By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
PINEVILLE, La. (LBM) – Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn told incoming Louisiana Christian University freshman class Saturday, encouraging to share their faith everyday on campus and beyond.
“If the Gospel is going to advance, it’s going to take advance because everybody takes the Gospel,” Horn told the students inside Guinn Auditorium, Aug. 19. “Every Christian is a witness. That’s how we create a culture of evangelism.”
Horn’s message was part of Welcome Week that began Aug. 16 at LCU. Throughout that time, 249 freshman have participated in service-learning projects, moving into their dormitories, a Baptist Collegiate Ministry worship service and more.
Basing his message on Acts 8, Horn said the early Christians and not the “professional Christian’s” were the first ones God sent out to share the Gospel outside Jerusalem. Horn said this can be accomplished if Christ followers are prayerful, bold, relational and prepared.
He shared with the students several evangelistic tools they can use when sharing the Good News of Christ:
- Life On Mission app (uses a simple Gospel presentation);
- Hereforyou.org (Louisiana Baptists’ multi-media approach to share the Gospel through TV, social media and other outlets);
- the Roman Road to salvation (way to explain the Good News of salvation using verses from the book of Romans)
- F.AI.T.H. outline (an acrostic that a Christ follower can use to walk a non-believer though the Gospel); and
- Appointments to share Jesus (scheduling a time and place to share Christ with another person).
“There are unlimited ways to get into this conversation,” he said. “Get a way. It is important we have a way to share the Good News of Jesus.”
STATEWIDE EVANGELISM EMPHASIS
Horn’s message comes in a year when he has emphasized creating a culture of evangelism in Louisiana.
In June, a pair of evangelistic events preceding the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting yielded 336 decisions for Christ. On June 9-10, 84 Crossover and Serve Tour events across Houma, New Orleans and the Northshore had 1,300 volunteers from 21 states. Furthermore, the events drew 12,180 individuals and resulted in 3,487 Gospel conversations.
On Aug. 1, the Send Network Louisiana, a church planting partnership with the North American Mission Board, was launched. NAMB will employ a Send Network Louisiana director who will work in the same office as Louisiana Baptist church planters, provide money for supplements for the Send Network church plants and offer additional opportunities for church planters currently not offered by Louisiana Baptists (a year of free health insurance through GuideStone for planters and their families, access to NAMB start-up grants, an additional fourth year of supplements and placement in the NAMB church planter spiritual and emotional care system).
