoff waters flooded champion bow hunter Scott Vernon’s beloved hunting spot — an island situated between the Tom Bigbee and the Alabama River. He hadn’t missed a season since he was a toddler and cabin fever was setting in.
“I was like a caged animal,” said Vernon, who owns Scott’s Bow Hunter pro shop in Mobile. “I figured I had to do something so I took my family to church.”
He just wanted to get his kids straight. Little did he know that the day he walked into North Mobile First Baptist Church in Saraland his story would inspire a ministry that has brought hundreds to the cross and touched millions.
What was only supposed to be a distraction to get through a ruined hunting season, led to the salvation of his children (Jessica and Brandon) first, and then finally him. His wife, Abby, was already a Christian.
“The more I went to church the less I liked myself, and I knew I needed to make a change,” he said.
Eternity moves closer
By mid-January he had heard the gospel several times, but the Daytona 500 was just a few weeks away and he didn’t want “the ball and chain of being a Christian” hanging on him while he was there. Plus, he thought, “Eternity is a far way off.”
On his way home from the race he got word that his friend had been killed in a motorcycle accident.
“All of a sudden eternity seemed awfully close,” he said. “I drove by the spot Robbie was killed and went to my store. I locked myself in my office, got on my knees and gave my life to Christ.”
His first thoughts after becoming a Christian were of his lost friends. They weren’t the type to come to church and visitation was pretty much out of the question.
“He told me that every friend he had needed Jesus, but that they were a bunch of country boys and wouldn’t talk to a preacher,” Cook said. “So we figured the best way to reach them was with anything that had to do with hunting or fishing.”
According to the U.S. Government, $72 billion is spent on hunting and fishing related items every year and 50 million Americans hunt or fish on a regular basis.
“And when you live in South Alabama just about everyone does one or the other,” according to Cook, himself an avid hunter.
So Cook and Vernon came up with the idea for a day-long hunting and fishing fair that offered outdoor-related seminars and closed with a dinner where the gospel was presented.
In 1998, the North Mobile-sponsored South Alabama Hunting Extravaganza was born.
The first year 300 men attended the seminars on turkey calling, fly fishing and bow hunting. One hundred of them made professions of faith.
The next year they printed 1,000 tickets and sold out within days. The following year they rented the entire Gulf State fairgrounds (see sidebar for information on this year’s extravaganza).
“We knew we were on to something when we sold out of 3,000 tickets,” Cook said. “Several months later our senior Pastor Ed Litton told me he had a word from God; that we should start a hunting show.”
In July 2003, after a year of planning and budgeting, the Great Adventure Outdoor Show went on the air regionally reaching hunters and fishermen in South Alabama, Southeast Mississippi and the Florida panhandle.
Vernon and Cook co-host the show, filming in some of the best hunting sites in the United States.
Laymen from the church man the cameras and often guest star on the show, sharing their skills with an audience that has grown to more than 1 million.
The show now airs nationally six times a week on the Faith TV network and three times on Sunday.
“Our target is not Christians,” Cook explained. “It’s the guy flipping through the channels on Sunday mornings who comes across our show.”
“We give them a high-quality program while at the same time delivering the gospel in a non-threatening way,” he added.
Watch the show, and you may not hear the gospel presented at all. What you will hear is a free book offer for anyone who calls the church.
“We found that if we threw the gospel out real strong during the show we didn’t get much of a response so we started giving away Steve Chapman’s book ‘Life from a Tree Stand,’” Cook said.
Celebrating the saved
“The people manning the phones became evangelism counselors, they got to know the people on the other line personally and this led to many more conversions.”
Every Sunday Litton announces the number of conversions from the morning show before he starts his message.
“Everyone gets really excited,” Cook said. “Last week five people got saved and everyone celebrated.”
Cook says that North Mobile is only one of two churches in the country producing an outdoors show with an evangelistic twist. “It’s one of the best evangelistic tools we got going on a week-to-week basis,” he said. “So we want to syndicate it to other churches who could buy it reasonably.”
That way they could air the show in their region, reaching even more outdoor lovers for Christ.
As for Vernon, the thrill of chasing down a 32-point buck can no longer compare with the thrill of leading fellow huntsmen to Jesus.
One day not too long ago, he sat on the side of a hill in Pike County, Ill., talking with the guide who worked with them that week. “I gave him the gospel,” said Vernon. “I did a terrible job. I left everything out except that Jesus died for your sins. But he said yes.”
“I would have never dreamed that God would have taken a talent I always used for my own selfish pleasure and use it to give the gospel,” he said. “It’s incredible.”
Share with others: