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By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
ALEXANDRIA – Throughout the first few months of 2014, a massive media campaign will spread the word to soccer moms and others in Southwest Louisiana about the opportunity to say yes to a relationship with Christ.
And in the ensuing months and years that follow, Louisiana Baptist leaders hope the campaign will reach other areas of the state with that same message.
Announced during the Pastors Conference and Louisiana Baptist Convention Annual Meeting last week, Operation Highways and Hedges is a multiplatform, multiyear media strategy designed to work its way across the state over the next three-and-a-half years.
“Jesus directs us to go in the highways and the hedges,” according to John Kyle, LBC director of communications. “What does this looks like in the 21st century? How are we going to get inside the smart TV’s, smartphones and tablets people use on regular basis in order to plant Gospel seeds?”
Kyle explained that Operation Highways and Hedges has three primary goals. They are infiltrate and influence the culture, create opportunities for spiritual discussions and motivate those receiving these messages to check out the gospel and local Louisiana Baptist churches.
Southwest Louisiana has been selected as the first pilot market with a soft launch date in the first quarter of 2014.
Soccer moms, women in their late twenties through early forties with children approximately four years old through fifth grade are the first audience targeted with this campaign.
Included in the pilot market is the Carey and the Beauregard Baptist Associations which combined have approximately 112 churches. Kyle indicated initial contacts have been made with Bruce Baker of Carey Baptist Association and Tim Patrick of Beauregard Baptist Association, and an introduction to Highways and Hedges was shared with messengers attending their annual meetings.
Kyle and other leaders plan in the next couple of months to meet with pastors to prepare them for the outreach to allow for sufficient time to inform and prepare their congregations about Operation Highways and Hedges.
“Preparation will include resources that will enable church members to share their faith when opportunities arise or point the inquiring party to a website where more information regarding the Gospel and area churches can be secured,” Kyle said. “Equally important is preparing the congregation for potential guests that will visit area churches as a result of this effort. The questions we’re encouraging the churches to ask themselves include, are you ready for company? or if someone comes to your church, will they get the impression you’ve been expecting them or what are you doing here?”
Kyle notes that similar efforts among other groups have yielded increases in attendance and first time guests, but over time research showed the churches were not healthy enough to retain the people who came.
“If we think we are immune to this happening to us, we are mistaken,” according to Kyle.
Dr. David Hankins, executive director of the LBC, believes that Louisiana Baptists will be excited about this effort which not only will plant gospel seeds in the hearts of the lost and unchurched, but also will allow church members to see their cooperative efforts at work.
“Louisiana Baptists know their cooperative resources are working across the state and ultimately around the globe.” Hankins said. “Highways and Hedges will be a very tangible way for them to see first-hand how their gifts, given to the Lord through their church and forwarded through the Cooperative Program and the Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering, are impacting their community.”
Once the initial campaign has started in Southwest Louisiana, Kyle hopes to take the lessons learned and begin the same campaign in Northeast Louisiana in late 2014.
“I believe that a market-by-market approach is feasible, sustainable, and can be very effective,” Kyle said. “Highways and Hedges is designed to be an ongoing effort that will provide every person in Louisiana the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to a relationship with Jesus.”