Evangelism Memory Verse:

“Your word is true from the beginning: and every one of your righteous judgments endures for ever.”

 –Psalm 119:160

Did you memorize last week’s verse?  For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here:  www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml       

Evangelism Quote:

     “There is a place in hell where the covetous judge sitteth, the greedy lawyer, the griping landlord, the careless bishops, the lusty youth, the wanton dames, the thief, the robbers of the commonwealth.  They are punished in this life because they ever sin as long as they could, while mercy was offered unto them; therefore because they would not be washed, they shall be drowned.” 
–Henry Smith

Evangelism Opportunities:

1.  Thursday, June 25^th 7-10PM:  Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP).  Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there.  TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers.  Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies.  If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at ron@lostcauseministries.com.  

2.  Friday, June 26th, 7-10PM: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3.  Thursday, July 2^nd, 7-10PM:  Details same as #1 above. 

4.  Friday, July 3^rd, 6-10PM:  TLC Ministries will be doing outreach at the massive Stars and Stripes Celebration at the Southlake Town Square.  We will meet in the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 6:00PM.  The carpool from FBC Justin will leave there at 5:30PM.  If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com. 

5.  Saturday, July 4th, 7-8AM:  TLC East Side is doing open-air and one-to-one outreach at the day laborer camp in McKinney, TX.  Spanish speakers are needed to share the gospel there!  Please don’t limit your outreach to the Hispanic community to annual mission trips to Mexico; reach the lost right here in North Texas!  To get involved, contact Byron Porter at byron@lostcauseministries.com.

6.  Saturday, July 4th, 10-11PM:  TLC East Side is resuming outreach to the Skate Park in Allen, TX.  To get involved, please contact Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com) or Jason Sides (jason@lostcauseministries.com). 

7.   Saturday, July 4^th, 9:00AM-??:  Ron Martinez will head up our involvement with Project Ezra here in Dallas.  Project Ezra is an initiative designed by Tony Miano to get believers to read the Word of God publicly in locations around the world.  In May, more than 150 teams went out in about nine different countries to read the Sermon on the Mount.  This month’s challenge is to read the entire book of 1 John publicly!  If you would like to participate, you can contact Ron at ron@lostcauseministries.com to get involved. 

Jon Speed will be leading a team in western New York State, somewhere between Buffalo and Rochester, NY.  More details TBA.  For more information on this version of Project Ezra, email Jon at jon@lostcauseministries.com. 

8.  Thursday, July 9^th, 7-10PM:  Truck stop.  Details same as #1 above.

9.  Friday, July 10^th, 7-10PM:  Southlake Town Square.  Details same as #2 above. 

10.  Saturday, July 11^th, 7-8AM:  Day Laborer Camp.  Details same as #5 above.

11.  Saturday July 11^th, 10-11PM:  Allen Skate Park.  Details same as #6 above. 

12.  Thursday, July 16^th, 7-10PM:  Truck stop.  Details same as #1 above. 

13.  Friday, July 17^th, 7-10PM:  Southlake Town Square.  Details same as #2 above. 

14.  Saturday, July 18^th, 7-8AM:  Day Laborer Camp.  Details same as #5 above.

15.  Saturday, July 18^th, 10-11PM:  Allen Skate Park.  Details same as #6 above. 

16.  Thursday, July 23^rd, 7-10PM:  Truck stop.  Details same as #1 above.

17.  Friday, July 24^th, 7-10PM:  Southlake Town Square.  Details same as #2 above.

18.  Saturday, July 25^th, 7-8AM:  Day Laborer Camp.  Details same as #5 above.

19.  Saturday, July 25^th, 10-11PM:  Allen Skate Park.  Details same as #6 above. 

20.  Thursday, July 30^th, 7-10PM:  Truck Stop.  Details same as #1 above.

21.  Friday, July 31^st, 7-10PM:  Southlake Town Square.  Details same as #2 above. 

22.  Saturday, August 1^st, 7-8AM:  Day Laborer Camp.  Details same as #5 above.

23.  Saturday, August 2^nd, 10-11PM:  Allen Skate Park.  Details same as #6 above. 

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic!  On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest).   We will meet there at 4:00PM.   If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th.  You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com. 

Evangelism Report:

Dane Cook Comedy Tour (American Airlines Center, Dallas):

On Friday night, a contingent from TLC went out to the American Airlines Center in Dallas to preach the gospel and pass out tracts to the crowd that came to see Dane Cook Global Thermo Comedy Tour.  Praise the Lord for a solid group: Jon Speed, Chad Welty, Tom Sadowski, Chris Manfreda, Ron Martinez, Dale Bennett, and Rob Willey were all in attendance. 

When we arrived, we found a pretty long line in the Victory Plaza and covertly hit the line with tracts.  Dale was doing a one-to-one when we met him and Rob there.  That done, we made our way around to the public property on the side of the building and found a huge line that was just starting to make its way in.  Myself, Chad, and Tom all took turns preaching from this location near the entrance while the others passed out tracts and tried to engage in one-to-ones.  We preached on blasphemy, God’s judgment on that sin, and the hypocrisy of laughing at it on Friday night while planning to go to church on Sunday. 

After we finished, and while Tom continued to preach, Chad and I moved down the street to the corner where big crowds were coming across the street at a traffic light.  We probably hit a dozen crowds with Million Dollar Bill and other tracts.  We realized that the police officer directing traffic was holding the crowds for almost 2-3 minutes and so we decided to try stop light preaching on that side of the street.  Ron Martinez joined us and we gave it a shot.  Once we started preaching, the police officer started allowing the crowds to cross every 30 seconds or less, so our preaching was abbreviated, to say the least. 

All told, we probably gave out about 1,000 tracts and the gospel was preached in the open air to many hundreds of attendees as they waited to enter the arena.  Praise God that although they were not there to glorify God, they were reminded that there is a Holy God, a Heaven to be had, a Hell to flee, and a gospel. 

Southlake Town Square:

In the meantime, Tim Crawford and Jeff Pittman went to the Southlake Town Square to do evangelism.  They had a very good night and gave out many tracts and had many excellent discussions with the teenagers there.  As the Dallas group returned around 8:45PM, we stopped in Southlake and joined them. 

Here is a testimony from Tom Sadowski regarding a conversation he had after he did an open-air message in the Square:

Jeff and I had a conversation with a young guy named Alex. As I was preaching (and nearly done), he stopped and turned back in an obvious manner of wanting to talk, on the bustling corner, with the “fanatical preacher”, obviously not caring what any of his peers might think. That, to me, was significant in and of itself. He was from a Church of Christ in Richland Hills (a well-known one, I guess, in that he thought Jeff or I would’ve heard of his pastor), but could not at all readily respond in the affirmative to me when I asked him if he believed he had ever been born again. He had two friends who came up towards the end of the conversation, Tito and Tyler, but neither of them appeared nearly as interested as he was in what was being discussed, but rather were just sort of waiting for him to finish up with me and Jeff so they could all leave together.

Ron and I were itching to open-air preach.  Since the plaza behind Brio’s was so noisy, we elected to preach in the plaza closer to 1709.  That area is a park-like setting with many adults and families hanging out enjoying the park.  In short, it’s much quieter, especially since the fountain was not running.  Ron preached a solid gospel message.  I followed that with a message on coveting, materialism and selfishness and the atonement Christ provides for those guilty of those sins.  Surprisingly (to us), people stayed and listened respectfully.  One woman, a member of FBC Keller, approached us afterwards and thanked us for preaching!  Please pray that those who listened will carefully consider the state of their souls. 

Afterwards, we enjoyed a good meal at the IHOP in Grapevine and a good time of fellowship.  Tim engaged our waiter in an interesting conversation about the gospel and his experience as a former Assembly of God seminary student.  He has left the church because of disillusionment.  Please pray that he will make his calling and election sure. 

Evangelism Resources:

1.   There’s still time to order tracts for the 4^th of July!  We recommend One Million Tracts’ The Cost of Freedom tract.  They are quite popular and at only $3.00 per pack of 100, the price is right. 

2.  Please listen to this presentation that Todd Friel did recently at a Worldview Weekend seminar.  It’s called “Five Reasons NOT to Invite Jesus into Your Heart”.  An important and powerful message. 

3.  It’s that time of year again!  Way of the Master will be holding their Deeper Conference at FBC Woodstock in Woodstock, GA.  Guest speakers include Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort, Todd Friel, Greg Koukl, Ravi Zacharias, Mark Cahill and many more.  The dates are September 11-12. 

On the evening of September 12^th, TLC Ministries is partnering with Marcus Pittman of Transplant Ministries and Living Waters to coordinate The Five Hundred outreach.  The Five Hundred is a dynamic street ministry to downtown Atlanta, GA which is held in conjunction with Deeper.  Last year nearly 500 believers took the gospel to arenas, parades, the subways, and even the BET Awards ceremony, many of these believers did this for the first time!   TLC will be taking a van from DFW to the event.  If you would like to go, please register for Deeper on their website and The Five Hundred’s registration page as well.  And then let us know so that you can reserve your spot for this road trip!  Registration for The Five Hundred is FREE. 

4.  Living Waters is releasing a special 150^th Anniversary edition of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” with a special introduction by Ray Comfort.  The cost will be 99 cents per copy for orders by the case (50 copies).  These will be a great tool for distributing the gospel creatively on college campuses, and elsewhere. 

