Church's death leads to mission of life
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___HOUSTON--The death of a church and an elderly man each contributed to the birth of a ministry that now aims for spiritual rebirth.
___Ernest Izard came to North Main Baptist Church as pastor after the inner-city Houston church had begun its decline. The congregation no longer was representative of the changing demographics of its community, and attendance was on the downturn.
___The church plodded on another 10 years after Izard came but was not able to do much more than survive, he said. Finally, the church voted to sell its property and pour the proceeds into a non-profit ministry, the Aurora Network, of which Izard is president.
___While Izard still was pastor of the Houston church, however, he was awakened one evening by a call from a local hospital, where he was told a member had been admitted. Izard did not recognize the man's name, and upon arriving at the hospital discovered that the man was not a member of his church. He had been called by accident.
___Looking back, Izard believes it was no accident. Rather it was a "Holy Spirit glitch." He is sure he was led to this man.
___The man was a member of a Primitive Baptist church. As he and Izard discussed his salvation, the man expressed doubts about the security of his salvation. Izard discussed the situation with the man a few times, and then one evening he was again summoned to the hospital.
___When he arrived this time, the man was unable to speak. But when Izard entered the room, the man joined his hands together at his chest. Izard took that as a sign that the man wanted to pray, and so he led them in prayer and left a little while later.
___The man died later that night. A few days later, Izard said, he realized that what he had taken as a sign that the man was wanting to pray was in reality his way of communicating that he had peace in his heart. At that moment, the pastor became interested in finding a way to better interpret what people are trying to say in faith conversations.
___Izard took that beginning and combined it with a great deal of study and research to formulate a new evangelism tool he calls "story listening evangelism" or "listening people into the kingdom of God."
___Story listening evangelism attempts to teach Christians how to listen to a non-Christian person tell his or her story and hear the underlying story, Izard said. This type of evangelism especially is effective with young people, he added.
___"The Aurora Network has assembled a toolbox of communication and listening skills that enable witnesses to join into and stay with an evangelistic conversation not only with this emerging group, but also with virtually any person, in any place," Izard said.
___"The underlying assumption of this approach to witnessing is that the 'aha moment' of salvation occurs at the intersection of God's story of self-revelation and the stories that a lost person tells," Izard explained.
___This is not a program that has a set outline to follow, and that may be an obstacle for some people, he admits.
___"What's scary to us as Baptists is that it's open-ended and flexible. There are no 1, 2, 3, 4's, and that is frightening to some people. There is no outline to follow when listening to someone tell their story," he explained. "We have to have confidence in God and the Holy Spirit that it is not some gimmick but an instrument of God."
___Izard said he is not trying to change everything Baptists are doing in evangelism. Rather, his goal is to refine evangelism tools already in hand.
___"When we witness to people, we're so anxious to get down the Roman Road we don't leave room for listening," he said. "I'm not trying to do away with those methods but trying to complement and supplement them."
___In an effort to research the effectiveness of the approach, Izard is enlisting 12 churches to supply at least 24 people who will learn the technique. Those volunteers will be asked to chronicle their witnessing efforts for the next three years. Each church enrolled in the program will receive a 12-hour initial training session over the course of a weekend. Follow-up training also will be provided in the second and third years.
___Churches in the program are asked to contribute $500 per year for the three years to help finance the project and to pay for the training. Izard said he especially is looking for minority churches to participate. If funds are a problem, special arrangements can be made.
___The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has committed $30,000 to the program over the three years.
___ "We need in this era new ways to express the good news of Jesus Christ--ways that reach younger people and people of other cultures that don't have a support structure of pre-understanding," said Tom Prevost, CBF associate missions coordinator for partnerships and career personnel selection. "I am hopeful this is something that has cross-cultural promise."
The Baptist Standard
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