Thirty yeas ago this June while attending summer church camp as young teen, I sat in the open-air tabernacle listening to the evening evangelist give a dynamic and passionate sermon about Jesus’ 2nd coming. The words he spoke, the Scripture verses he read aloud, the entire tone of his message struck a chord in my inner being. In fact his sermons each previous night of the week-long camp were just as good and weighed heavily in my mind progressively. But this final sermon of the week – on the final night of camp, seemed like God Himself was speaking through this man to give that particular sermon to ME. At the alter call at the end of that service this minister asked if anyone else there in attendance wanted to accept Christ as their Lord & Savior (many had the previous nights & were also baptized). A warmness overtook me and though at first my feet felt like they were nailed to the ground, the moment I decided I had to walk towards the front of the tabernacle, I could have sworn I floated like a feather down the aisle and up the front. With tears in my eyes I knelt and confessed with my words and every emotional fiber within me, that I believed in and accepted Jesus of Nazareth as my Savior. The next day before camp broke up, I was baptized in the same stream that my own grandmother had been baptized in some 50 years before.
Yesterday, at school we were discussing the work of William Carey who wrote a persuasive piece designed to inspire his fellow Baptists to send out and support missionaries in 1792 called An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. His unrelenting desire to save the lost drove him to study languages incessantly. He was a shoemaker by trade who taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, and French. Eventually he moved to India with his family and some others to spread the gospel there. He translated the Bible into Bengali and Sanskrit and distributed it among the people. Below is a quotation that I found challenging. Part of his treatise included a series of tables listing the population of each known country in the world along with religious affiliation. He estimated that out of the 731 million people in the world 420 million were still in “pagan darkness.” Looking at statistics today, there are roughly two billion Christians out of 6.5 billion people. Are Carey’s words any less relevant today than when he penned them more than two centuries ago?
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In New England, we battle the hard hearts of skeptics while enjoy the open-mindedness of those searching. Engaging our neighbors and communities is important – and there is a way to do it right. Forget the marketing strategies or membership drives, get into conversations with the people you’re around. I think that the challenge facing New England in regards to evangelism and outreach is not in the people who need the gospel, its found in the people who supposedly don’t.
Watch this amazing video featuring Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930:
Anne Sullivan must have been quite a woman of love, compassion & patience. How long must it have taken to teach and work with Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf?! Yet Anne Sullivan did not see someone disposable, but rather someone who had value and was worth spending her time and life with to teach and care for. Amazing!
I have seen recently two billboards in my area which show John 14:6 next to a picture of a cross. I thought it was cool that people had taken the time and money to rent the billboard with these ads rather than the usual. Seeing this billboard now got me thinking. I wonder if John 14:6 is the best verse to put up there – if you only had a few lines and a few seconds – what would you put up on your billboard for one month? John 14:6? A different phrase? Something else altogether?
the following post was written by Joshua from Taiwan:
Recently, while encountering Buddhists and Mormons, I’ve concluded that I must know something about their religious beliefs in order to be effective (in my opinion). Both are heavy on the “afterlife” (an unscriptural term) and both stress works for increased positions.
What is a good way of sharing the good news of Christ and His Kingdom with people of other religions?
Should we spend time reading their “sacred” books?
Is reading their “sacred” books prohibited for us Christians?
I thought this article was excellent. My thoughts to follow:
I’ve heard the quote once too often. It’s time to set the record straight—about the quote, and about the gospel.
Francis of Assisi is said to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”
This saying is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little. Fair enough—that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only said it but lived it.
I thought the following article by Jonathan Dodson was an excellent and practical outline for good tips for us to follow to keep us in situations where we can see God work to open up opportunites to preach the gospel and love people like Christ. The world we live in is pressing us to remain isolated, become distant from others, and communicate less face to face. It is easy for us to chat online, facebook with people halfway across the globe or even video chat – as long as we don’t have to be in the same room with a real person and have a real conversation!
Yesterday, at school we were discussing the work of William Carey who wrote a persuasive piece designed to inspire his fellow Baptists to send out and support missionaries in 1792 called 
I thought it was cool that people had taken the time and money to rent the billboard with these ads rather than the usual. Seeing this billboard now got me thinking. I wonder if John 14:6 is the best verse to put up there – if you only had a few lines and a few seconds – what would you put up on your billboard for one month? John 14:6? A different phrase? Something else altogether?
Recently, while encountering Buddhists and Mormons, I’ve concluded that I must know something about their religious beliefs in order to be effective (in my opinion). Both are heavy on the “afterlife” (an unscriptural term) and both stress works for increased positions.