Note:  TLC would love to be able to distribute these at UNT when we return there this coming semester.  If you would like to donate toward this project, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com. 

5.  This is an article that I submitted to The Justin Texan for inclusion in their Pastor’s Corner section of that small newspaper.  It’s called “The Most Controversial Question”.  What do you think the most controversial question in the Bible belt is? 

6.  Here is a set of three videos, using quotes from Charles Leiter’s book “Justification and Regeneration” (and other works), produced by our friends, the Hebert family.  They are very evangelistic in nature and would be excellent to pass along to an unsaved friend to get their feedback. 

Part One          Part Two         Part Three

TLC Coming to New York State and Pennsylvania:

Our family (the Speeds) will be coming north to visit family and take some vacation time in the month of July.  This means that I will be available for pulpit supply and to present the ministry of The Lost Cause Ministries at your church. 

Our visit will bring us to western New York State (Buffalo\Rochester, NY area), the Catskill Mountain region (Sullivan and Delaware Counties), the Pocono Mountain region of PA (Wayne County), the Adirondacks of New York (in case you haven’t guessed, we miss the mountains) and points in between. 

I will also be available to do one-day evangelism training for your church while we are in the area.  We would love to be able to serve your church in evangelism training.  This training includes Way of the Master based material, with some of our own material included.  It also includes “hands on” opportunities to apply what you learn after the seminar.  Please contact me if you’d like a free evangelism training seminar at your church in New York State or PA. 

As it stands now, we have several speaking engagements lined up.  We will let you know of our full schedule once it’s completed.   For now, we’ll be speaking:

July 5th, 10:00AM Genesee Country Church 3268 Drake Street Oakfield, NY 14125.  Preaching the Sunday morning worship service\ministry update.

July 11^th, 9AM-1PM  Genesee Country Church  Evangelism crash course, followed by outreach at Niagara Falls. 

July 15th 7:00PM Grace Church 9284 State Route 97 Callicoon, NY 12723   Giving ministry update during the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. 

July 26th, 11:00AM: Delhi Community Church Rte. 10 Delhi, NY 13753 Preaching in the morning service and then doing an evangelism training seminar from 3-6PM.  

If we can serve you while we are in the region, please let me know.  We’d love to have the opportunity to visit and let you know how TLC is helping to bring the “Bible” back to “the Bible belt”! 

Prayer Update:

1.  Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009.  Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.  Pray that this will be thrown out before it gets to court. 

2.  Pray for all of those who heard the gospel in Dallas and Southlake this past Friday.

3.  Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

4.  Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches.  We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately. 

5.  Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event.  We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details.  Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event.  Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th. 

6.  Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12). 

7.  Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.”  Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches.  The new edition is being printed as this is being written.  Pray for a quick printing and distribution to those who have been waiting for this edition. 

8.  Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules. 

9.  Pray for the Speeds as they prepare to travel north in July.  Pray for more speaking engagements to open up and opportunities to share the gospel along the way. 

10.  Pray for Allison Crawford as Colson’s due date approaches.  Her due date is July 13^th. 

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us.”

–1 John 5:14

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use an amplifier.”

–Saint Francis Wasnotasissy

Note: Obviously, tongue is firmly planted in cheek here. However, it appears that we can make the outrageous claim that St. Francis of Assisi said this and it can be just as valid as the outrageous claim that he said, “Preach the gospel, and when necessary use words.” An article in Christianity Today recently pointed out that NONE of the biographies written on St. Francis within 200 years of his death say that he ever said this. The quote is purely apocryphal. Yet I wonder how many books on evangelism have made this false citation?

As Ray Comfort says in response to the original misquotation, “It’s necessary!” (to use words). If you doubt it, check out Romans 10:14-17.

Away with the feminization of evangelism! “Preach” means what it says. It does not mean, “invite a friend over for a non-confrontational barbeque.”

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Thursday, June 18^th 7-10PM: Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP). Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there. TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers. Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies. If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at ron@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Friday, June 19, 5:30PM: TLC will take the gospel to the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Dane Cook Global Thermo Comedy Tour will be in town. This will be a great opportunity to preach the gospel, pass out tracts and speak with concert goers on a one-to-one basis. The carpool will leave FBC Justin promptly at 5:30PM, putting us in Dallas at about 6:30PM and giving us 1 1\2 hours to share the gospel. If we have enough in the carpool, we’ll take the Speed’s twelve passenger van. Email Jon at jon@lostcauseministries.com to reserve your seat.

3. Thursday, June 25^th, 7-10PM: Details same as #1 above.

4. Friday, June 26^th, 7:00-9:00PM: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

5.  Saturday, June 27th, 7-8AM:  TLC East Side is doing open-air and one-to-one outreach at the day laborer camp in McKinney, TX.  Spanish speakers are needed to share the gospel there!  Please don’t limit your outreach to the Hispanic community to annual mission trips to Mexico; reach the lost right here in North Texas!  To get involved, contact Byron Porter at byron@lostcauseministries.com.

6.  Saturday, June 27th, 10-11PM:  TLC East Side is resuming outreach to the Skate Park in Allen, TX.  To get involved, please contact Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com) or Jason Sides (jason@lostcauseministries.com).

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic! On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest). We will meet there at 4:00PM. If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th. You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com.

Evangelism Report:

Ambassador’s Academy #11 (Los Angeles, CA):

A Review

Jon Speed, Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman and Chad Welty were blessed to be able to attend Living Waters’ Ambassador’s Academy from June 10-13. About 44 believers from 20 different states converged on a hotel in Southern California for several days of training and outreach. It was a good time of fellowship in the gospel, and a better time of instruction and outreach.

I must confess that I was a bit skeptical about the value of the Academy to me personally before I went. After all, I had been to the old GNN Evangelism Boot Camps and we had done many of them in Southern CA. We had toured the Living Waters offices before, met Ray and Kirk, and even led teams to some of the same venues that the Academy visits with the gospel. What could I learn now that I haven’t already experienced in CA and in five years of evangelism ministry?

The short answer is: plenty. It’s not fair to compare the old GNN camps with the Academy because the goals are decidedly different. Whereas GNN focused on bringing (mostly) experienced biblical evangelists on the streets, the Academy has a definite “newness” amongst the recruits. Tony Miano’s leadership of the camp is excellent in every way and his staff of team leaders and lady mentors matches his commitment to excellence. In short, the organization and leadership brings glory to God and not to any man.

Additionally, the instruction offered on Thursday covers material that is essential for anyone who does biblical evangelism. Emeal Zwayne’s message “Evangelism and the Two Greatest Commandments” ought to be required listening for anyone who is passionate about sharing the gospel. If taken seriously, it will help to avoid a lot of headaches for those who haven’t taken the time to examine their motives carefully as they begin doing regular street evangelism.

Tony Miano’s message, “Don’t Quit” is likewise essential listening. The battlefield of biblical evangelism is littered with those who have made strong commitments vowed in the emotion of a moment (like a boot camp or Academy) and have not made good beyond a few months or years of service. Scottie’s messages on open-air preaching are very helpful for the newbie and veteran alike. Mark Spence’s message on tract distribution is honest and creative. And it’s always encouraging to hear Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron speak.

At the risk of sounding like a bandwagon jumper, let it be said clearly: this Academy is vital for anyone who is either new to evangelism or experienced. TLC unequivocally and passionately endorses this Academy. While Way of the Master has been criticized in the past for encouraging the cloning of mini-Ray Comforts and getting people to learn a script, and inasmuch as evangelists are often accused of detracting from the ministry of the local church, it needs to be said that these accusations cannot be leveled against this Academy. It was asserted and re-asserted several times in precept and practice that the goal was not to get the students to “stick to the script.” The local church was held up as a place of service for street evangelists, not a place to gripe about or compete with. Most importantly, the team leaders modeled and taught the importance of sharing the whole gospel with the lost. The deity of Christ, His resurrection, His Lordship, justification by faith alone in Christ alone, the love of God were all emphasized.

No ministry is perfect and the staff of Living Waters seems to be very aware of that and always trying to improve. Their desire is to glorify God by preaching a full gospel and that should encourage any Christian who is serious about the Lord, the lost and sound doctrine.

Having said all of that, here is a brief review of Friday and Saturday:

Friday:

On Friday we toured the Living Waters offices and practiced stop light preaching in the parking lot. Afterwards, we traveled to Hollywood Boulevard where we did evangelism throughout the day. Many open-air preached for the first time at stop lights and at the preaching stations in front of Graumann’s Chinese Theater and the subway. On Friday night, we went to Glendale’s shopping center district where we did some stoplight preaching and open-air in the public sidewalk area near the mall. We were told that the venue is tame and laid back, but some of the heaviest heckling took place that night when we preached about materialism and narcissism as violations of the first and tenth commandments. It was a good night; many came to hear hecklers and left having heard the gospel from the team members who picked them off as they left.

