Keith Manuel didn’t join the Evangelism/Church Growth team at the Louisiana Baptist Convention planning to develop a simplified evangelism tool. He already had one.
ALEXANDRIA – Keith Manuel didn’t join the Evangelism/Church Growth team at the Louisiana Baptist Convention planning to develop a simplified evangelism tool. He already had one.
Just weeks before Hurricane Katrina keelhauled New Orleans, Calvary Baptist Church in the Algiers neighborhood on the West Bank received its order of 3,000 business cards developed by then-Pastor Manuel. The cards asked, “What does God require for a person to go to heaven?”
The answer: PRAY – a promise, a reality, the answer, and you.
“It doesn’t get any easier than that,” Manuel said while describing several situations over the last year in which he used what is being rolled out this week as One on One: Evangelism Made Simple.
Plan A had been for the Calvary congregation to incorporate the PRAY gospel presentation into their outreach efforts, but then Katrina came calling. Instead, volunteers, many of whom stayed on Calvary’s sizable parking lot, passed out the cards when they engaged Katrina victims in conversation.
One on One is a cutting-edge yet simple evangelism tool that incorporates Manuel’s PRAY witnessing business card, the evangelism associate said as he described the internet-driven evangelism kit developed over the last year, which is available from LBC Evangelism/Church Growth for $25.
The attractive blue canvas kit includes several items:
• A 54-page leader’s guide for a six-session study of One on One: Evangelism Made Simple;
• A CD containing a One on One Power Point presentation; study materials that can be printed for participants in One on One small groups; an audio file so class participants can hear an experienced evangelizer as he goes through PRAY; additional resources, and more.
• Set of 50 PRAY cards, which also point the recipient to the WhatIValueMost.com website, to the evangelizer’s church; and to the North American Mission Board’s National Evangelism Call Center: 888.JESUS.2000.
• Set of 50 whativaluemost.com business cards.
• The Gift New Testament.
• Highlighter to mark the New Testament as explained in session three of the study materials.
“About six months after I started working here as a personal evangelism associate, Wayne [Jenkins, director of Evangelism and Church Growth Team] and I were talking about the various evangelism tools available – their good points and bad points, strengths and weaknesses,” Manuel said during a visit last week in the Message’s new suite on the third floor of the Baptist Building.
Manuel and Jenkins talked about what the ‘perfect’ evangelism tool would look like in 21st century America.
“Everybody gets excited about the technology, but it’s the last three lessons in the study guide that do it for me,” Manuel said. “It frees you up when you understand that it’s not about you. The pressure to give a perfect presentation is gone when you discover salvation is based on a response to the Holy Spirit, not to you.
“One on One: Evangelism Made Simple” is a way to share the gospel that anybody can do,” Manuel continued. “Introvert and extrovert can share within their personality. Anybody can say, ‘When you get a chance, read my story on the internet,” and hand them a card that gives the website address: whativaluemost.com. Check it out by reading Manuel’s testimony; just enter his name at “enter name here” on the website.
During the six-week study, participants learn to write a two-part personal testimony to show what their life was like without Christ, and what it’s like with Christ. The two parts, which can’t be more than 250 words each, are linked by a sentence: Then I found my value in Jesus.
The testimonies along with a photo are uploaded to the whativaluemost.com website – with no last names and no location given for the testimonies of people under 18, to maximize their safety – and class participants start passing out one of three cards:
• The “whativaluemost.com” business cards, have on the reverse side, “Read my story@ whativaluemost.com” and a blank line for the evangelizer’s name to be written.
• The “What does God requires for a person to go to heaven?” business card has on one side the PRAY presentation with scriptures, and on the reverse side, “Ready my story@whativaluemost.com” with a line for the presenter’s name to be written; “Come worship with me @” with a line for the presenter’s church name; “Our worship service begins @” with space for the time. And on the bottom line: “For prayer or spiritual help, call any time: 888.JESUS.2000.”
The six-session study of One on One: Evangelism Made Simple, starts with the PRAY gospel presentation, moves into Sharing your faith story, and Sharing Jesus using a tract or Marked New Testament.
Session 4: The Holy Spirit at work; 5: Building authentic relationships with unbelievers; 6: Praying your friends and family to Christ.
“One on One: Evangelism Made Simple is a customizable, cutting-edge evangelism tool,” Manuel said. “It is capable of standing alone or enhancing an existing program of evangelistic outreach.”
The www.whativaluemost.com website also is a good place to dig deeper into the claims of Christ, Manuel said. The website links to NAMB’s apologetics website – www.4truth.net.
Manuel credits NAMB’s “Praying your friends to Christ” – Wayne Jenkins was the mid-1990s book’s primary author – and the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s development ofwww.MostImportantThing.org as two “influencers” for One on One.
“N.S.R.K. Ravi, a consultant for NAMB’s Evangelism Response Center, deserves special thanks for his partnership in this process,” Manuel said. “Because of the ERC, One on One can be used anywhere in the United States or around the world. When someone makes a decision to follow Christ using our web tool – www.whativaluemost.com – or by calling the 1.888.JESUS.2000 telephone number, a Southern Baptist church in the individual’s home area will follow up within 72 hours. That’s an effort coordinated by NAMB’s Evangelism Response Center.
“We have a nationwide ministry right here in Louisiana,” Manuel said. “A brand-new Christian can do this, or a mature Christian.”
Jake Roudkovski, assistant professor of evangelism at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and two Louisiana pastors – David Cranford and Steven Kelly – helped Manuel with the writing of the study guide. Roudkovski plans to teach One on One as a course this fall at NOBTS.
Interest has been expressed by various NAMB leaders to have the course taught during ministry meetings across the nation.
“It’s exciting to see what’s happening already, in these first few days the website has been up and running,” Manuel said. “We’ve already logged more than 350 viewers; they come from the U.S., of course – 50 cities in 17 states – plus Great Britain, Norway and Germany.”
For more information or to purchase the One on One. Evangelism made Simple, contact the LBC Evangelism/Church Growth team at 1.318.448.3402.