Evangelism

[Gregory Matthews]

The current issue of Ministry contains a powerful editorial, “What is our job?” which I will abstract here.  In a small town of some 500+ homes, the local SDA congregation decided to prepare for evangelism in three months, with each member having a part.  Two brothers were intellectually and developmentally challenged.  When they asked the pastor to assign them a part, they were told to pray, which they understood as asking them to pray with town residents.  So, for the first month they visited homes:  “The pastor said we should pray for you. What do you want us to pray for?”  A simple prayer followed:  “OK Lord, please heal the cow.  Bye.”  The second month they were told to pray again and they visited the homes for a second time:  “The pastor said we should pray more for you.  What do you want us to pray for?”  Their simple prayer followed:  “OK, Lord, thank you for healing the cow.  Bye.”   Again, the third month was repeated.  As the evangelistic series began the members had been so busy getting ready, that few invited anyone to attend.  But, 46 people invited by the intellectually challenged brothers came.  Of those, 42 became members!