Evangelism Update December 11, 2009
Evangelism Memory Verse:
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him.”
–Colossians 1:16
Evangelism Quote:
“It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling and a full estate [wealth] without sinning.”
–Thomas Watson
Regular, Weekly Outreaches:
1. Truck Stop on I-35 W, north of Fort Worth: Thursdays, from 7-9PM. Truck to truck witnessing. Contact: Ron Martinez (ron@lostcauseministries.com).
2. Day Laborer Camp (Mckinney): Saturdays from 7-8AM. Witnessing to the Hispanic community. Spanish tracts and one-to-ones. Contact: Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com).
3. Skate Park (Allen): Saturdays from 10-11PM. One-to-ones with skaters. Contact: Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com).
Special Outreaches:
1. TONIGHT, in downtown Fort Worth, 7-10PM: We will meet on the corner of Main Street and 3rd Street at 7PM and do open-air preaching and one-to-one in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. If you’d like to join us, and would like to carpool (leaves Justin at 6:15PM) then please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.
2. Sunday, December 20th, 3:00-5:00PM: FBC Briar will be doing a Christmas caroling outreach at the Walmart in Azle. 500 Christmas gifts will be given to customers while the members sing. We have permission from the management to be there and they are supplying us with electricity for an amplifier and a keyboard. The gifts will contain a booklet from John Piper, a gospel tract, candy, and an audio CD of Pastor Randall preaching the gospel. In between songs, Pastor Randall Easter and Jon Speed will give short open-air sermons springboarding from the songs.
Pastor Randall has asked me to invite you all to come out and join in this outreach. As you know, a crowd always draws a crowd. Perhaps this outreach will provide the spark for you to do something similar with your own church next year.
If you are coming, please let me know at jon@lostcauseministries.com.
3. Thursday, December 31st, 9:00PM–?? TLC Ministries will take the Gospel to the Big D NYE event in
4. Cotton Bowl Classic Outreach: Saturday, January 2nd, 2010, 10AM-1PM. The Cotton Bowl comes to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. Ole Miss vs. OSU. The carpool will leave FBC Justin at 9:15AM. Once we are parked, we will set up an open-air preaching station across from the Walmart. We will pass out tracts, open-air preach and do one-to-ones. If you want to carpool, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.
Evangelism Report:
Dallas Christmas Parade (Downtown Dallas):
Last Saturday, TLC Ministries teamed up with Carl Kalbfleisch of Bezeugen Ministries and we took the gospel to the annual Christmas Parade in Dallas. All told, we had about 20 believers there passing out tracts and doing one-to-ones and several open-air preached as well.
From TLC we were blessed with a strong turnout: TLC Staff were joined by Byron Porter, Ron Martinez, Reuben Martinez, Jeff Wortham, Jeff Pittman, Chad Welty, Tyler & Priscilla McNabb, and Tom Sadowski. This doesn’t include Carl’s team which included Jerad Shipman, Steve Dossin and his wife, Debra Fuhrman, Roy Cadow, and several others whose names I cannot remember. Darrel Rundus set up a prayer stop at the City Hall venue with Chris Owen and Trey Rundus.
The team with TLC and Bezeugen passed out more than 11,000 tracts in just a few hours. We set up on corners near the parade route and gave out Christmas tracts to parade goers as they came. Others went out to the parade route and walked it as people waited for it to start. We gave out Reagan Million Dollar Bills and Christmas tracts to the thousands of people who were waiting. The organizers estimate that 350,000 people come to this parade every year. After the parade concluded, we stood on various corners and continued passing out tracts as people left. Tyler McNabb open-air preached to the crowds at the stop light. When it was all over, we met at the Subway restaurant near the library for fellowship and a meal.
Please pray that those who received the gospel will respond to it.
Atheist Ministry:
Over the last couple of weeks, the Lord has been blessing us with opportunities to meet with fairly serious atheists about the gospel.
Last week, Jon and Tom Sadowski met at UNT with an atheist named Schilling who is a prominent atheist. Schilling is extremely logical, which is ironic since in order for there to be logic, there must be absolute truth. We talked for about an hour and a half about the gospel and some apologetics. Schilling is considering working to sponsor us to come and set up a public debate on the existence of God. Ironically, if this works out, he will be the second atheist to offer to sponsor our ministry at UNT now that the school has changed its free speech policy.
This week, Jon and Kim met with Elizabeth, who was one of the organizers of the LGBT “Kiss In” at the Fort Worth Stockyards back in October. She is also a post-grad student at UNT. Elizabeth had a need for food and several of us got together and pitched in to get some food for her. About $400 was raised and it bought A LOT of food. We talked for about 2 1\2 hours over dinner at a mall food court, and then went out to the car. Elizabeth was overwhelmed at the generosity of Christians towards an LGBT activist. She says that the words “thank you” don’t seem like they are enough. We had a wonderful visit with her.
Please pray for Elizabeth’s salvation. Her Christian background is from a large seeker sensitive church and she is dealing with a lot of hurt over the way she was treated there, where people are numbers that feed the church growth machine and the church is a program. Elizabeth’s story ought to serve as a warning to pastors who rationalize massive church growth because they help so many people. When the church loses its character as a family, the body of Christ, and a temple, and becomes a corporation, it can only hurt people and not help them.
Evangelism Resources:
1. Wretched Radio is doing an important conference right here in Keller, TX May 14-15! The Psalm 119 Conference will feature Phil Johnson, Todd Friel, Dr. Peter Hammond, Justin Peters, Paul Taylor (Answers in Genesis), and Emilio and Trish Ramos. The early bird registration is $69.00 and the student price is $49.00. There is a 10% discount for Wretched Club members.
TLC Ministries has been asked to help coordinate an evangelistic outreach immediately after the event on Saturday (similar to The Five Hundred event after Deeper). Please keep this in prayer as we make plans to mobilize hundreds of believers to take the gospel across the Dallas\Fort Worth area.
2. Here is a great video report from our friends at Jeremiah Cry Ministries from their recent trip to Dublin, Ireland.
3. Here is something that should make you squirm. There is a doctor here in the Dallas area who is a former ordained Baptist minister who now performs late term abortions and justifies it because he “prays that their souls will return to God.” He claims that he knows he is killing viable human life, but thinks it is okay because of his good wishes for the souls of the babies. Watch the TV news report here.
4. Here’s an inspiring, sobering video on counting the cost. Easy believism is heresy.
Road Trip:
It’s officially time to start registering for this year’s Super Bowl Outreach in sunny Miami, FL! This year, the NFL is combining the big game with the Pro Bowl. Both will be held the same week in the same venue, making the Super Bowl an even bigger event for Biblical evangelism! So, at this year’s outreach you have an option. You can come for just the Super Bowl during the last half of the week (Feb. 4-7) or you can come for the whole week and hit both games (Jan. 29-Feb. 7). The “short camp” will be $199. The “long camp” will be $399. Accommodations will be at the Gold Coast Christian Camp. To pre-register, a 25% down payment is required to hold your spot.
The TLC team is planning on going for just the Super Bowl outreach itself. To sign up for the carpool, email jon@lostcauseministries.com.
Prayer Requests:
TLC’s financial support has been cut 50% since July. Essentially, this means that we need to raise $40,000 to cover the loss to two salaries. This amount will bring us back to the post-July cuts. Please prayerfully consider whether you might be able to support this ministry.
