April 22, 2002
Friendship evangelism key to Metroplex Mission
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___GARLAND--The key to filling Texas Stadium for Billy Graham's Metroplex Mission Oct 17-20 isn't television or telephones, but Tell-A-Friend, according to mission organizers.
___"Advertising alone won't fill Texas Stadium," explained Rick Marshall, evangelism director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. But Christians inviting non-Christians they know and intentionally get to know in the next few months will fill the stadium, he predicted.
___Eighty percent of those who make commitments to Christ at a Billy Graham meeting come to the event because of a personal invitation from a friend, he reported.
___"We work way too hard at evangelism," Marshall said. "It should be the natural result of a love relationship with Jesus Christ."
___Marshall described a simple method for putting that concept into practice during a mission outreach seminar held at First Baptist Church of Garland.
___Friend-to-Friend, previously known as Operation Andrew, is the emphasis used by the Graham organization and one that could be adapted to any church outreach effort.
___The methodology is simple: Christians are urged to look around, look up, look out, look forward and look after. Look around the neighborhood, job, school and other places of interaction for people who are not Christians. Look up to God in prayer for those who are identified. Then look out for ways to cultivate friendships and develop relationships with those people. Look forward, then, and begin talking about the October meeting and the possibility of them attending. Finally, look after those who profess faith in Christ or show interest in the gospel.
___Doing evangelism this way works, Marshall said, but it does take time.
___"People ask us, 'Why are you here so early, months and months before the mission?' We're here because we know how long it takes to develop relationships that will impact a life," he said.
___Church leaders must encourage their congregations to make the plan a reality, Marshall cautioned. If Friend-to-Friend is mentioned one time only, about 20 percent of the church will participate, so pastors must come back to it again and again, he said.
___"If you put this in the tract rack at your church, it will be there until Jesus comes. Why do I say that? Because people are not running to become involved in evangelism. It's the scariest ministry of the church, but it's also one of the most fulfilling."
___The Graham organization provides similar tools for youth and children to pray for their friends and encourage them to attend the mission program. Those groups typically bring some of the largest numbers of decisions during the four-day meeting, Marshall said.
___"On Saturday morning and Saturday night (emphasis times for children and youth), we can have more decisions than all the other meetings combined. But that shouldn't surprise us, because it is the most unreached group in our society," Marshall said.
___The large number of decisions means a large number of adults are needed, he added. "We have never had enough counselors to have one-on-one counseling sessions during the children's meeting in the decade we've been doing this. Let's change that here in Dallas-Fort Worth."
___The Saturday evening concert also will be a huge draw, Marshall said. In stadiums across the country, Billy Graham youth nights have set stadium attendance records, outdrawing sporting events and other concerts. One night in Minneapolis, 11,130 young people were counseled at the close of the service.
___Participating churches are encouraged to start reserving buses now. Seventy-five percent of the people who make decisions at the Billy Graham meetings come in the same vehicle as the person who invited them. People are more likely to come if they don't have to fight the traffic and then pay for the parking, Marshall said. "You take care of that for them."
___The parking fee for each bus will be $50 for each event. Cars and vans will cost $8 to $10 depending on the distance from the stadium. These fees are not set by the Billy Graham organization; all parking money is paid to Texas Stadium.
___As fall draws nearer, more printed pieces and advertising will begin to be used, Marshall said. But he reiterated that these alone will not pack the stadium. Instead, they may provide believers with opportunities to start conversations with non-believers.
___The Billy Graham mission, he explained, is "personal evangelism on a large scale."
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