Louisville—An evangelism road trip is looking to fire up Kentucky Baptist churches about meeting new people in their communities and introducing them to Jesus.
“There’s no higher priority for a pastor than to lead his church to fulfill the Great Commission,” said Chuck McAlister, “and there is no greater purpose for our team than to help churches be the best Great Commission churches they can be.”
The McAlister-led Evangelism and Church Planting Team at the Kentucky Baptist Convention will embark on a nine-city jaunt over the coming months called LIFE Tour, breaking down the acronym by equipping churches to Look, Identify, Focus and Engage groups within the local community.
The first stop is First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon on March 10. Other locations include Bowling Green, Clinton, Flemingsburg, Frankfort, Hebron, Lexington, Louisville and Pikeville.
“It is our desire to help pastors build strong, stable, energized churches as they evangelize their communities on four specific pillars,” McAlister said.
The pillars are:
– Personal evangelism
– Corporate or community evangelism
– Church planting and/or multi-site development
– Campus engagement
Each evangelism pillar comes with no-assembly-required strategies to help churches maximize their reach of the lost.
McAlister said one of the more successful tools in personal evangelism is the Tell Your Story website. Since its introduction, tellyourstory.today has spread the gospel across all 50 states, more than 80 countries and has led to 353 salvation decisions. On average, 500 unique listeners hear the gospel each day.
“For so long, we as Southern Baptists have made evangelism an exercise of the head where we memorize gospel presentations or certain steps,” he said. “But when people share the story of their encounter with Jesus Christ, it becomes an exercise of the heart.”
In the area of community evangelism, KBC Affinity Evangelism Strategist Andy McDonald designed LIFE Project to identify and engage unique affinity groups within a church’s geographic region.
“People are hungry for authentic relationships,” McDonald said. “With LIFE Project, churches can create avenues to build those relationships within the community and, more importantly, point people to a real and authentic relationship with Christ.”
Affinities can be built around mutual interest in sports, hobbies, schools or places of work. Other affinity groups can be focused on community needs, such as addictions, family finances or helping newcomers adjust to life as migrant workers.
Kentucky Baptist churches received LIFE Project resources in the mail following the KBC Annual Meeting last November.
With newly energized existing members and an influx of new ones, churches may see a need to open an additional campus or plant an entirely new church. McAlister said this is when the trained experts at the KBC can walk alongside congregations and guide the way.
“If you want a great way to get your church focused on others, then engage in planting a church,” McAlister said.
The fourth pillar entails mobilizing the next generation of believers.
Through a new initiative called Twelve24, churches can impact the lives of students, ages 12 to 24, with the help of one of nine regional Baptist campus missionaries.
“Kentucky has more than 900,000 students in the 12-to-24 window, and 95 percent of them are lost. It is the darkest generation this world has ever produced. And we should be engaging them with the gospel,” said KBC Collegiate Evangelism Strategist Brian Combs.
Churches also have the option of partnering with self-funded campus missionary interns.
“Through our combined resources through the Cooperative Program, we can energize our churches and evangelize our communities, our state and the world,” McAlister said. “Let our team help you.”
To learn more about attending a LIFE Tour, visit www.kybaptist.org/lifeproject. (KBC)