More than 11,000 Southern Baptist churches didn’t baptize a soul last year.
“At the very least, that’s 22,000 deacons, 44,000 Sunday School teachers and $57 million that didn’t reach one boy or girl for Christ,” said Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). “That’s got to change.”
Coming from Gilbreath, that idea is not just talk. On Jan. 10, Gilbreath along with 18 pastors and two directors of missions (DOMs) boarded a plane bound for Florida and three days of intense ministry evaluation — the fifth such trip since the State Board birthed its Intentional Evangelism strategy in 2003.
The clinics were designed as launchpads for Alabama’s statewide Intentional Evangelism (IE) emphasis for 2005–2007, a strategy developed by the SBOM to refocus church ministries on their main priority — winning souls for Christ.
It’s serious business for Gilbreath and for Charles Roesel, pastor of First Baptist Church, Leesburg, Fla., who hosted the five clinics for Alabama Baptist pastors.
“If you’re involved in ministry but it’s not intentional evangelism, it’s a nice thing to do but it has no eternal consequence,” Roesel said. “The greatest danger of ministry evangelism is that the ministry becomes so satisfying that you forget the evangelism.”
First, Leesburg, pioneered the concept of intentional evangelism in ministry, operating several shelters, a medical center, a crisis pregnancy center and other need-meeting organizations just feet from the sanctuary on the church campus.
Twelve Alabama DOMs and 94 pastors have gone through the training so far. Only 20 of the state’s 75 associations are lacking a pilot church for Intentional Evangelism, and Gilbreath said he hopes to have someone in all of those scheduled soon for the first in-state clinic in Montgomery at the SBOM March 7–9.
A clinic is also set for Sept. 12–14 in Athens. Two clinics per year are also scheduled for 2006 and 2007.
Roesel said, “Alabama is lightyears ahead of many other states in the area of mobilizing for ministry evangelism. It has the potential to absolutely revolutionize their evangelistic outreach.”
In addition to help offered in the clinics, Gilbreath and other SBOM representatives are on hand to come to any association to hold an awareness meeting or to any Alabama church to help customize the strategy for the church and community.
“We’re available to help specifically and offer accountability to churches,” Gilbreath said. “After we visit a church, within a two-week period we can hand them a customized plan for implementing Intentional Evangelism in the church, as well as call several times a year to see how things are going.”
Every church is different in size and need, but every church can find a way to plug Intentional Evangelism in to their ministries, Gilbreath said.
“With Intentional Evangelism, you may need to start new ministries, but you may just need to ‘refocus’ — take what you already have and make it intentionally evangelistic,” he said.
“I’m convinced we have ministries all over the state that would explode if we could just get them to refocus.”
Gilbreath said the strategy would help churches spot physical and emotional needs in their “sphere of influence” and meet them with the intention of sharing the gospel.
“People say to us, ‘We have FAITH, EE (Evangelism Explosion) and Share Jesus Without Fear. Why do we need this?’” Gilbreath said. “If you are doing those programs, don’t stop them to do Intentional Evangelism.”
Though the strategy was created to “fill in the vacuums other evangelism tools left out,” it was never meant to cancel out other evangelistic efforts, Gilbreath said.
“Intentional Evangelism will get you to the door, and FAITH will tell you what to do when you get there. How does Intentional Evangelism relate to ‘40 Days of Purpose’? It’s day 41,” he said.
The IE strategy is a purpose to be practiced on a daily basis in the traffic patterns of our lives, said Rick Lance, the SBOM executive director.
“Intentional Evangelism is not a program. It is a ministry that seeks to help churches train their people in reaching people right where they are.”
Chuck Conley, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fyffe, said though his church already has after-school and benevolence ministries, Intentional Evangelism can spur volunteers in those efforts to the next level for the glory of Christ.
“This type of concept is a great mission, something the people in my church and my area can really lock onto and use,” Conley said.
For information on how your church can get involved in the Intentional Evangelism strategy or to register for an Intentional Evangelism clinic, call the SBOM office of evangelism at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 258.
Strategy mobilizes Baptists to share faith
Pastors want to lead their churches to make evangelism a priority but simply don’t have a strategy to put it in place, said Sammy Gilbreath, director of the office of evangelism for the State Board of Missions (SBOM).
