By Message Staff
PINEVILLE – During the evening session of the 2018 Evangelism Conference, Brent Crowe urged hundreds of adults and youth to make sure redemption through Christ was part of the life story.
“When Jesus calls us to tell a story in our life that has redemption as the theme and the redeemer Jesus as the central character, He not only bids us to tell the story but He provides us all the resources that are necessary so that theme will be true in our lives,” said Crowe, vice president of Student Leadership University in Orlando, Fla. “If redemption is not the theme of the story we are telling in our life, then our story is not worth telling.”
Crowe spoke Jan. 22 to a packed crowd in the worship center at First Baptist Church, Pineville, while hundreds of youth watched from their home churches via a livestream broadcast during student night at ECON.
At the invitation, three students came forward to declare Christ the Lord of lives, four repented to restore fellowship with Christ, two responded to the Holy Spirit’s call to vocational ministry and one made an undisclosed spiritual commitment.
Student night also featured the testimony of Kayla Sasser, a member of the youth group at Philadelphia Baptist Church, Deville. A combined choir of students and the Ray Jones and Community Bible Church, San Antonio, Texas, band, also were part of the service. Meanwhile the BMX bike stunt team from Real Encounter ministry entertained students before a pizza supper just for the youth.
Student night kicked off the first of many large events in 2018 for Harvest, a statewide campaign that so far has enlisted more than 900 of 1,650 Louisiana Baptist churches to “pray for every home and share Christ with every person” in Louisiana.
State strategists spent 2016 to plan and enlist leaders and churches and in 2017 conducted statewide evangelism training and piloted different methods.
Now, Louisiana Baptists are joining together across the state in 2018 for 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.
Crowe’s message capped off the first day of the ECON, which also featured messages by Ron Herrod, founder of RHEMA ministry; Iris Blue, co-founder of Duane and Iris Blue ministries; and Sammy Tippit, founder of Sammy Tippit Ministries.
The second day of ECON will include messages by Ken Weathersby, vice president for convention advancement for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention; Duane Blue, co-founder of Duane and Iris Blue ministries; Rick Gage, founder of GO TELL Ministries; Karen Abercrombie, an actress in the movie “War Room”; Greg Frizzell, founder and president of Gregory Frizzell Prayer and Renewal Ministries; and Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans and a former Southern Baptist Convention president.
A senior adult luncheon also is scheduled with guests Frizzell and Abercrombie speaking and Larnelle Harris and Voices of Louisiana College singing.
Breakout sessions will be conducted in the afternoon.
Look for additional coverage of ECON later at baptistmessage.com and in the next print edition of the Baptist Message.
A member of the Real Encounter BMX team prepares to jump over Stuart Sasser, student minister at Philadelphia Baptist Church, Deville. Brian Blackwell photo
