By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
ALEXANDRIA – Holding a pair of work gloves like the hundreds that were distributed during his presentation, Keith Manuel invited messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention 2016 Annual Meeting to commit to a God-sized vision – evangelize the entire state of Louisiana during 2017-2018.
Reaching 4.7 million people with the Gospel in a two-year period may seem daunting, said Manuel, LBC evangelism associate, but it is within the realm of possibility through the Harvest initiative, a statewide campaign to engage 700 Louisiana Baptist churches to “pray for every home and share Christ with every person” in Louisiana.
“This task is hard,” Manuel said during the opening session, Monday, Nov. 14, at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria. “It will take work. “Let these gloves serve as a reminder, to lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are white unto harvest.
“Let’s go to work and envision a Louisiana where every home receives prayer and every person receives a Gospel witness and if the Lord is willing, may we see the greatest harvest of souls, who grow into the greatest group of reproducing disciples Louisiana has ever seen.”
Manuel also gave an overview of what he said could be the largest joint evangelistic effort ever in Louisiana.
After spending 2016 to plan and enlist leaders and churches and using 2017 to conduct statewide evangelism training and pilot different methods, Louisiana Baptists will join together across the state in 2018 in prayer events and intentional soul-winning activities, Manuel said. The cooperative effort will include a diversity of approaches such as multi-church crusades, one-on-one evangelism, single-church revivals and other harvest events which take advantage of compassion ministries to share about the love of Christ.
The first major kickoff event, he said, will take place during the 2017 Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference at Temple Baptist Church in Ruston with an outreach event effort targeting teens and college students.
Scheduled during the first session of the Jan. 23-24 gathering, the kickoff will feature a Gospel presentation by Ed Newton, pastor of Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to his message, students will gather inside the church family life center for a pizza party and entertainment.
Organizers are encouraging churches around the state to host simultaneous similar events – including the showing of the live Internet broadcast of Newton’s message — to broaden the geographic reach of this initial event.
But, Louisiana Baptist missions strategists are using the Youth Evangelism Conference, Nov. 20-21 in Lafayette as a springboard event, providing training to show students how to share the Gospel, and distribution of New Testaments as part of a number of preparatory actions to give out 30,000 Bibles before Christmas.
Manuel said the Evangelism Conference will offer a much more expanded opportunity to be trained about sharing the Gospel and how to plan different community soul-winning approaches. Pastors are encouraged to bring their members to attend different sessions, and directors of missions are being asked to create and adopt a strategy to best share the Gospel.
“Harvest, created in the hearts of Louisiana Baptist pastors, staff, and DOMs, is a movement already being used by God,” Manuel said. “As an association or church you will work together to pray for every home in your area and decide whether to use crusades, revivals, or special evangelistic events to share the Gospel with your neighbors, your family, and your friends.”
Joining Manuel on the platform during the session were two pastors and a director of missions.
“Every campus and congregation regardless of its size can adopt and implement the focus of Harvest Initiatives,” said Dennis Watson, pastor of Celebration Church, New Orleans. “We can all be involved in praying for every home and every community, training our people in personal evangelism, strengthening our small groups, carrying out evangelistic events and following up with those who pray to receive Jesus as their Savior. I believe the Harvest Initiative will help us and many churches in the state to keep evangelism strategies simple but strong, so that we can do an even better job in the future of reaching people with the message and ministry of Jesus.
Mike Mitchell, who pastors a rural congregation, First Baptist Newellton, compared farming to the Harvest Initiative. He said before reaping a great harvest, the fields must be prepared and planted.
“You don’t go out and plant cotton if you don’t have a plan on how to pick it,” Mitchell said. “Farming is a balancing act of hard work, patience and faith.
“The Harvest Initiative is a plan for harvesting souls,” he said. “We need to get serious about giving our people the tools they need to do evangelism themselves. It sounds ambitious that we’ll share the word of God with every person in the state. It’s about time we get ambitious about the Great Commission.”
Ron Thompson, District Eight DOM, said he is supportive of the idea because it is more than just a program – it meets a need that exists around the state.
“Harvest is all of us collectively working toward the same goal, at the same time,” he said. “The opportunities are truly endless.”