“Laypeople are lacking motivation to share their faith, and many times pastors don’t know how to combat that,” Gilbreath said. “There’s a lack of ownership in evangelism in the congregation. Laypeople are missing their role.”
Intentional Evangelism calls every church member to be involved in a personal, passion-driven ministry building relationships with nonbelievers and leading them to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Gilbreath said.
“It’s that simple. And not only do I believe we can do this, we must do this,” Gilbreath said. “We’re losing our state, and we’re losing our nation.”
He said the three things holding church members back in sharing their faith are:
• the absence of prayer,
• a lack of ownership in evangelism and
• a failure to build bridges with lost people.
The IE strategy’s objective is to lead the church past those issues to effectively practice the high value the church places on evangelism.
“The plan doesn’t ask you to reinvent the wheel, just to integrate the strategy into your church structure,” Gilbreath said.
To do so will take a cultural change that views the Great Commission as central, a long-term strategy and some “handles” (ministries) for church members to use to grab hold of their calling, he explained.
Max Croft, director of the SBOM office of discipleship, said there are three elements Intentional Evangelism uses to combat the issues preventing effective witnessing.
1. Evangelistic prayer
“Get the pastor, staff and church leaders involved in specific, focused prayer for lost people and the evangelistic ministry of the church,” Croft said. “Then involve an evangelistic prayer ministry team.”
2. Personalizing evangelism
Gilbreath said, “I’ve heard many people say, ‘That’s what we pay the pastor to do,’ but in reality it is just as much the calling of every church member as it is the calling of the pastor.”
Croft noted that every church member needs to feel a passion for lost souls as well as a personal responsibility and confident ability to witness.
He added that pastors could encourage this by preaching evangelistic sermons and by providing laypeople with an “easy,” straightforward way to share their faith.
3. Building bridges
A great need among church members is to have a natural and effective way to build meaningful relationships with nonbelievers that will open the door for sharing their faith, Croft said.
Implementation of Intentional Evangelism is a four-step process.
• Enlist a prayer team.
• Enlist and prepare leadership (staff, deacons and Sunday School teachers).
• Set up appropriate ministries.
• Enlist and train congregation members.
“For example, the pews are filled with professionals and CEOs who have a wealth of information to share but who are being used to pass out bulletins,” Gilbreath said. “Helping people with money management, training them how to cook — all kinds of things can be used as vehicles for Intentional Evangelism,” Gilbreath said.
Florida church’s ‘village’ models ministry evangelism
It takes a village” isn’t exactly a quote from the Bible, but Charles Roesel would be the first to amen the statement.
Roesel, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Leesburg, Fla., has watched many a person be raised by his “village” — and not just Sunday School children.
Nestled on the church’s three-and-a-half acre campus is an entire Ministry Village — a community medical center that sees an average of 450 patients per month, a pregnancy care center that counsels some 1,200 women and teens per year and several other shelters, rescue missions and counseling centers.
And to get to the services on Sundays, members have to drive through the middle of mission after mission that First, Leesburg, volunteers are investing in 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Roesel said with a smile.
It’s no wonder his church is a model for ministry evangelism.
First, Leesburg, which has hosted five Intentional Evangelism clinics for Alabama pastors and directors of missions (see story, page 4), has not only seen thousands go away from its grounds with shoes, medicine and counseling but has also seen thousands go through its baptismal waters who would otherwise never have darkened the church doors.
“As a local church, find out what’s not being done in your community and do it,” Roesel said. “You’re the only one who can make sure they have a Christian witness.”
Find something you can do, do it well, then train your church members to specialize in what they do best, he said.
Then, he added, do the most important thing — share Jesus Christ.
“If you’re involved in ministry but it’s not intentional evangelism, it’s a nice thing to do but it has no eternal consequence,” Roesel said. “The greatest danger of ministry is that the ministry itself becomes so satisfying that you forget the evangelism.”
The Ministry Village started in 1982 with a men’s shelter and since then, Roesel said, each ministry has birthed another ministry. It all began when the church just saw a need, met it, then continued to see and meet need after need for the glory of Christ.
Art Ayris, executive pastor of First, Leesburg, said, “It’s not rocket science. We just love people.”
So much of the gospel is relational, he said. “We build relationships with people through ministry, then we share the gospel with them.”
