On mission Christians awaken to their personal responsibility to share Christ. That upward awakening leads to inward adjustments where they discover how God has uniquely created them to share Christ. When Christians discover their role, it activates them to share Christ. As a result, they become passionate advocates who want to help others find their styles for personal evangelism and who long to see on mission Christians and churches who are sharing Christ.
Survey says: ask the right questions How do you find out what would bring unchurched people to church? Ask them. For Captain Dave Mikkelson and a group of chaplains at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the idea was as natural as jumping out of an airplane.
PHOTO COURTESY OF Captain David mikkelson
When six young chaplains were assigned to Fort Bragg two years ago, they wondered why chapel services werent reaching more young soldiers, the majority of the installations population.
We said, What if we come up with a way to make young people comfortable and make them want to come to chapel? recalled Mikkel-son, an 82nd Airborne chaplain. Chaplain David Shoffner took the lead. In 90 days the team surveyed 500 soldiers and asked them things like If you came to church, what kinds of things would interest you? The survey found most soldiers were struggling with, and wanted help with, relationships. The research launched the All-American Servicechapel with a twistusing a contemporary worship style, another desire the survey revealed.
Since our first service on Septem-ber 15, 1996, weve had more than 1,000 soldiers come through who indicated they were first-time visitors and our attendance is up on average. We specifically target the unchurched. We have a core group who invite their unchurched friends and help bring them to Christ, Mikkelson said.
Before David and Lavon Watson began attending chapel services they werent attending church and their marriage was struggling. A chaplain invited them to a service, but like a lot of folks, they didnt respond on the first invite. After continued invitations, they finally came. Their reaction was like that of many soldiersWow! This is not the church my parents took me to when I was eight.
David and Lavon became Christians and have been very involved in the service. Lavon is our childrens church coordinator. David brings his grill for cookouts. Now they are inviting their friends to chapel, says Mikkelson.
PHOTO COURTESY OF 82ND AIRBORNE
We work with cultural Christians. If you ask them, they say, Of course Im a Christian. Some of them are Christians who are coming back to the Lord. Some never were born again. Then theres an entire group who has never heard the gospel. Theyve never opened a Bible, and theyve never stepped inside a church. Their whole concept of God is from Hollywood and from TV. We work with both groups simultaneously, Mikkelson said.
The All-American Service has spread to eight forts and bases across the country and has even been exported to South Korea. Mikkelson is excited by the success of the team ministry approach at the core of the All-American Service. The team approach assigns a chaplain to each area of ministry. One serves as the primary preacher, another as an
administrative pastor and others take the lead in different ministry areas. The team functions much like a church staff.
Gods working here. Hes inspiring people and they are shifting and changing in response to His work. Theres a fervor to reach unchurched soldiers and an increased evangelistic fervor thats personally satisfying to me.
Mikkelson can be reached at 910-432-5010 or mikkelsd@bragg.army.mil.
Contact NAMB chaplaincy at 770-410-6365 or rvickers@namb.net.
Joe Conway
Its a joy, not a burdenSharing Christ comes easily for professional Christians, right? Not always, claims church planter/pastor Roger Ferrell, who freely admits his own struggles with personal evangelism.
For a long time, Id just go and do my ministry, he says. It was a lifestyle and I loved it, but when I was off-duty, I was off-duty.
Id go to the gas station and see the attendant and wouldnt think anything about sharing Christ with him. Id go to a restaurant, the waitress would come, wed pay our bill and I wouldnt think anything about sharing Christ with that waitress.
Thats a huge confession on my part. I did not have a heart for evangelism the whole time I was in youth ministry and music ministry. Now God has opened my eyes and heart to see that, everywhere I go, I have opportunities to share the gospel. Its not my job to convince people to believe it, just to share it. I dont see now how I could ever go back. Its not a burden. Its a joy.
PHOTO BY NAJLAH FEANNY
Ferrell, pastor of South Coast Community Church in Portland, Maine, since February 1998, credits his newfound zeal to a recent study of the Great Commission.
Making disciples was Jesus command. Go is not the command. Its as you are going, make disciples. Sometimes we focus so much on the go part that we go and do all kinds of activities, he says.
Its important, he believes, that people learn to see evangelism as a natural outgrowth of who they are in Christ, not as a program, presentation or method to be learned.
The most important thing, he says, is that you be yourself and be genuinely interested in the other person. If I really care about someone, Im going to share Christ with that person in a way thats real and genuine, and in a way that my love for him or her is evident. All the methods and formulas in the world cant take the place of that genuine concern. If you dont feel that concern, then you dont do it. Its as simple as that.
Ferrell finds that its easier to grow to care about people as more than just potential converts by getting to know themreally getting to know them. For him, relational evangelism is the key to reaching people.
