Twenty-two members of Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville, hit the streets of Orlando to spread the gospel during Crossover Orlando June 9-11.
The event preceded the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Participating in four block parties and two one-on-one witnessing opportunities, the Whitesburg team’s two-hour afternoon stint June 10 attracted about 250 homeless people, some of whom struggle with various addictions. The event took place in the parking lot of the Christian Service Center, a ministry of Inner City Community Church, near downtown Orlando.
The team, led by Dick Thomassian, minister of missions for Whitesburg, performed drama skits, entertained with puppets and preached the gospel. Various participants also sang solos and gave testimonies.
Laneen Manchester, a member of Whitesburg, said, “Each piece (of the block party) is designed to bring people to a decision point. (Each part) gives a piece of the gospel.”
The block party concept draws a crowd with its upbeat music and activities, she noted.
While the team provided spiritual nourishment, it also provided physical nourishment with free food, with more than 700 hamburgers and hot dogs distributed during the event.
Haggeo Gautier, pastor of Inner City Community Church and director of the Christian Service Center, said the block parties are encouraging to the community. He quoted some of the participants as saying “Thank you,” “Somebody cares about us” and “We really appreciate what you are doing for us.”
“It is encouraging to them that people are willing to come in and share Jesus and food even though they live in poverty,” he said.
Noting that the church holds similar events once a month, he said the “outside church” always draws four times more people than the Sunday afternoon or Friday evening church services.
Brenda McDaniel, a member of Whitesburg, said, “People are not as prone to go into the four walls of the church, so we are taking the church to the streets, like Jesus did.
“It is a blessing to gather a crowd and share Jesus,” she said. “It tells a truth that is so effective.”
Jane Holloway — former member of Whitesburg and First Baptist Church, Jacksonville (Ala.), and the 1973 Miss Alabama — said, “We just love people and love sharing Jesus with people.
“I love these situations,” said Holloway, who helped host the team. “The people are so open to Jesus. Their needs are great. Because Christ has been the center of my life since I was 10 years old, it is natural for me to share.”
Holloway’s husband, John, serves as minister of missions and administration at First Baptist Church, Sweetwater, near Orlando, host church for the Whitesburg team. John served as senior pastor of First, Jacksonville, for 10 years before coming to First, Sweetwater, last year.
Varied efforts
While block parties took place all across the city, they were only one aspect of Crossover Orlando. Other efforts included a massive International Festival at the Central Florida fairgrounds, street witnessing, door-to-door witnessing and the local association’s ongoing “Ladies of the Night” ministry of sharing Christ with prostitutes on Orlando’s Orange Blossom Trail. Several Alabamians participated in a variety of Crossover activities.
As of the afternoon of June 11, more than 600 individual commitments to a life-changing faith in Jesus Christ had been recorded by organizers, with many of the participating churches not yet reporting.
“Overall, I would rate the entire effort somewhere between outstanding and phenomenal,” said James Fortinberry, executive director of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association. “I would say the cooperation we had with our local churches — and especially with the language churches — and the people that came to help us was unusually good.”
Crossover has been a fixture of SBC annual meetings since 1989. Robert E. “Bob” Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board, the agency that coordinates Crossover on a national basis, said most conventions are times when organizations deal with “strategies, organization and focus.”
The biggest event was the International Festival that attracted a crowd of 3,500-4,000. Held under the livestock pavilion at the Central Florida Fairgrounds, the festival included representatives of Haitian, Brazilian, Hispanic, Korean and Vietnamese groups. With registration, participants could sample food from each of the groups and allow their children to take part in a number of games and activities, including five “moon walk” attractions.
Crossover volunteers also were on hand to share the gospel with guests, and more than 200 committed their lives to Christ. The long-term benefit, however, came through the relationships that were formed and the names that have been forwarded to the respective language groups for follow-up by local churches.
Other activities
Street performers and creative arts teams entertained crowds and used the connections they made through their performances to share the gospel.
Other teams fanned out from churches conducting “prayer journeys” through neighborhoods, praying for individuals and churches, including many of the venues for other evangelistic efforts.
Volunteers traveling in tourist shuttles handed out free bottles of water printed with the message, “Is your soul thirsty? Jesus is the Living Water. He’s God’s free gift to you.”
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