BAILEY STONE hugs his wife, Joyce, as they are recognized during the Evangelism Conference by James Semple. Stone is retiring as director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas evangelism department. Behind the Stones are BGCT administrators Charles Wade and E.B. Brooks. (Photo by Melody Loggins)

Evangelism based in ministry
'hugs' people up close to Jesus
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___SAN ANTONIO--Evangelism occurs when Christians both declare and demonstrate the gospel, Jim Young told participants in a seminar on ministry-based evangelism.
___"Evangelism is part of who we are as Baptists," stressed Young, coordinator of restorative justice ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, in a session titled "Huggin' People to Jesus--Church Strategies for Ministry Evangelism." The seminar was held led by the BGCT church ministries department during the BGCT Evangelism Conference.
___"Ministry-based evangelism is the activity of the church that is intended to reach communities around your church, beyond your church and to the 'uttermost parts of the earth,'" Young said.
___"Evangelism is both declaration and demonstration," he added, explaining people need to hear the gospel, but they also need to see evidence of the gospel in the lives of Christians.
___It grows from the "spark" in the hearts of Christians who want to serve others--meeting their physical needs, but also sharing the gospel with them, said Lindsay Cofield, BGCT director of lay ministries development.
___That spark leads Texas Baptists to all kinds of ministries, reaching a vast array of people, he said.
___To illustrate, he reported that 10 types of ministry-based evangelism efforts resulted in at least 13,287 professions of faith in Christ in Texas last year.
___For example, at least 4,085 people came to accept Jesus as their Savior as the result of hunger ministries, and 4,923 became Christians because of restorative justice ministries.
___Cofield pointed to more than 40 types of endeavors--from service to disabled people, to truck stop ministries, to work with latch-key children after school--as possibilities for ministry that leads people to faith in Jesus.
___"Think about how God has shaped your life to serve him in the church where you are at this point in your life," he urged. "Do some creative brooding with God to think about how you might serve others and lead them to Christ."
___Churches can strengthen ministry-based evangelism by taking a comprehensive look at their efforts, noted Milfred Minatrea, the department's director.
___"In the ministries of our churches, sometimes we are so focused on one ministry--the ministry we are doing--that we do not see the big picture," Minatrea said.
___But a church's strategy is the combined total of all the ministries its members are undertaking on behalf of the gospel, he added.
___Churches would do well to recognize and even commission their members for the various ministries they undertake--such as nursing-home ministry, teaching English as a Second Language, outreach to prison inmates, he suggested.
___"Raise everybody up high enough to see your church's strategy for hugging people up to Jesus," he urged.
___"Affirm, bless and release them to do ministry," Young said. "Our people need that kind of blessing by their churches."
___

The Baptist Standard