How do you witness through teaching someone to read, planting a new church or making a video?
How do you share Christ with a Muslim or do a demographic study on your county?
How do you search the Web or search for God?
Alabama Baptists learned to do all these things and more at the State Evangelism Conference Feb. 25–26 through the Great Commission Ministries Track, breakout sessions that ran simultaneously with the morning and afternoon preaching sessions.
"The conference’s sermons are for inspiration and the [track provides] information," said Sammy Gilbreath, director of the office of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
In total, 641 people attended the track’s sessions, which featured 25 evangelism-related subjects. Topics ranged from starting a men’s fraternity to global missions to living life as a purpose-empowered woman. Living a God-shaped Life: Pursuing Holiness Day by Day turned out to be the most popular session with 33 in attendance.
"[N]ot only is the Evangelism Conference a great time to worship and be encouraged but it’s also a time to be equipped with some of the greatest tools available to assist us in building the Kingdom," said Phil Winningham, an associate in the SBOM office of evangelism.
He noted the track provides an opportunity to improve what state Baptists are already doing and challenges them to try something new.
Jeff Robison, pastor of Beatrice Baptist Church, said he found the Understanding Islam session to be helpful for his personal evangelism. "Islam is the fastest-growing religion, and this session gave us ideas on how to reach Muslims in a more effective way," he said.
Gerald Borden, pastor of Sharon Baptist Church, Pinson, said the Preaching Evangelistically and What to Do About It session (see story, page 10) challenged him to put more emphasis on his invitation each week.
"Pastors have a tendency to preach too long, look at the clock at 12 o’clock and say ‘oops!’ and give a rushed invitation," he said. "This session challenged me … to be more careful of how [I] present my sermons, to allow ample time for an invitation."
And Viki Brant of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, said the Creating Video, Audio & Music Media on Your PC session inspired her to start something new.
"This session provided information on products used to develop media in various ministry roles," she said. "I plan to use the information to help develop an outreach tool for a ministry here at [First, Montgomery]." (Chris Mills contributed)
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