Heart Of Kansas Churches Partner Together For Evangelism Event
By Bev Jackson
August 2009
During the Wichita River Festival Outreach over sixty church members were engaged in evangelism training with experienced evangelists, many from ICE (Intentional Community Evangelism) of the North American Mission Board. It was “an opportunity for the Heart of Kansas Association to assist the churches in furthering discipleship, especially in evangelism training,” said Heart of Kansas (HOK) Director of Missions, Glenn Davis. The Riverfest outreach was a community evangelistic event for churches to partner in providing the evangelism training.
Church members chose time slots to be on the streets in pairs or trios with the evangelists for any of the three days of training. They participated at whatever level they chose. Some handed out tracts and others engaged in conversations. When there was an encounter, they prayed. Response cards were generated for follow-up. Glenn Davis said that the volunteers took the response cards and divided them geographically for church follow-up.
Walking With Power were the strong men who drew a large crowd to see their feats of strength. Through a strong gospel presentation and an opportunity to talk with counselors, Festival goers could respond to the gospel. Christian bands such as CrossWired and Freedom Ministries of Kansas provided the message in music.
At the Sedgwick County (Youth) Detention Facility, the strength team presented the gospel. Twenty-five of the approximately eighty youth prayed to receive Christ. Midway Baptist Church hosted Walking with Power Sunday evening where ten individuals gave their lives to Jesus. El Dorado Detention Facility (adult) had ten salvations decisions from the strength team event. Altogether over one hundred thirty five individuals made spiritual decisions at all events.
Even with the stormy weather, church participation was up this year while the festival attendance was nearly half what it had been in previous years (economy and stormy weather). Approximately 75,000 attended the largest day on Saturday. Lynn Webb, Mission Service Core Missionary from Catawba River Baptist Association, NC, said, “I saw the largest number of church members participating and being willing to go out compared to the last couple of years. I personally saw some of the spiritual labor that has been spent over the past several years start to produce fruit amongst the people.”
Arkansas churches and groups came in to prayer walk prior to the event. University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR. campus group; Valley Ridge Baptist Church, Jonesboro; Eastern Heights Baptist Church, Van Buren; Lamar Baptist Church, Lamar; Cherry Street Baptist Church, Clarksville and Second Baptist Church, Van Buren faithfully prayed over the area. Lynn Webb stated, “I certainly noticed that the area had been prayer walked. You could feel the Holy Spirit before us and the receptiveness of the people willing to talk compared to prior years. I actually witnessed more people being willing to receive a tract.”
Midway Baptist Church had several members of the congregation attend the evangelism training. They had had formal evangelism training through the church’s programs but found it very encouraging to do evangelism in a different setting.
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