Port Neches drama yields 32 professions of faith in Christ

PORT NECHES—When First Baptist Church in Port Neches decided to perform the evangelistic play Last Chance, members wanted to share the hope of Christ with their community. By the end of the three days of performances, the church saw 32 people make decisions to follow Christ and 65 renew their commitments to him.  

In the past, the church has been focused on reaching its community with the gospel, but sharing the message in a new way with the community was part of the church’s Texas Hope 2010 efforts, an emphasis by Texas Baptists to pray for the lost, care for the hurting and hungry and share the hope of Christ with all Texans.

“I thought it was a great challenge for our people and a great way to understand that we aren’t working by ourselves but working with the convention to reach our state for the kingdom,” said Pastor David Mahfouz about the church's involvement in Texas Hope 2010.

The play, by Reality Outreach, portrays scenes of real-life tragedies that people might find themselves in, such as a high school shooting or an abusive marriage relationship. In the midst of this, the reality of every person’s life and death as well as Christ’s redeeming love is shown.

The church hired the organization to direct the production, while church members served as the actors. Additional church members participated in the outreach event by counseling people who wanted to follow Christ after seeing the play.  

“It is a presentation of the reality of Jesus Christ—his death, burial and resurrection, and it talks about people’s choices in life and that it makes a difference in where they will spend eternity,” Mahfouz said.  

For 40 days before the play, the church prayed for the outreach efforts and for those who don’t know Christ in their community. One week before the play, church members delivered more than 300 Texas Hope 2010 multimedia compact discs that include the Gospel of John and have an option to download the New Testament in more than 400 languages to homes surrounding the church and invited residents to attend the play.

Reaching out to the community “is important because as you know we are living in a pretty tough world right now,” said Aron Arceneaux, a member of the church and actor in the play. “It’s not only important for our church but all churches to be involved in the community in some way.”

For many church members, outreach is not a new idea, but the play was an additional avenue for many to share the hope of Christ to touch the hearts of people in the community in a different way through the play, said Cheryl Hernandez, a member of the church who volunteered with her daughter to be in the play.

“This was important because there are so many people that are lost in every community,” she said. “It is very important to reach out to them on a level that they can relate to. I think the play was effective because they could see their lives portrayed right in front of them, especially the student scene because there have been so many shootings at campuses and people are just amazed at how it happens.”

Participating in the play hit close to home for Hernandez as she played an abused wife and mother because it was portraying the same real-life situation some of her family had endured a few years ago. Through this, Hernandez desired to share the hope of Christ even more with women and children stuck in these situations.

Marcie Cate, a sophomore at Lamar University and a member of the church, wanted to see her community influenced by the gospel presentation. But she noted she was challenged in her faith as she saw young and old alike within the church unite and work together for the cause of the gospel.

“It was awesome and you think about the audience being affected,” Cate said. “One of the first things the director said is that the cast will be most affected. And it was so true. You have people from middle school to great grandmas working together, and we don’t get to have that very often. The group really grew together through the effort and through the prayer time.”

But unity wasn’t the only thing gained within the church. Cate also grew in her own walk with God as she allowed him to place her in a counseling position at the end of the play where she was able to lead a lady to faith in Christ.

“God just led me into things like the counseling, things where on my own I normally wouldn’t do things like that,” Cate said. “I got to be with my church family and with them show Christ in a different way. I got a lot of courage and confidence in that, in my ability to tell people about Christ.”

The church recognizes that sharing the gospel with the city through the play is only the beginning. As people in the community made decisions to follow Christ, members were paired with many to disciple them and help them grow in their relationship with Christ.

“As they came, we worked with them to get an individual to work one on one with them in a disciplining process,” Mahfouz said. “They were given the hope CD and are now involved in discipleship material about how to grow in their faith and how to read their Bible.”

On Easter Sunday, Mahfouz baptized six children and teenagers who had made professions of faith in Christ during the play. Many others are scheduled to be baptized in the near future.

Through the efforts, Mahfouz and the church members said they were looking for God to restore their city, bringing hope and eternal life to many. And they saw that happen.

“We were hoping for a revived church and a revived people,” Mahfouz said. “It has been a hard time this year coming out of our storm experience. Within the last five years, we have had five major storms, and it makes it hard for long-term planning because just when we’ve recovered from one another on has hit. So it is exciting to see people seeking the Lord and coming into the church.