Saturday:

On Saturday, we spent the day at Huntington Beach where we had two open-air stations set up and did one-to-ones throughout the day. There was also some stop light preaching. Around 4:00PM we headed back to the hotel and had dinner and then our graduation ceremony. It’s always hard to say good-bye at the end of such sweet fellowship and outreach, but the goal isn’t for everyone to move to California, but for all of us to take street evangelism home and hit the streets in our respective communities for the glory of God.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Our friend, Darrel Rundus, has created an interesting website for sharing the gospel called “Name Ten and Win.” The challenge? If you can name the Ten Commandments, in order, in 20 seconds or less, you could win $20,000! The offer is legitimate. Pass this on to an unsaved friend as a way for them to hear the gospel and get acquainted with the Law of God.

2. Here is a very good video clip of Tony Miano preaching the gospel to some LAPD officers who did a traffic stop near our preaching station on Hollywood Blvd. If you have done street evangelism with us in the past, you’ll see some familiar faces. Chad Welty is preaching just before Tony gets started.

3. It’s time to start ordering tracts for the 4^th of July! We recommend One Million Tracts’ The Cost of Freedom tract. They are quite popular and at only $3.00 per pack of 100, the price is right.

4. This is a very powerful 12 minute video called The Fire. It is essentially a plea to self examination for anyone who has “prayed the sinners prayer” and has not seen any change in their life. If you are sitting on the fence, please let this video shake your fence.

5. Please consider joining Project Ezra, an initiative to spark coordinated open-air reading of the Word of God in locations around the world (Neh. 8:1-8). The next Project Ezra outreach is the reading of the entire book of 1 John on July 4^th (8AM-11AM). You can join the Facebook group here.

TLC Coming to New York State and Pennsylvania:

Our family (the Speeds) will be coming north to visit family and take some vacation time in the month of July. This means that I will be available for pulpit supply and to present the ministry of The Lost Cause Ministries at your church.

Our visit will bring us to western New York State (Buffalo\Rochester, NY area), the Catskill Mountain region (Sullivan and Delaware Counties), the Pocono Mountain region of PA (Wayne County), the Adirondacks of New York (in case you haven’t guessed, we miss the mountains) and points in between.

I will also be available to do one-day evangelism training for your church while we are in the area. We would love to be able to serve your church in evangelism training. This training includes Way of the Master based material, with some of our own material included. It also includes “hands on” opportunities to apply what you learn after the seminar. Please contact me if you’d like a free evangelism training seminar at your church in New York State or PA.

As it stands now, we have several speaking engagements lined up. We will let you know of our full schedule once it’s completed. For now, we’ll be speaking:

July 5th, 10:00AM Genesee Country Church 3268 Drake Street Oakfield, NY 14125. Preaching the Sunday morning worship service\ministry update.

July 11^th, 9AM-1PM Genesee Country Church Evangelism crash course, followed by outreach at Niagara Falls.

July 15th 7:00PM Grace Church 9284 State Route 97 Callicoon, NY 12723 Giving ministry update during the Wednesday evening prayer meeting.

July 26th, 11:00AM: Delhi Community Church Rte. 10 Delhi, NY 13753 Preaching in the morning service and then doing an evangelism training seminar from 3-6PM.

If we can serve you while we are in the region, please let me know. We’d love to have the opportunity to visit and let you know how TLC is helping to bring the “Bible” back to “the Bible belt”!

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases. Pray that this will be thrown out before it gets to court.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the gospel in Los Angeles this past weekend.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. The new edition is being printed as this is being written. Pray for a quick printing and distribution to those who have been waiting for this edition.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for the Speeds as they prepare to travel north in July. Pray for more speaking engagements to open up and opportunities to share the gospel along the way.

11. Pray for Allison Crawford as Colson’s due date approaches. Her due date is July 13^th.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.”

–James 4:7,8

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“He speaks—and list’ning to His voice,

New life the dead receive;

The mournful, broken hearts rejoice;

The humble poor believe.”

–Charles Wesley

(Fifth stanza to “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” from a Methodist hymnal of the mid 19^th century.)

Note: There is a lot of truth packed into this simple verse. The spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-3) can only have life when the Lord Himself intervenes with the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (“His voice”; cf. 1 Pet. 1:23). Those who are mournful over their sin (Matt. 5:4), broken and humble (Is. 57:15; Acts 3:19; 2 Tim. 2:25) and who believe (Jn. 1:12-13; Eph. 2:8-9) rejoice because they who were dead now live! None of this is of the sinner; it is salvation all on the part of God, giving those who were dead, life (1 Pet. 1:21).

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Thursday, June 11^th, 7-9PM: Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP). Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there. TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers. Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies. If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at ron@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Wednesday June 10-Sunday June 14: Jon Speed, Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman and Chad Welty will be attending Living Waters’ Ambassador’s Academy in Los Angeles, CA. We will be joined by about 46 other attendees, plus staff and team leaders. Please keep us in prayer as we attend this event, check out the training, and do some evangelism at Huntington Beach and Hollywood Boulevard.

3. Thursday, June 18^th: Details the same as #1 above.

4. Friday, June 19, 5:30PM: TLC will take the gospel to the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Dane Cook Global Thermo Comedy Tour will be in town. This will be a great opportunity to preach the gospel, pass out tracts and speak with concert goers on a one-to-one basis. The carpool will leave FBC Justin promptly at 5:30PM, putting us in Dallas at about 6:30PM and giving us 1 1\2 hours to share the gospel. If we have enough in the carpool, we’ll take the Speed’s twelve passenger van. Email Jon at jon@lostcauseministries.com to reserve your seat.

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic! On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest). We will meet there at 4:00PM. If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th. You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com.

Evangelism Report:

Texas Motor Speedway:

On Friday and Saturday, volunteers from TLC Ministries assisted TXARM with outreach to the Indy Car fans who came to see the Lear Jet Bombardier 550 at the Texas Motor Speedway. On Friday, Jon Speed, Kim Speed, Tim Crawford, Brandon Crawford, Jeff Pittman and Chad Welty took the gospel to the track and passed out tracts to the crowd coming to watch qualifying and the NASCAR truck series race. Many hundreds of tracts were distributed. Kim served in the children’s ministry for awhile before she came out to the gates to help us with tract distribution. Thanks again are due to One Million Tracts for the excellent Indy 500 trivia tracts they supplied to us to the tune of about 5,000 tracts!

On Saturday, we were blessed with a strong contingent from TLC Ministries at the track. TLC Staff were joined by Brandon Crawford, Tristen Crawford, Jayden Crawford, Jimmy Reesman, Jeff Pittman, Chad Welty, Jason Sides, Byron Porter, Dale Bennett, and Rob Willey as we passed out tracts and witnessed prior to the race. Jason had a lengthy conversation with a Roman Catholic man who was quite staunch and yet willing to talk in depth about the gospel. I was able to speak to several teenagers about the gospel, all of whom listened respectfully and heard the truth. This was a blessing to me since the day before had been spent mostly passing out tracts and I wanted to have some conversations. Tim had some very good conversations with fans as they waited for the race to start. All told, about 3,000 Indy Car trivia tracts were distributed, in addition to TXARM’s literature.

A highlight of the night for some of the team was getting the chance to get free tickets to the race and see the first part of the race. They left early and as they were leaving, the Grand Marshall of the race, basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, “happened” to be leaving at the same time. Tim Crawford was able to grab a What If? Tract and asked Shaq to read it and then check out our website. He was friendly and said that he would do both. Please pray that Shaq will read the tract and that the Lord might be gracious to him and give him life.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Our friend, Darrel Rundus, has created an interesting website for sharing the gospel called “Name Ten and Win.” The challenge? If you can name the Ten Commandments, in order, in 20 seconds or less, you could win $20,000! The offer is legitimate. Pass this on to an unsaved friend as a way for them to hear the gospel and get acquainted with the Law of God.

2. Here’s a great FREE audio resource from Monergism Books. It’s a three message series from Dr. Art Azurdia called God, The Gospel and Your Marriage. We encourage all married couples who read this blog to take the time to listen to these messages.

3. Here’s video of Carl Kalbleisch doing an open-air at Huntington Beach in California. This is the standard “money draw” approach to drawing a crowd. Carl is a good friend of our ministry’s and we are thankful that he had the opportunity to attend Ambassador’s Academy last month.

4. Here’s a two-part message by Paul Washer on the Song of Solomon. There have been several popular teachings on this book of the Bible which reduce the book to a sex manual rather than seeing the book for what it teaches about God. We encourage you to check out this message and consider it. Part 1. Part 2.

TLC Coming to New York State and Pennsylvania:

Our family (the Speeds) will be coming north to visit family and take some vacation time in the month of July. This means that I will be available for pulpit supply and to present the ministry of The Lost Cause Ministries at your church.

Our visit will bring us to western New York State (Buffalo\Rochester, NY area), the Catskill Mountain region (Sullivan and Delaware Counties), the Pocono Mountain region of PA (Wayne County), the Adirondacks of New York (in case you haven’t guessed, we miss the mountains) and points in between.

I will also be available to do one-day evangelism training for your church while we are in the area. We would love to be able to serve your church in evangelism training. This training includes Way of the Master based material, with some of our own material included. It also includes “hands on” opportunities to apply what you learn after the seminar. Please contact me if you’d like a free evangelism training seminar at your church in New York State or PA.

As it stands now, we have several speaking engagements lined up. We will let you know of our full schedule once it’s completed. For now, we’ll be speaking:

July 5th, 10:00AM Genesee Country Church 3268 Drake Street Oakfield, NY 14125.  Preaching the Sunday morning worship service\ministry update.

