October 2, 2000

Evangelism event planned for Corpus
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___CORPUS CHRISTI--A five-day evangelistic emphasis, "Celebrate Corpus Christi," is planned for the weekend prior to and the days during the annual session of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Most of the activities will occur on Saturday, Oct. 28.
___The emphasis is planned by Corpus Christi Baptist Association with financial support from the BGCT's evangelism division. It comes on the heels of last year's successful evangelistic effort in El Paso, "Abrazando El Paso."
___The BGCT annual session will be held Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 30-31, at the Corpus Christi Convention Center. The evangelistic effort will begin Friday, Oct. 27, according to Forrest Smith, interim director of missions for Corpus Christi Baptist Association.
___"We would like to be able to make a statement to the community regarding our interest in their spiritual well-being," Smith said.
___Forty-five local churches and missions are participating, said Shane Kinnison, pastor of Parkdale Baptist Church and task force chairman. "One of my hopes and goals is that Celebrate Corpus Christi could become a cooperative effort for all our churches and missions to literally saturate our community with Christian love and with a witness for Christ.
___"We really believe that Celebrate Corpus Christi is a common meeting point for all our sister churches where we can come together, work together and pray together to reach a common goal," Kinnison said.
___The effort has two prongs, he said. First, individual churches are planning events. These include block parties, prayerwalks, fall festivals, sporting events, evangelistic surveys, door-to-door witnessing and a host of other activities.
___The second prong is a youth rally planned for Saturday night. It will feature a concert by The Gboys (rap music by former gang members), Becky Reynolds (Christian country music) and Christin & C2 (contemporary). Lynn Floyd, mission pastor for First Baptist Church of Portland, will bring gospel messages. The four-hour event will be held at Cole Park Amphitheater beginning at 5 p.m.
___The title, Celebrate Corpus Christi, has a deeper meaning when the city's Latin name is translated, Smith explained. It means "Celebrate the Body of Christ." The association is "trying to demonstrate the body of Christ to the community," he said.
___Texas Baptists from outside of Corpus Christi who would like to assist are asked to contact Joy Klepac at the association office, (361) 853-2555.
___"We need people who will be willing to work in block parties and prayerwalking," Smith said. "We need trained counselors to help at the youth rally. ... We're hoping to get 300 to 400 from across Texas to help us."
___El Paso Baptists already are making plans to help, said Lorenzo Pena, director of missions for El Paso Baptist Association. Baptists there have seen the benefits of an evangelistic blitz scheduled around the convention, he said.
___One year after Abrazando El Paso, the impact can be seen in the continued involvement of those churches in ministries and outreach efforts, Pena said. The effort also resulted in "strengthening of the relationships" between the churches, the association and the BGCT

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