if you can watch the whole thing it will definitely remind us of the work ahead of us as the church. i am so inspired about reaching people. hearing this message i am reminded of how much i love to see the lost, those who don't know jesus, reached. at the end of my life i want to say that i lived to see this world reached with the gospel...what a great and wonderful job we have!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
just found this interesting read, hmm might be an idea
found this article surfing the internet and thought it was interesting. sounds like we might need to revisit this idea. although it didn't bring the results they intended it's still something we should always be pursuing, reaching people with the gospel, bringing people to jesus! take a read...In 1972, Campus Crusade for Christ had a huge evangelistic conference in Dallas, TX called Explo ‘72. Attendees were equipped and sent home with the vision of sharing the Gospel with every person in the United States of America by 1976. Though it did not happen, the campaign did “reach” millions with the Gospel.
Phase One of the project was to wear buttons and have billboards and newspaper advertisements that read: “I Found It!” (’it’ meaning eternal life). Phase Two involved trained volunteers making millions of evangelistic telephone calls. Those who prayed with the volunteers, were “visited by the volunteers, given follow-up literature, and encouraged to join a Bible study group in their neighborhood.”
By the end of 1976, 6.5 million people had been contacted, and 536,824 people had indicated they trusted Christ for salvation (60,000 of those joining the neighborhood Bible study group). It was estimated that 50 million people saw the television special that went along with the campaign! Amazing stats...seemed quite effective at “reaching” the United States with the Gospel.“Though the campaign’s statistics seemed, good, the campaign drew criticism from experts on church growth. Win Arn noted that few of the converts actually joined local churches. For example, in Edmonton, Canada, 1,700 workers from 63 participating churches recorded 1,009 decisions for Christ. Only 250 of those people actually attended one Bible study, and not a single person became a church member as a result of the campaign. In Indianapolis 823 volunteer made 28,976 telephone calls. These calls produced 1,665 decisions for Christ. However, only 242 attended a Bible study, and only 55 became church members. Of these, 23 were transfers from another church. Therefore, the net gain in membership in area churches was 32”