July 15th 7:00PM Grace Church 9284 State Route 97 Callicoon, NY 12723   Giving ministry update during the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. 

July 26th, 11:00AM: Delhi Community Church Rte. 10 Delhi, NY 13753 Preaching in the morning service and then doing an evangelism training seminar from 3-6PM.  

If we can serve you while we are in the region, please let me know. We’d love to have the opportunity to visit and let you know how TLC is helping to bring the “Bible” back to “the Bible belt”!

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases. Pray that this will be thrown out before it gets to court.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel at the Texas Motor Speedway.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. The new edition is being printed as this is being written. Pray for a quick printing and distribution to those who have been waiting for this edition.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for Jon, Tim, Chad and Jeff as they travel to Los Angeles next week for Way of the Master’s Ambassador’s Academy. They will be there June 10-14.

11. Pray for the Speeds as they prepare to travel north in July. Pray for more speaking engagements to open up and opportunities to share the gospel along the way.

12. Pray for Allison Crawford as Colson’s due date approaches. She has been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Her due date is July 13^th.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

–Joshua 1:9

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“We cannot seek God until we have found Him.”

–George Swinnock

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Thursday, June 4^th, 7-9PM: Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP). Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there. TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers. Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies. If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at ron@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

Here are the times that TLC will be doing literature distribution\witnessing at the gates:

Thursday, June 4^th: Arriving at the TXARM ministry tent @ 10:00AM. Finishing at 5:00PM. Carpool meets @ Jon Speed’s house at 9:30AM.

Friday, June 5^th: Arriving at TXARM ministry tent @ 1:30PM. Finishing at 8:00PM. Carpool meets @ Jon Speed’s house at 1:00PM.

Saturday, June 6^th: Arriving at TXARM ministry tent @ 3:00PM. Finishing at 8:30PM. Carpool meets @ Jon Speed’s house at 2:00PM.

Note: We are getting about 5,000 Indianapolis 500 Trivia Tracts from One Million Tracts for this race.

3. Wednesday June 10-Sunday June 14: Jon Speed, Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman and Chad Welty will be attending Living Waters’ Ambassador’s Academy in Los Angeles, CA. Please keep us in prayer as we attend this event, check out the training, and do some evangelism at Huntington Beach and Hollywood Boulevard.

4. Thursday, June 11^th: Details the same as #1 above.

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic! On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest). We will meet there at 4:00PM. If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th. You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com.

Evangelism Report:

KellerFest (Keller, TX):

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday TLC Ministries was blessed with 25 workers who came out to help staff our outreach booth at the KellerFest in Keller, TX. Thanks so much to: Seth Bigelow, Jeff Pittman, Chad Welty, Marc Jonas, Paul Mansmann, Robert & Kristi Edmunds, Ted Winton, Dennis Cain, Janet Okamura, Andy Waynick, Byron Porter, Kirk Challgren, Chris Diggs, Dan George, Brad Snow, Mary Anne Feucht, Dale Bennett, Rob Willey, Emilio & Trish Ramos, Scott & Rhonda Miller, Rex George and Jeff Clayton. Of these volunteers, three were pastors. At least eight different churches were represented, including FBC Briar (5), FBC Justin (2), Countryside Bible Church (5), Sovereign Joy Community Church (3), The Village (3), Calvary Chapel Flower Mound (1), New Life Baptist Fellowship (1) and Blue Ridge Bible Church (1). We thank God for these believers and these churches.

I am sure that everyone could testify to the work of the Lord in the booth this weekend. I want to comment on three divine appointments the Lord set up when I worked the booth. On Friday night, Paul and I had a chance to speak to a couple of teenage boys who started the conversation very light-heartedly. They were not taking it seriously, but as we talked their faces began to change. We spoke about the depth of the gospel: their violation of God’s Law, the magnificence of Christ both in His work in justifying sinners and His Lordship, man’s necessary response of repentance and faith and more. By the end of the conversation, they were humbled and acknowledged their need of salvation. We gave them two New Testaments and marked each one at 1 John with a Million Dollar Bill tract and encouraged them to prayerfully read that book, asking the Lord to reveal to them their true state.

Chris Diggs reports that the next day, these two teens came back to the booth and mentioned the conversation that we had the night before. They were clearly humbled and broken. Chris and Kirk shared some more with them and once again encouraged them to read 1 John. Please pray for these kids; I think the name of the one was Andrew, but I don’t remember the other kids’ name.

On Sunday I worked the closing shift, which was pretty slow, but there was a divine appointment. A lady in her fifties or so approached the booth and I ended up asking her, “What is the gospel?”. She said, “You know, I’ve been going to church for many years. I’ve been to independent Baptist, Southern Baptist, Catholic and now a non-denominational church and they’ve never explained to me what the gospel is. You tell me. What is it? Please tell me.” She was very sincere and very serious.

I have to tell you that Chris and I looked at each other in a bit of shock. How often is it that someone, especially here in the Bible belt, actually levels with you and admits that they don’t know the gospel and then practically begs to have it explained? I think in doing this kind of ministry for the last five years, this was the first time! What an amazing blessing it was to share the Scriptures with this dear woman! She was very appreciative. Please pray that she will do business with God; I suspect that she will. She has our contact information if she does and wants additional help.

One last story. On Friday night, a young girl, about 11 years old, was brought to the table by her parents (I assume). When I asked her if she had heard of the Ten Commandments, she quietly said, “No.” I asked her if she had heard of Jesus and she again said, “No.” How wonderful to be able to share the gospel with her from top to bottom. Before she left she got some tracts and a Bible.

My Two Cents

I feel compelled to comment on these last two stories. Saints, this is the Bible belt, supposedly. In one instance we have a woman who would love to hear the gospel in church sometime, but has never had it explained to her in years of church attendance. What are the churches doing if they are not explaining the gospel to their members? Playing softball? Being “relevant”? Planning buildings or barbeques or other things that will perish in the using? What in the name of all that is sane has happened to our Christianity? 2,000 years of Christianity and someone can attend churches for years and never hear or understand the gospel! Is this the best we can do after 2,000 years? Lord, help us! Is this the Christianity that the apostles and martyrs have bled and died for? Is this what Christ intended when He died on the cross and rose from the dead? Certainly not (Mt. 28:18-20)!

And here in the Bible belt, it seems like churches send short term teams across the globe so that church members can share the gospel with people who have different color skin, speak a different language, or live in an exotic place. And most of these short term missionaries spend more time pounding nails, painting fences, breaking rocks, and prayer walking than they do actually sharing the gospel. My point? A flight on an airplane does not make you a missionary! Do you want to share the gospel? Start in your neighborhood! Start on the streets and in the parks of your own country! Don’t be a hypocrite! Why hasn’t this eleven year old girl heard the gospel before now? Why hasn’t she learned the Ten Commandments? Why didn’t she ever hear the name of Christ? Where are all of these tens of thousands of Christians, supposedly indwelt by the Holy Spirit and WHAT ARE THEY DOING??? Everyone should have heard the gospel here by now!

If you’re reading this now and thinking, “Jon is going on a rant now” you might be right. If you’re thinking, “He’s feeling mighty self-righteous” you’d be dead wrong. I sin in many ways (if you want a list, email me and I’ll send you one) and miss many opportunities to share the gospel. What I am feeling is frustration. Frustration with churches in the Bible belt, some of whom have sound theology, who pay lip-service to evangelism and who DO NOTHING. Yes, they talk about being missional, they talk about being relevant, they talk about being relational and they talk about loving God and their neighbor but they DO nothing for the spread of the gospel.

So what do you call that when it’s all talk and little (or no) action? It’s just talk. We’ve become experts at talking about theology, evangelism, ministry philosophy and the rest. It’s time we just shut up and start DOING it. Lest we be hearers of the Word only, not doers and deceive…who? The lost? The Lord? No, we don’t fool them. We only fool ourselves.

Please seriously consider these two pieces of evidence of the lukewarmness of churches in the Bible belt. So many think that they are rich and have need of nothing. Look around. Massive media complexes packed to the rafters with the best high tech gadgetry that money can buy. But the gospel is not being preached! They don’t realize their love for the Lord and the lost is poor, miserable and naked. The Lord stands outside of the doors of these churches knocking, knocking, knocking. Meanwhile “Ichabod” is written across the door posts. “The glory has departed.” When the Lord is present, there is reality. There is obedience and there is passion for His glory among the nations. Not in lip-service, but in reality.

And now, contrast this with…

Texas Rangers Game (Arlington, TX):

On Saturday, FBC Briar took a group of about 30 young people and adults to see Casting Crowns and then watch a Texas Rangers baseball game in Arlington, TX. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, good conversation, worship and just plain old fun watching the Rangers trounce the A’s 14-1.

Now if we stopped right there, this event would have been no different from thousands of other church fellowship events across the Metroplex. By God’s Sovereign grace this is not what happened. We went with the purpose of sharing the gospel at the game. So most of these 30 church goers were all given gospel tracts. As we walked to our seats, we passed out tracts. When the game was over, we passed out more as we left the stadium. Several stayed outside of the stadium and passed out many, many tracts. We engaged a few people in one-to-ones as well.

