By Message Staff
RUSTON – History was made during the opening session of the 2017 Evangelism Conference Monday evening, Jan. 23.
Standing before a packed worship center at Temple Baptist Church, Ed Newton presented the Gospel to hundreds of youth and adults, as well as many other youngsters watching his message via a livestream broadcast in the first-ever student night. In the end, around 50 made a decision at Temple Baptist Church alone, including 12 first-time decisions. Numbers from additional sites broadcasting Newton’s message were not known immediately.
“Heaven is real,” said Newton, pastor of Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas. “Life is short. Jesus is good. And He desires to save you right where you’re at.”
Newton emphasized that each person is one step away from spending eternity in either heaven or hell. Without believing in Christ, Newton said, their future in heaven is hopeless.
“Right where you’re at, Jesus could step out of heaven and step into your heart,” he said. “We’re all one step away from eternity. What will you do with Jesus?”
Ed Newton leads a prayer for healing of Wayne Jenkins, evangelism director for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Jenkins is battling cancer.
In addition to Newton’s message, student night also featured drama and a “trash can” band from Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville, a combined choir of students and the featured musical guests for ECON – the Ray Jones and Community Bible Church band – and a pizza supper just for the youth.
Student night kicked off the Harvest, a statewide campaign to engage 700 Louisiana Baptist churches to “pray for every home and share Christ with every person” 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.
The cooperative effort will include a diversity of approaches such as multi-church crusades, one-on-one evangelism, single-church revivals and other activities which leverage compassion ministries to share about the love of Christ.
Newton previously had shared about the student night with nearly 6,000 in attendance at the 2016 Youth Evangelism Conference.
Youth who made decisions during student night at ECON surround Ed Newton.
Among those who returned to attend student night was Gracie Heisler, a ninth grader from First Baptist Church in Dubach.
“At YEC I loved how Ed Newton spoke to us and told us to imagine if God was calling us to missions,” said Heisler, who made the 20-minute journey to student night with around 20 others from her church. “I felt after then and through a lot of prayer that God may be doing just that with me. I’m hopeful that many teens our age came away from tonight with a relationship with Jesus.”
Meanwhile, Dominique Arceneaux came to student night with eight others from Friendship Baptist Church in Baskin, a 90-minute drive from Temple Baptist Church.
“Since we found out about this, I’ve been real excited about what tonight had to offer,” said Arceneaux, a tenth grader. “Being around all these other teenagers make me a happier person. It’s the highlight of my week.”
Newton’s message capped off the first day of the ECON. Others who gave messages included Bill Britt, evangelist, and president of Compel Outreach International in Wylie, Texas; Gevan Spinney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton and president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention; and K. Marshall Williams, senior pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa.
The second day of ECON will feature messages by Vance Pitman, senior pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nev.; Phil Waldrep, founder and president of Phil Waldrep Ministries in Decatur, Ala.; K. Marshall Williams; Gary Frost, national facilitator of prayer and compassion initiatives for Mission America Coalition in Palm Desert, Calif.; and Dennis Watson, pastor of Celebration Church in the New Orleans area.
The conference also will feature a senior adult luncheon featuring Waldrep at 11:30 a.m. and breakout sessions and the senior adult lunch, both on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
Topics for the sessions will be geared toward equipping leaders for the Harvest initiative. Topics include how to pray for every home, coordinating a small town crusade and holding an effective simultaneous revival.
Look for additional coverage of ECON later at baptistmessage.com.
