Evangelism Update September 1, 2009

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“With my whole heart have I sought you: O let me not wander from your commandments.
Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

–Psalm 119:10,11

Evangelism Quote:

“Madam, there is coming a day of judgment and on that day it will not matter who you are!”

–Robert Murray M’Cheyne, responding to a woman who was offended when he gave her a tract.  She said, “You must not know who I am!”

Editor’s note: Why is this such a common reaction to receiving a tract by professing Christians?  If they are truly Christians, why aren’t they happy that someone would try to witness to them?

Evangelism Opportunities:

1.  Thursday, September 3rd 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, September 4th, 10AM-2PM: TLC will be doing evangelism at University of North Texas at Free Speech Area C, adjacent to the University Union building (student union).  If you are planning on coming to this outreach, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3.  Saturday, September 5th, 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.

4.  Saturday, September 5, 2-6:30PM: BYU vs. OU college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. We will leave FBC Justin at 2PM and arrive in Arlington at 3PM. We’ll stay until a little after kick off at 6:30PM. Open-air preaching, tracts and one-to-ones. We’ll join Bezeugen Tract Ministry; they have made 10,000 specialty tracts for this event in OU colors. If you want to carpool, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

5. Saturday, September 5th, 10-11PM: TLC East Side is doing outreach at the Skate Park in Allen, TX. To get involved, please contact Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com) or Jason Sides (jason@lostcauseministries.com).

Evangelism Report:

Mean Green Fling (UNT):

On Wednesday TLC set up a booth on the campus of UNT for their annual “Mean Green Fling.”  Volunteers included Jon Speed, Kim Speed,  Tom Sadowski, and Jeff Wortham.  Next year we will plan on getting much more help for the booth.  Thousands of students milled past the booth, many of them coming in and asking what we were doing.  Kim does not do a lot of one-to-ones amongst strangers, but she said that she didn’t even have time to be afraid.

In addition to about 1,000 tracts, we gave out a full case of Mark Cahill’s “One Heartbeat Away” and another full case of Bibles, plus all of the Gospels of John we had and several more New Testaments.

I was able to speak with a Taiwanese student who had never heard the gospel before.  I also spoke with a Syrian student who is Muslim for about 30 minutes about the differences between Islam and Christianity.

University of North Texas (Denton, TX):

On Thursday, TLC was on the campus of UNT to welcome the  students back to their first day of class.  TLC Staff (Tim and Jon) were joined by Tom Sadowski, Byron Porter, John Billman and his son Noah.  It was an excellent day.  We’ll let Tom and John tell the story in their words.

This report comes from John Billman, who open-air preached on the campus for the first time:

Last Thursday I met with Jon and Tim at UNT to pass out some tracts, and do some one- on-one witnessing. What I didn’t expect was to do any open-air preaching and guess what?  That’s exactly what happened!  The Spirit of God was definitely moving in me to preach the word of God and so I obeyed. I have been wanting to open-air preach for a long time and this was an eye-opening experience for me as many college students heard and received the truth that day. Our message for the day was: trust and believe in Jesus, repent and turn from your sins!

I would encourage anyone reading this to go out with Jon and Tim and give evangelism a try. Both men are very bold in their faith, and can teach you the ways of biblical evangelism, the way Jesus did it!  Trust me, you won’t regret it if you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Life with Christ is everything that He promised and commands.

My son Noah who is over 3 years old had a lot of fun as he handed out about 20 tracts and ate our food supplies. He also had fun mimicking me as he watched me preach to college students. What a blessing to train up my child in the way he should go.

And this report comes from Tom Sadowski:

Please pray for Nick, a 22 year-old junior at UNT, from Lewisville. He sat pretty riveted while I was preaching–haltingly, and with less than a sense of God’s full blessing, at least at first.  Toward the end of our time today he greeted me with these most welcome words as I sat down beside him afterwards: “How do I get saved?” We talked for probably 45 minutes or so, looking at numerous scriptures together and discussing them.

I could have easily led him in a “sinner’s prayer,” but of course, did no such thing, as there is absolutely no biblical warrant for such. We did, however, have what I believe was an excellent conversation together, and I am full of hope that God has him in that glorious birth canal of regeneration–about to be (if not already) ”born again.” He gave me his phone #, and I have invited him to our church this Sunday, and am pretty sure he’ll be coming. Pray that he does, but even more, that he truly, unreservedly, decisively comes to Christ.

Truck Stop (I-35W, North of Ft. Worth):

This report comes from Ron Martinez:

Jeff Wortham went out with me to the Pilot truck stop Thursday night. It started out with him coming to my house a little late but still in fine time. As I opened the garage door drops of rain started coming down. By the time we hit 170 it was flood type rain. My mind was at ease because I knew Jeff needed to talk. We arrived at the truck stop only to sit and wait for the downpour to stop. About 40 minutes later it did. Jeff, I loved our chat. I told Jeff who has the ability to witness to anyone. I gave him the “big skinny” of what to watch out for and how to approach the trucks. Just little tid bits to be more fortunate out there.

I told Jeff I would be stopping at the truck I pointed to because I noticed the trucker looking at us. I told Jeff the plan and he went on. The first guy I talked to lasted 40 minutes. By the time I caught up with Jeff, he was talking with a trucker. The trucker was inside his cab, Jeff looking in. Instead of going over there I took off to other trucks. I found a guy who probably, maybe, possibly wanted to shrink and die once he started to listen to me.