This might not seem like much, and while it’s always preferable to speak to people at length about the gospel, we can never underestimate the power of a gospel tract. The Lord uses gospel tracts. I know of people who have been gloriously saved when they received tracts in places like Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, opening a case of beer and finding a tract that was thoughtfully slid into it by a Christian, and elsewhere. As we walked back to the car, we heard one father reading the tract out loud to his family as they walked!

Praise God for a church that combines good fellowship with good outreach. He was glorified in the entire evening.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Our friend, Darrel Rundus, has created an interesting website for sharing the gospel called “Name Ten and Win.” The challenge? If you can name the Ten Commandments, in order, in 20 seconds or less, you could win $20,000! The offer is legitimate. Pass this on to an unsaved friend as a way for them to hear the gospel and get acquainted with the Law of God.

2. Here’s an interesting video clip with Ray Comfort sharing the gospel with an interesting character on Hollywood Boulevard. She is quite difficult, self-righteous and Ray is fairly patient with her.

3. Here is a great video from our dear friend and brother Jeff Rose of Jeremiah Cry Ministries. Jeff is a missionary to Glasgow, Scotland whom we have preached with here in the States many times. Please watch this video and get acquainted with Jeff’s important ministry to post-modern, post-Christian Scotland.

4. Recently, I was asked to contribute an article every so often to “The Pastor’s Corner” in The Justin Texan, a local newspaper that is mailed out for free to every home and address in Justin, TX. I’ve posted the article over on my personal blog. They titled it, “Which Verse Says It All!”. It’s a summary of 2 Corinthians 5:21 and the gospel.

TLC Coming to New York State and Pennsylvania:

Our family (the Speeds) will be coming north to visit family and take some vacation time in the month of July. This means that I will be available for pulpit supply and to present the ministry of The Lost Cause Ministries at your church.

Our visit will bring us to western New York State (Buffalo\Rochester, NY area), the Catskill Mountain region (Sullivan and Delaware Counties), the Pocono Mountain region of PA (Wayne County), the Adirondacks of New York (in case you haven’t guessed, we miss the mountains) and points in between.

I will also be available to do one-day evangelism training for your church while we are in the area. We would love to be able to serve your church in evangelism training. This training includes Way of the Master based material, with some of our own material included. It also includes “hands on” opportunities to apply what you learn after the seminar. Please contact me if you’d like a free evangelism training seminar at your church in New York State or PA.

As it stands now, we have only one speaking engagement lined up. We will let you know of our full schedule once it’s completed. We’ll be speaking:

July 15th 7:00PM (Wednesday night prayer meeting): Grace Church 9284 State Route 97 Callicoon, NY 12723

If we can serve you while we are in the region, please let me know. We’d love to have the opportunity to visit and let you know how TLC is helping to bring the “Bible” back to “the Bible belt”!

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases. Pray that this will be thrown out before it gets to court.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel in Keller and in Arlington.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for Jon, Tim, Chad and Jeff as they travel to Los Angeles next week for Way of the Master’s Ambassador’s Academy. They will be there June 10-14.

11. Pray for Tim Crawford as he recovers from strep throat and sinus and ear infections.

12. Pray for the Speeds as they prepare to travel north in July. Pray for more speaking engagements to open up and opportunities to share the gospel along the way.

13. Pray for Allison Crawford. Her due date is July 13th; Tim and Allison are expecting a baby boy! Pray for a safe delivery and quick recovery.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides for ever.”

–1 John 2:16,17

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“Whoever delays his repentance does in effect pawn his soul with the devil.”

–Thomas Manton

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Thursday, May 28th, 7-9PM: Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP). Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there. TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers. Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies. If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at starbucksman@charter.net.

2. Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31: TLC Ministries has been approved for the KellerFest in Keller, TX. We have the following shifts available for volunteers:

Friday, May 29:

5-8PM: FULL.

8-11PM: FULL.

Saturday, May 30^th:

10AM-1PM: One slot open.

1-4PM: FULL.

4-7PM: FULL.

7-11PM: One slot open.

Sunday, May 31^st:

1-4PM: FULL.

4-7PM: Two slots open.

TLC will provide the booth, banner, tracts, souvenirs, Bibles, and other discipleship materials for FREE! All you need to do is sign up and show up. To sign up, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

4. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

5. Thursday, June 4^th: Details the same as #1 above.

6. Wednesday June 10-Sunday June 14: Jon Speed, Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman and Chad Welty will be attending Living Waters’ Ambassador’s Academy in Los Angeles, CA. Please keep us in prayer as we attend this event, check out the training, and do some evangelism at Huntington Beach and Hollywood Boulevard.

6. Thursday, June 11^th: Details the same as #1 above.

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic! On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest). We will meet there at 4:00PM. If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th. You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com.

Evangelism Report:

Southlake Town Square:

On Friday night, TLC Staff were joined by Jeff Pittman, Chris Diggs and two of Chris’ friends from The Village Church, Scott and Chris to do some evangelism at the Southlake Town Square. Chris and Scott have not done public evangelism in some time, and so they were a little nervous, but excited to be sharing the gospel. After a time of prayer, we split the newbies between myself and Tim Crawford and we split up and walked around the square engaging mostly teenagers in conversations about the gospel.

It was a very fruitful night. Every conversation seemed to be very easy and natural. We were able to speak to one group of teens about the gospel who seemed to be “led” by a pastor’s kid. When I asked him if he knew what the gospel was, he said that he didn’t when he was out with friends, but that he could probably tell me if he was in church, when he’d be “feeling it.” In other words, in a religious mood. He could not tell us the first thing about the gospel. So I asked him, “What does the Bible tell us about man?”, he rambled a little about how we’re all good people, and so we started where he started: the 10 commandments. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel and talk about important elements of it: justification by faith, the atonement, judgment and Hell, repentance, faith, and the Lordship of Christ.

All of our conversations were like this that evening. When we got back together at the end of the night, Chris and Scott compared notes and had similar evenings. They were very excited about what they saw. Neither of them did a lot of speaking, but they both prayed as they watched and learned. Folks, this is a good thing. If you don’t feel like you could talk to a stranger, please don’t let that stop you from coming out with us. Come anyway and pray! This is a huge help and much appreciated. As you see the gospel shared, you will be encouraged and think more about the gospel yourself. This is always a benefit spiritually.

Sermon on the Mount Saturday at the JFK Assassination Site in Dallas:

Saturday morning found several of us (myself, Ron Martinez, Sarah Franco and Chad Welty) at the JFK assassination site in downtown Dallas. We arrived around 10:15AM and, once we parked and prayed, set up at the top of the infamous grassy knoll. Ron Martinez began the preaching by reading through Matthew 5 and commenting as he read. Chad picked up with Matthew 6 and did the same. I finished with Matthew 7, which focuses much on false conversion. When I finished, Ron felt led to preach through Matthew 6-7 again.

While the others preached, we passed out tracts and spoke with a few of the tourists who come to this controversial site. Probably 50-100 tourists passed by throughout the day and we gave out roughly the same number of tracts. Reactions ranged from ignoring what we were doing to wagging the head and looking at us as if we were crazy. Some stopped and listened, some even sat down on the curb and listened.

It was nice to know that more than 150 other locations around the world had the same thing going on at roughly the same time! The Sermon on the Mount was preached in locations as diverse as South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Australia, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and even Oklahoma! You can read more about this great initiative here.

Evangelism Resources:

1. We highly encourage anyone who has a loved one who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness to pass this video (or audio) on to them. It is a powerful message of the gospel in the life of one who also is terminal. Rachel Barkey shared this message at a women’s event in Vancouver, B.C. back in March. The truth is, we are ALL diagnosed with a terminal illness and will all die, so this is a good message for anyone who needs to hear the gospel.

2. This is an interesting presentation of the gospel at a gay pride rally in Phoenix, AZ. The preacher did a very good job presenting the gospel in a loving manner, but in spite of that the homosexuals here did everything they could to drown it out. Why? Because darkness and light do not mix. Even when the gospel is presented in love, those who love their sin more than they love God will cling to their sin and plug their ears to the truth.

3. Here is a very good video called Prideful Men Will Go to Hell by the pastor of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, TX, Timothy Conway. It is worth the six minutes to watch this.

Bible Request

The response to our recent email “TLC Call for Bibles” has been overwhelming. Thus far, we’ve received about six cases of various kinds of Bibles! Thank you so much for your generosity. It’s a blessing to be able to give Bibles to those we speak with at length.

One request: we can also use Spanish Bibles. Byron Porter, of TLC East Side, is interested in beginning a ministry witnessing to Hispanics in East Dallas and needs Bibles in Spanish. If you can provide them, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel in Southlake and Dallas.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. Pray for the editing process as we re-edit it for wider distribution.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for Jon and Tim as they travel to Los Angeles next month for Way of the Master’s Ambassador’s Academy. They will be there June 10-14.

11. Pray for Allison Crawford. Her due date is July 13th; Tim and Allison are expecting a baby boy! Pray for a safe delivery and quick recovery.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

–Romans 6:6

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“To remember both her [the church’s] duty to, and her danger in, the world is difficult; and experience shows that the church is apt, either to take a narrow view of her mission, and to fail in aggressive courage and breadth of love and sympathy, or to be dazzled by a superficial success, and, conforming herself with this present world, increase her numbers with those who, being dead and unrenewed, are without the Spirit, and therefore without the love of Christ.”

