Some heard the gospel of Jesus Christ through a massive
International Festival at the Central Florida Fairgrounds,
while others heard it over hot dogs and chips at neighborhood block parties.
Many heard it on doorsteps and in living rooms, while
still others responded during late-night encounters on city streets.
Some heard the gospel of Jesus Christ through a massive
International Festival at the Central Florida Fairgrounds,
while others heard it over hot dogs and chips at neighborhood block parties.
Many heard it on doorsteps and in living rooms,
while still others responded during late-night encounters on city streets.
Southern Baptists engaged in a variety of efforts
to meet their overarching mission during Crossover Orlando 2000, an evangelistic
emphasis held before and during last weeks Southern Baptist Convention.
Much of the effort was focused toward “planting
seeds” and building relationships that would lead to later evangelistic
opportunities. Even so, by weeks end, more than 2,000 persons had made
life-changing commitments to Christ.
“Overall, I would rate the effort somewhere
between outstanding and phenomenal,” said James Fortinberry, executive
director of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association.
A highlight of the effort was a citywide International
Festival that attracted a crowd of about 4,000 persons.
The festival included representatives of Haitian,
Brazilian, Hispanic, Korean and Vietnamese groups. With registration, participants
could sample food from each group and allow their children to enjoy various
games and activities.
Volunteers also were on hand to share the gospel
with guests and more than 200 committed their lives to Christ. Names
of registered persons were forwarded for follow-up by local churches. “This
event reminds me of the Pentecost day, …” area pastor Roberto Roberts
said. “If were working together this way, we can spread the gospel
everywhere in the world.”
Local church lock parties followed a theme similar
to the festival, offering entertainment, food and drink to guests as a way of
building relationships and sharing Christ.
At one party, several guests applauded the approach
as a means of strengthening communities as well as sharing Christ with others.
“Its been fantastic. Its what people seem to have forgotten.
Theyve forgotten the love and forgotten to bring people together as a
family,” neighborhood resident Ida Gainey pointed out.
Elsewhere, volunteers worked with about 12 area
churches conducting door-to-door visits, usually utilizing spiritual opinion
surveys. It was the culmination of a four-week effort for many of the churches
and part of a long-term statewide initiative known as “Through Every Door.”
In one instance, more than 60 volunteers contacted
710 homes in preparation for a new church. They identified 43 prospects while
recording 13 professions of faith and conducting 135 surveys. Seven of those
professions came from a single visit, as members of a Hispanic family prayed
to receive Christ.
Meanwhile, a group of trained volunteers worked
to share the gospel with individuals in low-income neighborhoods. The Inner-City
Evangelism team typically conducts training conferences and leads hundreds of
individuals to Christ in cities across the country. In Orlando, the group reported
nearly 400 professions of faith in their first two days.
Michael West of Tennessee told of one instance in
which 10 people were led to faith in Christ in one spot as they kept telling
of friends who needed to hear the message they had heard. Another man started
out antagonistic toward volunteers, saying he did not want to hear a thing about
God. Later, the defenses broke down and the man prayed to receive Christ. “He
just changed right in front of us, …” West said.
“Were letting the lost down as a church
because were not doing this as often as we should,” he said of the
effort.
A variety of other efforts also were part of Crossover.
One group of women shared Christ with strip club
workers and befriended prostitutes. Street performers and creative arts teams
entertained crowds and shared the gospel. Volunteers fanned out from churches
to conduct “prayer journeys” through neighborhoods. And workers handed
out free bottles of water along with evangelistic materials to
tourists traveling on city shuttles.
At the same time, Matt Dougay of Lake Charles splashed
in a hotel swimming pool with a group of children in “Kids Club,”
an outreach featuring games, Bible stories and crafts.
Dougay noted that many of the children have had
no exposure to Christianity. “A lot of them get to hear about Jesus for
the first time,” he said. “Thats the exciting part.”
The Greater Orlando Baptist Association hopes to
start a total of 18 churches through the overall Crossover effort. Eleven are
already in some stage of development.