And they never ask if they can afford it; rather, they ask if it’s God’s will, Roesel said. “Everything you see here is paid for. We’re always way over budget when it comes to ministry.
“When people see ministry, they don’t send their money ‘here, there and yonder.’ They send it right where it belongs — right where they see the ministry happening — the local church,” he said.
Seeing is one reason Alabama sent many of its pastors and DOMs to the Florida church — to put names and faces on Intentional Evangelism concepts.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Mark McCullough, pastor of First Baptist Church, Frisco City, as he walked around the Ministry Village.
“It’s hard to process,” said Walter Brinks, minister of music of Wilkes Baptist Church in Bessemer. “It really opened my eyes to things that can be done in my community.”
Max Croft, director of the office of discipleship and family ministries for the State Board of Missions (SBOM), said Alabama’s churches weren’t asked to clone the Leesburg church’s Ministry Village but rather are encouraged to identify their own community’s needs. Find ministries that best fit them, then use those ministries to share Christ, he said.
“Your ministries probably won’t be as much of a clinic or crisis pregnancy center as they will be ministry teams, such as mentoring or prison ministry,” Croft told pastors at the Jan. 10–12 clinic in Leesburg.
Roesel said each church has its own unique ministries that they should pursue. “I encourage them to start with one and get it going well before starting the second.”
First, Leesburg, had been practicing the ministry evangelism concept for more than 20 years but didn’t have a strategy to reproduce it, said Sammy Gilbreath, director of the SBOM office of evangelism.
The idea for the Intentional Evangelism material began to form when the North American Mission Board (NAMB) announced there would be no nationwide evangelism emphasis for 2005–2007, Gilbreath said.
“We shared our goals for Alabama with Dr. Roesel, developed the material then partnered with his church to kick this off,” Gilbreath said.
Now, the Intentional Evangelism teaching material, published in-house by the SBOM, is being asked for by NAMB for national distribution.
“As a state, Alabama is way ahead in the area of Intentional Evangelism,” Roesel said. “You’re becoming a part of a program that can literally rock our nation for Jesus Christ.
“Evangelism is not an elective, it is a divine mandate, and those who are not doing it are living in stark disobedience,” he said. “It’s time for us to spend our time on the things that really matter.”
Jeff Pike, pastor of Edgefield Baptist Church in Ider, said Roesel first inspired him years ago when he had met him at The Baptist College of Florida.
“I met him and was immediately asked, ‘What’s your vision for missions?’” Pike said. “I was taken aback by the upfrontness and directness of Dr. Roesel’s focus on ministry and winning people to Christ.”
As a result of that vision, First, Leesburg, is “on the radar” of the people in the surrounding area, Croft said.
“Many times churches are known for protesting things, not for helping people,” Croft said. “The people of Leesburg know this church is here to help, so it’s one of the first places they come.”
Getting “on the radar” takes time, Gilbreath said, but it’s worth the investment. “That’s what we call Kingdom-building, not empire building. It’s time we get about building the Kingdom in Alabama.”
It can be done in time — just ask Ayris. “Because of the relationships there, for example with the schools where we do things like take popsicles to the athletes, we’re one of the first ones they call to counsel students when there’s a crisis,” Ayris said. “We don’t compromise our message, but they trust us because of the relationships.
Alabama pastors gear up to take new strategy home
Pastor James Spicer said his church’s congregation may be small but their dreams of bringing people in couldn’t be bigger.
“Our prayer has been to build a family life center to reach out to young people and senior adults,” said Spicer, pastor of Freedom Baptist Church in Selma.
It’s a long-running vision at Freedom Baptist that Spicer said had a fresh fire lit beneath it during talks of Intentional Evangelism. “We want to do a good job of reaching the community, and I’m convinced nothing is impossible with God,” he said.
For First Baptist Church, Pleasant Grove, Pastor Joe Godfrey said making the strategy work may mean a refocusing of the use of the existing family life center. “I’m going to be encouraging our people to reach out more to the community through what we already have.”
Greg Michaelson, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Vernon, said he sees a different service his church can provide — debt counseling for his community’s migrants.
“Apartment complexes here have a huge turnover rate because of the bondage the people are in to debt,” he said. “Helping them break free would also open doors to share about freedom in Christ,” he added.
“When you’re out there serving the people, they look at church in a totally different light.”
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