Most of the people here are not real comfortable with direct evangelism, coming up to people on the street and asking people if they know Jesus Christ, he says. But they are willing to say to a friend, family member or neighbor, Hey, were doing this great thing at our church. Do you want to come? And that can lead to conversations about Christ.
That means were only going to reach as many people as we know, so our people have to get out and meet people. And then as new people come in, we find that the more unchurched they are, the more unchurched people they know. And they make very effective evangelists to those people.
Sean Taylor
Breaking the alabaster jarMeeting God and getting involved in His plan for evangelism is a lot like breaking an alabaster jar, at least for Susan Field.
For me, it was more a call than an awakening, says Field of her work with students at New York Citys Columbia University and New York University. When a chaplain at the school retired and a missionary moved on, students needed a leader. They would call the church and I realized they were like sheep without a shepherd. I really prayed about helping in a volunteer role, and then thefull-time position at Columbia just came up.
So, I took a day to pray. In my Bible, the story I picked up that day was about the woman with the vial of perfume and how she broke it to bathe Jesus feet. And God said to me through that passage, Whats your alabaster jar? Is it that your time is your own? That you answer to yourself for your days schedule? Youre not breaking your alabaster jar. And I could see that I needed to help these students who wouldnt have anybody otherwise.
Her jar broken, she now traverses Manhattan frequently to help Christian students plug in to existing ministries and help non-Christian students find Christ.
Field has discovered that many of the students who have not had the luxury of growing up in a church-centered environment are more open to the basic claims of Christ and to the truth of the Bible.
This places Field in the position of being one of the first people to actually take the time to explain Christ to them. Its a position she welcomes enthusiastically. But it goes beyond simply telling them about Christ.
Admitting that todays college campuses can be places that belittle students for simple faith in God and the Bible, Field says her job is to provide them with the support to become and be Christian in the intellectual setting that so often dismisses faith as myth.
By giving students a haven where belief in Christ is welcomed and honored, she offers a nurturing shoulder that also helps some students take the initial step of accepting Christ.
I think the students here feel what appears to be a conflict between thinking and faith, she says, and they need someone to tell them that you can be intelligent and totally faithful. Thats not a conflict. My ministrys a lot about telling them its okay to be or become a Christian.
Church planting no hang-up for HobafcoviciA knock on the door. A familiar dialect. The promise of food with the savory tastes of home. It was too much for Mark Hobafcovici to refuse his first day in a new land and the encounter affected the way he would someday lead people to Christ.
It was February 15, 1981, a Sunday morning and my first day in Australia. A member of the Romanian Baptist Church in Melbourne knocked on my door. He asked if I wanted to go to church. He said there would be food, and I hadnt had a Romanian meal in months, Hobafcovici said.
PHOTO BY MIKE DUBOSE
Just 20 years old, Hobafcovici was a political refugee. Seeking freedom he had only read about, he found a greater freedom than he dreamed of when he became a Christian in the Romanian church in Melbourne.
As he grew closer to God and spent time in Bible study, a desire to reach others like himself grew inside Hobafcovici.
I have a burden for the wanderers, like me. People of different countries, different tongues. The Lord gave me that passion it comes from His heart.
It began when I was born again. Jesus loves all people, no matter what language they speak. Getting into the Word, drawing closer in prayer, you can begin to hear the Lords heartbeat for people.
Hobafcovici was drawn to Nashville from Australia in 1993 to work as a mission pastor. He and his wife worked first with other Romanians.
They started by using a phone book to look up and call every name that resembled a possible Romanian spelling.
Four years later they launched a Romanian language church with 43 members. He now works with 24 language churches in Nashville representing at least 17 different nationalities and one deaf congregation as language mission director for the Nashville Baptist Association.
The method of personal outreach that drew Hobafcovici became his model. He believes one of the best ways to plant a church is one-on-one.
It may be the hardest way, but it puts you in touch with peoples needs. It is time-consuming calling all the people, but it builds relationships and community.
By calling first and following up with face-to-face meetings, Hobafcovici introduced people to Jesus. Hes helped one language group after another replicate the same success by starting with a phone book to plant a church.
Im investing myself in these people. After a call I visit and get to know them. You have to build trust. I always tell them up front what Im doing and who I am. Many are skeptical at first, but they get to know you and your genuineness, Hobafcovici said.
Evangelism is primary, but flexibility is a must, Hobaf-covici says.
You cant go in with a preconceived idea. You have to learn as much as possible about the culture and then pray, asking Gods wisdom.
You have to find new ways and methods to help train people and start churches. Its rewarding and I wouldnt do anything else. Im sold.