–Adolph Saphir in his sermon, “The Church and the World”

Note: This quote may be difficult for 21^st century readers to follow, but a careful reading of it reveals the main problem with most of our churches today. We are “dazzled by a superficial success” because of our “numbers” and yet there is no aggressive, militant Christianity (bathed in love). How can this be? Mainly because our churches are filled with unrenewed, spiritually dead church members.

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Thursday, May 21st, 7-9PM: Ron Martinez has been faithfully sharing the gospel at the Pilot truck stop off of I-35W and 170 (near Cabella’s and…more importantly…IHOP). Basically, he’s doing some “truck-to-truck” witnessing there. TLC wants to support what Ron is doing out there with some helpers. Ron will head up the teams that go there, providing instruction for newbies. If you’re interested in joining Ron, please email him at starbucksman@charter.net.

2. Friday, May 22^nd, 7-10PM: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3. Saturday, May 23, 10:00AM: TLC Ministries will be participating in “Sermon on the Mount Saturday”. We will read Matthew 5-7 in the open-air at the JFK Assassination site in Dallas, TX (411 Elm Street). Then we will open-air preach on this text. For more information on this initiative, check out the Facebook group. We’d recommend that you listen to Keith Daniel’s rendering of this sermon as well. If you are planning on attending, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com. The carpool will be leaving FBC Justin promptly at 9:00AM.

3. Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31: TLC Ministries has been approved for the KellerFest in Keller, TX. We have the following shifts available for volunteers:

Friday, May 29:

5-8PM: One slot open.

8-11PM: Three slots open.

Saturday, May 30^th:

10AM-1PM: Three slots open.

1-4PM:  FULL.

4-7PM: Three slots open.

7-11PM: Two slots open.

Sunday, May 31^st:

1-4PM:  Two slots open.

4-7PM: Three slots open.

TLC will provide the booth, banner, tracts, souvenirs, Bibles, and other discipleship materials for FREE! All you need to do is sign up and show up. To sign up, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

4. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

5. Thursday, June 4^th: Details the same as #1 above.

6. Wednesday June 10-Sunday June 14: Jon Speed and Tim Crawford will be attending Living Waters’ Ambassador’s Academy in Los Angeles, CA. Please keep us in prayer as we attend this event, check out the training, and do some evangelism at Huntington Beach and Hollywood Boulevard.

7. Thursday, June 11^th: Details the same as #1 above.

TLC Picnic

Tom Sadowski has graciously offered the use of his home and yard for a TLC Ministries picnic! On Saturday June 27^th, Tom will host this informal gathering at his home at 716 Pace Drive in Denton (zip code is 76209 if you are using MapQuest). We will meet there at 4:00PM. If you are planning on joining us, you must RSVP by Friday June 14^th. You can RSVP to Tom Sadowski at tj_sadowski@yahoo.com.

Evangelism Report:

Justin Fun Days (Justin, TX):

Sometimes we are criticized because much of the evangelism we do is scattered across the DFW Metroplex and we don’t do enough here in our own home town of Justin. It can be argued that this is a misconception, mainly because of the work of Tim Crawford here. Almost everyone in Justin seems to know Tim and, at the very least, has received a gospel tract from him, if not heard the gospel from him. I’m humbled and blessed to be able to partner with Tim; our giftings and personalities are quite different, but the Lord uses them together to make up the whole of TLC Ministries.

On Saturday, we were blessed to have a booth at the Justin Fun Days, sponsored by the Justin Chamber of Commerce. The booth volunteers were Jeff Pittman, Byron Porter, Dennis Cain, Brad Snow, Wayne Owens, Paul Mannsman, Tom Sadowski, Andy Waynick, Jeff Rose, Steve Arnold and Jon Speed. In spite of the cold and the rain, each volunteer had at least one good opportunity to present the gospel and many tracts were given out. We were also able to give out a few Bibles as well.

Brad had the most interesting conversation of the day, with a professing Christian who seemed to be very influenced by post-modern thinking. This, in little old Justin! He was quite polite, but it was evident that his patience was straining when confronted with the truths of the gospel. So many people want us to say that we’re saying the same thing about the gospel when it’s clear we are not. It’s sort of the old “I’m okay, you’re okay” mentality. But we’re not all saying the same thing; when the Bible insists on repentance as well as faith and most Christians don’t mention it, it’s not the same gospel (for just one example).

I think we were all blessed with many conversations with children. I had a couple of very good conversations with young church-going children who did not know the gospel. Praise the Lord, the vendors next to us had children who were VERY familiar with the gospel. Their son is nine and their daughter is twelve. They attend a United Methodist church (!) and have a very solid understanding of the gospel. Dennis Cain spoke to the daughter for quite awhile and was taken aback by how solid her understanding was.

We also had the blessing of sharing the message of biblical evangelism with a local pastor in Justin. We were able to give him a Hell’s Best Kept Secret\True and False Conversion CD, which he was genuinely appreciative of. Please pray that he listens to these messages.

FBC Briar Church Picnic (Azle, TX):

On Sunday afternoon, the members of FBC Briar went to Central Park in Azle to have a church picnic. But what’s the point of having a church picnic while all of the other park goers need to hear the gospel? Pastor Randall Easter spear-headed a well organized combination outreach\church fellowship. The church purchased about 100 “Goodness Scale” tracts from Compelled to Tell, and printed up a bunch of invitations to come to an outdoor church service at the amphitheater at 7:00PM where the gospel would be preached. Groups were sent out to various points in the park (skate park, children’s playground, the basketball court and the horse shoe pit) where the church members shared the gospel with the lost! They also gave away free snow cones and did free face painting and witnessed to the kids and parents when they came for these freebies.

Once the church folks had some time to fellowship and set up, we prayed and went out. At events like this, I’m used to being the lead guy who the others watch to learn how to witness. While this church has not been formally trained in WoTM (as we might consider a church “formally” trained), this was NOT my experience this time around. They did not need me to show them what to do. They just took what they know and went out and did it. It didn’t look like any polished presentation; they simply shared the gospel that they’ve been faithfully taught by a pastor who loves them.

At the skate park I saw Chester share the gospel with a teenager right off of the bat. I saw both Paul and Dan approach a very unapproachable man sitting on a bench and attempt to give him a tract and share the gospel. I saw Jeff and Dave sharing with picnickers on their way back from the skate park; they did not limit their witnessing to their assigned area. I saw Tony and Terry playing horse shoes with a guy so that Jim could share the gospel with him while they played! Dan witnessed to a man watching his kids at the playground for more than 20 minutes. I saw Pam compassionately sharing the gospel with a young couple.

Saints, I don’t mind telling you that I thought I had died and gone to evangelist’s heaven! Everywhere I looked, I saw church members witnessing to people they didn’t know! And it wasn’t a big production; it was simple, godly folks sharing Christ with the lost. And it wasn’t some watered down presentation. Another local church was having some kind of birthday party there and our pastoral assistant, Jason Attaway, attempted to share the gospel with the senior pastor from that church! He didn’t want to talk very long. Attaway, Jason! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

At 7:00PM, (after devouring some delicious brisket—this is Texas!) we gathered at the amphitheater where we sang a few songs and the gospel was preached with amplification. Several great gospel hymns were sung and a couple of the teenagers sang a song which exalted God that they had written. And then I had the privilege of giving a gospel message in the open-air.

Some of the readers of this blog might share my wonderment: “How can this be? How can a church that hasn’t been trained by one of our biblical evangelism parachurch ministries be so bold in this area of evangelism?” Some readers of this blog might even start checking housing prices in Azle and Boyd! We’ve all been part of what Ray Comfort calls “Club Frustration”. Some of you would give up an appendage to be a part of a church like this.

How can this be? When a church is grounded in solid expository preaching, Reformed theology, has a consistent example of solid gospel preaching from the pulpit, has an example of an evangelistic pastor, is filled with the Spirit and loves the Lord, each other and the lost, they don’t need parachurch ministries any more than the early church needed them. All they need is some encouragement and opportunities. Why? Because they are simply being the church and outreach is second nature to a church that is being the church as it is described in the New Testament.

Oh, Lord, please be gracious to your Church here in the United States and raise up more of these churches around the country. Please pour out Your grace on us and give us what we do not deserve; evangelistic churches.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Please check out this article by David Reagan called “Should a Christian Be a Mason?”. We hope that you will agree with us after reading it that your answer should be a resounding, “No!”.

2. Check out this two-part video, Twenty Questions, by our own TLC East Side team leaders, Byron Porter and Jason Sides. They address questions pertinent to the gospel and evangelism. Check out both part one and part two. Nice first effort, guys!

3. Here’s a short video clip of Living Waters’ Mark Spence doing some open-air preaching in Huntington Beach, CA while Ultimate Fighter Tank Abbott walks by.

Bible Request

The response to our recent email “TLC Call for Bibles” has been overwhelming. Thus far, we’ve received about ten cases of various kinds of Bibles! Thank you so much for your generosity. It’s a blessing to be able to give Bibles to those we speak with at length.

