To reach people, Christians need to get out of the church and go where non-Christians are. That philosophy is what motivated Pastor Dick Thomassian to pack 40 people and what seemed like a ton of equipment into a bus and drive them off Huntsville to Miami, Fla., for a week of block parties, children’s ministries and street evangelism.
Thomassian, minister of missions at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, has been doing this kind of ministry for many years.
“We have been to between 30 and 35 countries, almost all of the U.S. states, and we have seen over 50,000 decisions for Christ during that time,” Thomassian reported.
Block parties are his specialty: he has led more than 500 of them. He and the 40 volunteers presented up to three two-hour block parties a day featuring puppet shows, mini dramas, live music and an evangelistic message on a recent weeklong swing through south Florida.
Working with Westchester Community Church, a new church start for second-generation Hispanics on the west side of Miami Dade County, the group presented a lively program to neighborhood residents and a soccer team playing on a nearby field.
Eight people, including at least one of the soccer players, raised their hand in response to Thomassian’s invitation to accept Jesus as their Savior.
“The key is to get out of the church,” the pastor explained. “Christians need to go where the people are and to get involved.”
“Many people won’t come to church to be saved,” added Amy Sheehan, a former member of the Huntsville church who now lives in Houston, Texas. “I moved away but I keep coming back because I agree with what they are doing. I see many people coming to Christ.”
The Alabama group spent a week in the Miami area, presenting block parties in Hispanic, African American, Anglo and Haitian churches, as well as at the Miami Rescue Mission, the area’s major evangelical homeless and rehabilitation shelter.
The block party and other efforts by the group were an encouragement to the Westchester church that started holding services just eight months ago.
“It gave a push to me and to the church members who were there,” said Pastor Ralph Tone. “It showed us the importance of getting out and the quality of the evangelistic work they did made evangelism attractive.”
Tone said that by attracting people from the neighborhood, the party offered an opportunity for follow up with those who indicated an interest.
“It gave a quantum leap in the quality of visitation,” Tone said. “It moved us from cold visitation to hot visitation where we are dealing with recognizable faces.”
Thomassian, 70, said he plans on continuing with the evangelistic missions trips as long as he has health and the Lord wants him to do so.
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