Monday, November 03, 2008

A Borrowed Idea!

I was listening to Johnny Hunt preach on my way to SC to preach a revival meeting at Siloam Baptist Church with Jason Webb. He was preaching on evangelism. In the message he shared an interesting statistic: 97% of all professions of faith in SBC churches are a result of relational evangelism with an intentional invitation to attend church, 97%. I was blown away by that information.

What does that mean? It means that 97 out of 100 people who accept Christ as personal Lord and Savior do so after being asked to attend church by someone they know. That means that of the 10,000 or so SBC churches who recorded NO baptisms this year or any other year didn't really have any members inviting friends (I know this is a little bit of a stretch, but maybe not).

Bro. Johnny went on to talk about FRAN evangelism. FRAN evangelism is relationally inviting Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors to church. It is getting to know those around you, finding out about their spiritual condition, and inviting them to church. At HGBC, I have declared January to be FRAN evangelism month. I issued a challenge yesterday at church during my message from Acts 2:41-47 that each member begin praying for 3 people they know who are lost, with a intentional plan of inviting them to church where I will preach the gospel. I told them I am praying that in the month of January that we will see 25 souls saved, baptized and joining our church. I believe that is a "lofty" goal for us (we baptized 25 this last church year; up from 18 the previous two years).

I want to encourage you to begin a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship with FRAN evangelism and see what God will do.

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