One request: we can also use Spanish Bibles. Byron Porter, of TLC East Side, is interested in beginning a ministry witnessing to Hispanics in East Dallas and needs Bibles in Spanish. If you can provide them, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel in Justin and Azle.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. Pray for the editing process as we re-edit it for wider distribution.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for Jon and Tim as they travel to Los Angeles next month for Way of the Master’s Ambassador’s Academy. They will be there June 10-14.

11. Please pray for our health. Both Jon and Tim have some minor health issues this week.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

–Galatians 2:20

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“The Church who feels no compassion for perishing souls, who is not constrained by the love of Him who died for the guilty, who does not walk in the footsteps of the great Deacon who came to minister unto others, has already become worldly; the spirit of selfishness and unbelief has already entered into her heart, and is endangering her very life.”

–Adolph Saphir in his sermon, “The Church and the World”

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Saturday, May 16^th: TLC Ministries will be doing an evangelism booth at the community festival in Justin, TX from 9AM-5PM. The festival is located on 4^th Street in Justin. Time slots available are as follows:

9AM-Noon: FULL.

Noon-3PM: FULL.

3-5PM: FULL.

If you would like to volunteer for a shift, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Friday, May 22^nd: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3. Saturday, May 23^rd: TLC Ministries will be participating in “Sermon on the Mount Saturday”. We will read Matthew 5-7 in the open-air at a location yet to be determined. Then we will open-air preach on this text. For more information on this initiative, check out the Facebook group. We’d recommend that you listen to Keith Daniel’s rendering of this sermon as well. If you are planning on attending, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

4. Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31: TLC Ministries is applying for the KellerFest in Keller, TX. Details TBA.

5. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

Evangelism Report:

Southlake Town Square:

On Friday night, TLC Staff (Jon and Tim) were joined by Chad Welty, Samantha Speed, and Ron Martinez, at the Southlake Town Square in the work of sharing the gospel. It was a very laid back evening. We did not open-air preach, but passed out tracts and engaged mostly teenagers in one-to-one conversations about the gospel. Samantha, who is usually very shy when it comes to passing out tracts, was unusually aggressive (in a good sense). This was very encouraging to her dad, as well as the others. Even the adults took tracts from Samantha; the adults are a tough crowd to reach in Southlake.

I had a couple of good one-to-ones with some professing Christian teens, two of which attend a local Christian high school. They shared with me that there are many hypocrites in their school, which is not uncommon in any Christian school, but even moreso here in DFW. We talked soberly about what the Lord said in Matthew 7:13-23 and they were encouraged to be bold witnesses for Christ there in that mission field.

While Ron chatted with one teen who seemed fairly receptive, I spoke with his two friends about the gospel. At first, I intended only to run interference for Ron so that he could finish his conversation. However, our discussion seemed to progress easily and we ended up having a fantastic discussion about the gospel. This seemed to be the case with all of us who went out that night; the discussions were very natural and not forced or contrived. We thank God for the grace that He gave us for these conversations.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Here is an interesting resource passed on to us from Monergism.com:

Gospel-Driven: Good News People in a Bad News World by Michael Horton Free MP3s

The Spring Theology Conference of the Reformation Society of Oregon was honored to host Dr. Michael Horton on Saturday May 2nd, 2009 at Estacada Christian Church where he gave 3 lectures on the contents of his forthcoming book: Gospel-Driven: Good News People in a Bad News World. With his generous permission we make available for your edification this all new material.

2. I’m a firm believer in intensive daily reading of the Scriptures and stumbled across this resource this morning. I prefer reading about ten chapters a day, but I’m finding myself at a place where my reading of five OT and five NT chapters is getting very familiar and so I am planning on making a change. This reading plan from Professor Grant Horner of The Master’s College looks like the ticket. If like me you need a change of pace in your daily Bible reading, I’d recommend that you check out this reading plan. There’s even a Facebook group for this reading plan.

Thanks!!

The response to our recent email “TLC Call for Bibles” has been overwhelming. Thus far, we’ve received about six cases of various kinds of Bibles! Thank you so much for your generosity. It’s a blessing to be able to give Bibles to those we speak with at length.

One request: we can also use Spanish Bibles. Byron Porter, of TLC East Side, is interested in beginning a ministry witnessing to Hispanics in East Dallas and needs Bibles in Spanish. If you can provide them, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

2. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel at Southlake Town Square.

3. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

5. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

6. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details. Please keep this all in prayer as we finish planning this event. Mark your calendar now for Saturday, September 26^th.

7. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

8. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. Pray for the editing process as we re-edit it for wider distribution.

9. Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules.

10. Pray for Jon and Tim as they travel to Los Angeles next month for Way of the Master’s Ambassador’s Academy. They will be there June 10-14.

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6

Did you memorize last week’s verse?  For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here:  www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml       

Evangelism Quote:

 “Heresy is the leprosy of the head.” 

–John Trapp

Evangelism Opportunities:

1.  Friday, May 8^th:  TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.

2.  Saturday, May 16^th:  TLC Ministries will be doing an evangelism booth at the community festival in Justin, TX from 9AM-5PM.  The festival is located on 4^th Street in Justin.  Time slots available are as follows:

9AM-Noon:  Three slots open.

Noon-3PM:  Three slots open.

3-5PM:  Three slots open. 

5-8PM:  Three slots open. 

If you would like to volunteer for a shift, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com. 

3.  Friday, May 22^nd:  Details same as #1 above.

4.  Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31:  TLC Ministries is applying for the KellerFest in Keller, TX.  Details TBA. 

5.  Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6:  TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway.  There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS.  TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

Evangelism Report:

University of North Texas (Denton):

Last Tuesday was our last day at UNT for this semester.  While we are always grateful for the break, this is a sad day because we enjoy the students so much here.  It has become our favorite “fishing hole” in DFW.  TLC Staff was joined by Tom Sadowski and James Anderson as we preached and passed out the new “Evolution: Even Cavemen Don’t Believe It” tracts, which were passed out quickly amongst the students.  Stephen Starnes also joined us for awhile. 

Tom, Tim, and myself all preached.  While we didn’t have huge crowds, we did have some students stop to talk with us.  My best one-to-one of the day was with an atheistic student named Aaron, who I spoke with earlier in the semester.  Aaron is typical of the atheists at UNT; he is a former professing Christian who has become skeptical.  He had a new set of questions for me, one of which had to do with the rate of divorce in the evangelical churches, which is at least as high, maybe higher, than that of the world. 

Saints, this is yet another reminder why it’s so important for the church to function as the church.  When biblical church discipline is not practiced and sin is ignored, it gives the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme.  Here in the South, where there seems to be a church on every corner, many have had occasion to witness the hypocrisy in the church.  If I want to preach a message which will resonate with atheists, I can preach on hypocrites in the church and then they will consider me reasonable.  It’s when I preach on the same subject in the church that people get offended, leave, or get nasty.  The atheists understand false conversion.  Church members in the average Southern Baptist church do not. 

I also had another good conversation with a Christian student who interrupted my preaching to discuss its effectiveness.  Praise the Lord, we were able to have a reasonable conversation about open-air preaching and the fruit (mostly unobserved by the average passerby) of such ministry.  I believe this student is a soundly saved student, but who has just been fed a line of baloney from some in the “earn the right” camp of evangelism.  This is so prevalent in campus Christian student organizations, it has become a cliché.  This young man was quite reasonable and at the end of the conversation, we were able to leave as friends. 

There were many other excellent conversations.  A couple hundred tracts were distributed and the gospel was preached.  We trust that the Lord was glorified. 

Evangelism Resources:

1.  I recently had the privilege of preaching at Garner Baptist Church, near Weatherford.  The sermon I preached in the morning service seemed to be used of the Lord to deal with the souls of men.  The text was Ezekiel 1-3 and is called “The Glory of God”.  I offer it here with the prayer that it might be a blessing to you as well. 

2.  Free Audiobook Download of the Month
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe

Beginning with the story of Stephen from the book of Acts, considered the first Christian martyr, the drama builds to the passion of the early Church’s persecution under the Roman Empire. The hardy and radical faith of those first believers spawned medieval missionary movements that spread the gospel across Europe and into England, Scotland, and Ireland. As the story continues, it places a significant emphasis on the sufferings of the early Protestants during the Reformation.

Add the download format of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to your cart and enter the coupon code MAY2009 when prompted during checkout.

Our Price for May: $0.00
Download List Price: $16.98
Coupon Code: MAY2009

Recent Schedule Change:

This past weekend we had to cancel our involvement with the Denton Cinco de Mayo because the festival organizers canceled the event, due to the recent swine flu scare here in Texas.  We had planned to switch our venue to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth, but the weather turned bad throughout the day on Saturday and there were very few people in that area. 

Thanks!!

The response to our recent email “TLC Call for Bibles” has been overwhelming.  Thus far, we’ve received about six cases of various kinds of Bibles!  Thank you so much for your generosity.  It’s a blessing to be able to give Bibles to those we speak with at length. 

One request: we can also use Spanish Bibles.  Byron Porter, of TLC East Side, is interested in beginning a ministry witnessing to Hispanics in East Dallas and needs Bibles in Spanish.  If you can provide them, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com. 

Prayer Update:

1.  Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009.  Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases. 

2.  Pray for the upcoming outreaches. 

3.  Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel at UNT.   

