Thoughts from the Evangelism Conference 2024

The Evangelism Conference is in the books and I'm so grateful for the help of those without which it simply would not have happened, namely The Missouri Baptist Foundation who, through their generous ministry grant, provided for our speakers and musicians for the day, and the team of students from Hannibal-LaGrange Univiversity who helped with a litte bit of everything from setting up tables and chairs to creating and running PowerPoint to ministering to children. I also want to thank Jeremiah & Kati Emanuel and the musicians from Redemption Roach Church for leading us in song throughout the day along with our speakers, Steve Miles, Tiffany Nevil, and Brandon Hughes, for bringing such encouraging and inspiring talks on sharing Jesus with others.

While there were so many good things that were said (which you can listen to here), these are a few of my takeaways:

Steve talked about his friend praying for grapefruits (softball analogy) and also talked about spotting a ripe tomoto. I loved the idea of praying that God would send people into our lives who he was already at work in, people who are ready to receive Christ.

Who are the ripe tomatoes in our lives? People who are ready to respond to an invitation to follow Jesus?

He also talked about the acronym: BLESS

• Be praying for them
• Listen to them (ask questions!)
• Eat with them
• Serve them
• Share [Christ] with them.

He also mentioned that we should ask people in our own churches to tell us their story of how they became a Christian. It could be that there are people attending church that have not actually surrendered their lives to Christ and are not yet Christians.

Steve also talked about praying for two to three people, by name, to come to Christ. He mentioned how the preacher D.L. Moody made a list of 100 people that he would pray for daily to come to Christ and how at the time of his death, 97 of them had receieved Christ and the other three men did at his funeral! What an amazing story!

Tiffany's talk was incredible and the main take away for me personally was the "dignity of notice", things like looking people in the eye, saying hello and thank you, noticing those who were often overlooked (servers, employees, etc...), and complimenting people on things that are true and good. Such a small gesture, but so potentially powerful.

And last, Brandon, in his talk, mentioned crossing the pain threshold. Sometimes you just have to come out and ask people, "What have you done with Jesus?" No one will become a Christian through osmosis. We have to use words.

I'd encourage you to make the time to listen to the audio if you can and then share your thoughts with someone too!