He was established with his family in a Presbyterian church in SC somewhere. I asked him after I chit chatted if he knew the Gospel. He didn’t. I told him that I didn’t know his heart and to allow me to explain it to him. He said ok. As soon as I asked him about the dreaded 7th commandment his whole complexion changed. He started out as someone sure about himself then turned to slumped shoulders and looking down a bit. The 7th hit him hard, especially telling him that not only is the act of the 7th wrong but the looking and the pattern of induldging in those things of pictures. Not sure though that my judgment is right but it can’t be far off.

Again after getting to know the man better than most would and talking to him in far more candid language than most, I begin unpacking the love of the Saviour Jesus Christ. Under His pain and suffering we can approach the throne of God if we repent turn to Him forsake all that we know and do now to follow Him. Leave no drop of sin behind to meddle in your relationship with Him because Christ left no drop of His precious blood for you.

I left the man after about 30 minutes of conversation to meet up with Jeff. Jeff was still talking with the same man. I think Jeff should have watched the travel channel before leaving his house because he was being led down rabbit trails. Rabbit trails lead to one place only, exhaustion. Poor Jeff, he talked to a hard one.

Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers (Arlington, TX):

On Saturday I met John Billman and we traveled over to the 1.5 billion dollar evangelism magnet called the Cowboys Stadium.  With Ron Martinez’s help on a cell phone I was able to find some cheap parking ($20).  The Word of Faith church down the street was charging $40 and wouldn’t take $25 when I told them what we were doing.  So much for their chance to “sow into” my ministry.   If I didn’t have any integrity I could have pulled the Kenneth Copeland theology on them and told them that God would bless them a hundred fold if they gave me free parking. But a hundred times nothing would be nothing so they probably wouldn’t be interested.

Once we got set up across from Walmart (thanks again Ron, for the tip) we got busy preaching and passing out tracts.  I had the amplifier with us and discovered it seems to still have that magical effect bouncing off of the glass stadium that we referred to in June during the American Idol competition.  I could hear my voice bouncing back.  But with the crowds coming from the parking lot, we focused our attention on them.

John open-air preached for a second time out here and did a good job.  It’s a different animal because you have to do a lot of repetition as the crowds pass by on their way to the game.   John handled it well.  He had one heckler come up and pretend to offer his hand in a friendly handshake. The Lord gave John wisdom and he did not shake hands with him since it’s sometimes a ruse to either crush your hand or to pull you off of the box.  The guy pretended to be offended and then walked down to the corner and yelled an obscenity several times.  At this point he was exposed since he spoke out of the abundance of his heart.  When someone’s mouth is filled with filth you can be sure that his heart is too.

I think about 500 tracts were given out and the gospel was preached for about three hours.  A police officer came over to thank us for coming out but then proceeded to tell John how he should do things differently.  This is very discouraging for a new open-air preacher but John handled it well.  I offered the officer a copy of my book on evangelism and he seemed to be genuinely appreciative.  Pray that he reads it and becomes convinced of the validity of open-air preaching.

BTW, the police officers in Arlington are excellent.  As we have discovered already, they are well schooled in free speech rights and did not say a word to us to discourage us from preaching.  When we left, the officer who worked our corner said, “Have a great day!”.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know John a bit better, hearing his testimony and seeing his progress as a new open-air preacher.  This is the Lord’s work in John and we’re privileged to work with him this short time.  He is about to get a job transfer to the Portland, OR area, so we hope to connect him to some friends out there.

Evangelism Resources:

1.  Here is a very good tract from our friends at One Million Tracts.  Take advantage of the Facebook craze and give these tracts to friends or strangers (most friends on Facebook are strangers anyway).  Here’s your chance to be relevant!   Another way to use the Facebook fad to share the Gospel.  And at only $3.00 per pack of 100!

2.  Here’s a new promo video for the Texas Revival Series.   Thanks to Byron Porter for his work putting this well crafted video together.   Remember, mark your calendars now and make plans to attend this powerful event!  Please use it to promote Biblical evangelism throughout Dallas\Fort Worth.

3.  Our friends at Compelled to Tell are having a Million Dollar Bill tract sale through Labor Day.   Packs of 100 tracts are on sale for $3.50.

4.  Here is an interesting video of Ray Comfort sharing the gospel with a college student at Cerritos College in California.  It’s worth watching.

Evangelism Training:

1. 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.

If you are interested in attending the conference and carpooling from DFW, (leaving Sept. 10 and arriving home late on the 13th) contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3. The Lost Cause Ministries and FBC Justin are pleased to announce this year’s Texas Revival Series! On Saturday, September 26^th, from 1PM—8PM (with a break for dinner) we will enjoy solid preaching of the Word of God as it relates to evangelism. Our speakers this year include Pastor Randall Easter of FBC Briar, Mack Tomlinson of Providence Chapel, Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries and Keith Daniel of the African Evangelistic Band. Keith will also be preaching at FBC Justin on Sunday September 27^th in both the morning and evening services.

Please mark your calendars now. You can register for this conference for FREE at http://www.texasrevivalseries.com.

4. Speaking of registration time, 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.

Prayer Requests:

1.  Pray for Nick, the UNT student who is concerned for his salvation.

2.  Pray for a man who came to church on Sunday at FBC Briar who heard us preaching in Fort Worth at the Main Street Arts Festival back in April.   Pray that he will keep coming to church and that he will get right with the Lord, if he hasn’t already.

3.  Pray for the Texas Revival Series.  Pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of those who come as well as the hearts of the speakers.

4.  Pray for the upcoming outreaches this week.

5.  Pray for Jon and Tim tomorrow (Tuesday).  They have been subpoenaed to testify at a trial regarding the Million Dollar Bill tracts the Secret Service confiscated from The Great News Network in 2006.  The issue is whether or not they conducted an illegal search and seizure. Tim will especially be scrutinized since the case hinges strongly on his testimony.  Check out the video from the original news report.