4.  Pray especially for those named in the report above.

5.  Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

6.  Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches.  We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately. 

7.  Pray for those we have recently witnessed to and those who have received tracts and heard the preaching of the Gospel. 

8.  Pray that the open-air preachers we are training will continue to mature in doctrine, love and passion for the lost and the glory of God. 

9.  Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

10.  Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event.  We have confirmed four speakers and are finalizing the location details.  Please keep this all in prayer as we

11.  Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12). 

12.  Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.”  Pray that the the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches.  Pray for the editing process as we re-edit it for wider distribution. 

13.  Pray for effective planning of our summer and fall schedules. 

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle to all men, able to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

2 Timothy 2:24-26

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“…it is often seen, when the violation of God’s authority and the stain of our own reputation are coupled together, we are more troubled for what disgraces us than what dishonors God.” –Stephen Charnock

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Saturday, May 2^nd: TLC Ministries has been approved for a festival booth at the Denton Cinco de Mayo Festival in Denton, TX. Time slots available are as follows:

10-Noon:   FULL. 

Noon-3PM: Two slots open.

3-6PM: Two slots open.

2. Friday, May 8^th: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.

3. Saturday, May 16^th: TLC Ministries will be doing an evangelism booth at the community festival in Justin, TX from 9AM-5PM. The festival is located on 4^th Street in Justin. Time slots available are as follows:

9AM-Noon: Three slots open.

Noon-3PM: Three slots open.

3-5PM: Three slots open.

If you would like to volunteer for a shift, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

4. Friday, May 22^nd: Details same as #2 above.

5. Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31: TLC Ministries is applying for the KellerFest in Keller, TX. Details TBA.

6. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

Evangelism Report:

University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK):

Early Tuesday morning, we (me and Tom Sadowski) drove up to Norman to begin a two day outreach at OU. We met Kevin Dean, a brother who lives in Norman, at a McDonalds near the university for breakfast and fellowship. Kevin knows Tom through a mutual friend and graciously provided housing for us Tuesday night. He also came out to the campus with us to observe open-air preaching.

We got started around 11:00AM on Tuesday and preached and passed out tracts while the classes changed. OU has a very open free speech policy; no permit is required and we are allowed to stand in the walkways and pass out tracts, which other universities do not allow. The only problem with such a liberal free speech policy is that many other campus preachers visit OU, many of whom are simply awful in their presentations. Instead of preaching the gospel, they use gimmicks such as sandwich boards, banners, and blatant offense (such as name calling) to draw a crowd. Theology directs methodology; many of these preachers are heretical, being proponents of semi-Pelagianism, openness of God theology, and with heretical views of justification by faith. As a result, almost any open-air preacher is immediately suspect by both unbelievers and true Christians alike.

We decided to set up in an area where the usual suspects do not, so as to distance ourselves from their tactics. This seemed to help; many students took note that we were not using their methods and they seemed genuinely appreciative. While they disagreed, sometimes strongly, with the message that we preached, they appreciated the fact that we dealt with them respectfully rather than rudely. As our Scripture memory verse reminds us this week, we are commanded to not “brawl” with those who oppose us, but teach them with gentleness and respect. Believe it or not, some Christian students were so appreciative, that they took us to dinner at the end of the day. This positive reaction reflects the sad state of the majority of campus preaching at OU.

We took turns preaching throughout the day, exalting the holiness of God, the demands of the Law, the reality of Hell, the Lordship of Christ, but also the majesty of the gospel of grace. We preached justification by faith, the love of God as displayed at the Cross, His triumphant resurrection. While this is not contentious enough to draw a huge crowd, students stopped throughout the day to talk. We had excellent conversations with many atheists, including one who hails from Southlake.

Saints, we have no gimmicks. We preach the Word of God and the gospel. God is the One who saves. We simply preach and watch to see who God stops to speak with us. We believe this approach both adorns the gospel and demonstrates faith in God and His Word to do the work of salvation. This approach was noticed by the Christian students and we received much encouragement from them.

On Wednesday, we were joined by Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman, Jason Sides, and a recent graduate of UNT, Daniel Payne. Class changes were more frequent and heavier on Wednesday, with literally thousands of students clogging the walkways between classes. Many hundreds of tracts were distributed and we had many conversations. Additionally, Kevin Dean did his first open-air message, sharing a text that the Lord has laid on his heart in recent days. The Lord gave him grace to preach open-air twice on Wednesday!

The Lord provided an amazing door of opportunity for us to share the gospel in a classroom! The day before I handed a young man a tract and he stopped and said, “This is persuasive writing!” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but he explained that he teaches persuasive writing and asked if I would be willing to come to his classes, explain about our ministry and then do Q&A. It turns out that he had three classes on Wednesday and I was able to go into each class and take 30 minutes to give my testimony and then field questions. Praise the Lord, almost every question was about some element of the gospel! Each class had 15-20 students. The questions ranged from “What is the gospel?” to “Why is Jesus coming back?” and “Is Gandhi in Hell?”. The Christians in the class were greatly encouraged and made sure to speak to us out on the quad when the class let out.

Of course, a couple of professing Christians questioned the effectiveness of what we do. One quoted (out of context) Matthew 7:1, which gave me the opportunity to open the Bible in class and read verses 1-5 and explain the context. The point is NOT that we’re not supposed to judge; it’s that we’re not supposed to judge hypocritically. Once we have removed the beam from our eye, we are free to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. We’re not supposed to walk away and let them walk around with the speck in their eye. She began to accuse us all of having logs in our eyes because she is a Christian and knows she has a log in her eye (which is why she does not share the gospel), so we must as well. To which, I just smiled and gently responded, “Are you judging me?” After the laughter in the room settled down, Tim encouraged her to take the log out of her eye and come join us.

We can say with full assurance that Christ was glorified at OU. This experience excited the TLC team about campus ministry and we’re considering going back to OU next semester, as well as to other campuses. There is a great need for balanced preaching of the true gospel on campuses; the students have had enough of unreasonable, hate-filled preaching. As Tom said, “Preaching only the wrath of God is just as heretical as preaching only the love of God.”

Denton Arts & Jazz Festival (Denton, TX):

This past Friday-Sunday, TLC Ministries was blessed to have a booth at this festival. As we have noted in past updates, the Christian Law Association had to assist us in getting into this festival. Consequentially, we expected the organizers to be watching us very closely, so we instructed all of the volunteers (28 of them!) to stay in the booth while witnessing. Praise the Lord, we did not hear from the organizers all weekend!

In the meantime, the Lord kept drawing people to the booth to talk! On Friday night we had a Mormon, a Jehovah’s Witness family, an angry lesbian, the usual false converts, Catholics, and many others. The father from the JW family stayed for almost an hour, which is the longest I’ve ever seen a JW stick around while witnessing. Please pray for him and his family; he seemed to be speechless when it came to the fact that Thomas called Christ, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20), especially when compared to the Book of Revelation when John inadvertently worshipped angels (they think Jesus is Michael the archangel) and they quickly corrected him. Jesus did not correct Thomas, but received his worship! This is strong evidence of the deity of Christ.

We gave out many Bibles to youth who did not have their own copy. As a result, we sent out an email over the weekend calling for Bibles and the Lord is supplying this important need. We still need Spanish language Bibles. If you would like to donate some Bibles, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com and we will distribute them.

I was blessed by Andy Waynick on Saturday; Andy is a scientist who is also a strong believer and a creationist. Some cocky UNT students came to the booth and Andy did a wonderful job using the Scriptures and science to verify the existence of God. We hope that Andy will be able to come out to future outreaches (especially at UNT next semester).

All of the volunteers report excellent conversations about the Gospel and an opposition-free environment! Praise the Lord. Thank you for praying!

Evangelism Resources:

1. One Million Tracts is pleased to announce a new tract for evolutionists called “Evolution: Even Cavemen Don’t Believe It”. This is a very creative tract with a direct Gospel message for evolutionists who believe that cavemen are proof of Darwinian evolution. Cost? Only $2.50 per pack of 100 plus shipping! We recently passed several hundred of these out at UNT and highly recommend them for campus ministry.

2. Way of the Master is offering two lessons from their excellent School of Biblical Evangelism textbook for FREE download. This is a promotional for the book, which they have reduced from $25 to $12 per copy. You can get the free lessons here: Judgment Day and The Enemy, Part 2.

3. Here is a very good video clip from Francis Schaeffer’s “How Should We Then Live?” which illustrates the roots of the Emergent Church and the issue of “relevance”. We must return to the Bible as our sole standard of faith and practice.

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

2. Pray for the upcoming outreaches.

3. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel at OU and at the festival.

4. Pray especially for those named in the report above.

5. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

7. Pray for those we have recently witnessed to and those who have received tracts and heard the preaching of the Gospel.

8. Pray that the open-air preachers we are training will continue to mature in doctrine, love and passion for the lost and the glory of God.

9. Pray for the establishment of the summer schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

10. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event. Three speakers have confirmed and we are seeking to fill one more slot.

11. Pray for TLC as we assist Transplant Ministries and Living Waters with logistics for The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta (Sept. 11-12).

12. Pray for continued blessing on the booklet, “Evangelism in the New Testament.” Pray that the the Lord would use it for His glory and the mobilization of local churches. Pray for the editing process as we re-edit it for wider distribution.