Jeff Tunnell
Baptisms in homes and at public facilities (beaches, pools, apartment building spas, etc) have proved a good venue for us. Friends and family members of the person being baptized feel no pressure in responding to an invitation to attend. Here they will listen to the testimonies of all being baptized and we regularly make an appeal to the unsaved to welcome Jesus into their hearts (even being baptized at the same time).
Celebration gatherings on Sunday have become our greatest point of interaction with those seeking a relationship with Christ and his people. God has drawn them to us and they are looking for the reason to connect. This is where cell leaders introduce themselves and extend a warm invite to their cell. We often have the cell leaders stand and identify themselves while we point out the printed contact information on the back of our weekly handout (bulletin). We do not leave this as a “come to us†gospel strategy, we want the “go†in gospel to be at the forefront of our thinking, so we are proactive in approaching the visitor.
Praying together (outloud) for new leaders that God wants to establish within our congregation, we acknowledge that many of our new leaders are still pre-saved and need to come to salvation. I like this prayer time! It keeps an edge on our view of those we meet, investigating their need for salvation while wondering if this is our next leader – it’s very much like a treasure hunt.
Annual youth conferences produce a high level of interest for young people. They enjoy getting to go away from home for a weekend with peers. Many unsaved will gladly tag along to see what it is all about, leaving us with the opportunity to reap a harvest.
Overall, elementary aged children seem to be the easiest harvest to gather. They respond to the love of the Saviour simply. We must always give the moment in our celebrations and cells for this response to be made. Harvesting the parents later is the next step in reaching the child’s oikos.
Concluding today I would like to insert an excerpt from the October 2010 newsletter of Great Commission Ministries:
Looking for God
On September 20th, I noticed an intriguing story on a BBC news web page. The headline read: “The Top 10 Unanswerable Questions Revealed”.
The internet search engine “Ask Jeeves†had compiled what it called the Top Ten “unanswerable questions” of the past decade. The list was based on 1.1 billion queries made on the website. The top two questions asked by over one billion people was: “What is the meaning of life?” and “Is there a God?” Isn’t this a massive wake up call for every follower of Christ? This is a golden hour of opportunity. The answers are right at our fingertips—in the Scriptures. Today holds a great opportunity for evangelism through media saturation of mega cities with the Gospel to answer the greatest questions of our generation. Let us labor together as never before. We can shake the cities of our generation with the Gospel!