Last weekend, 24 ministry leaders across the country gathered at the Billy Graham Library to see how they can encourage young people in sharing their faith. These leaders attended a two-day workshop called Vision for Evangelism for the Next Generation.
Evangelist. Doesn’t that mean you need a pulpit and a crowd?
Yikes, that could be scary. At least, that’s what some young people thought before attending an evangelism workshop at the Billy Graham Library last fall.
“They thought you either had to be a Billy Graham or a Billy Graham type to be an evangelist,” Palma Hutchinson said. “They never connected evangelism with their everyday life—going to school, going to work, the college classroom and so on.”
Hutchinson directs a NextGen initiative for the Church of God of Prophecy in Kentucky. The NextGen Imperative helps equip the next generation for living out and sharing their faith. One way that’s been done is through the Billy Graham Library’s Vision for Evangelism workshop.
The students she took to the workshop last year found that they don’t have to be preachers to share their faith—although some might go that route. Evangelism can be done right where they are—whether they become lawyers, missionaries, business owners, stay-at-home moms or wherever their lives lead.
Over the weekend, 24 ministry leaders around the United States came to the Library to see what the workshop is all about and be inspired to bring back young people to experience the same thing.
It was a light-hearted crowd with a serious desire to see up-and-coming leaders be bold and purposeful in their faith.
“They were laughing and giving input,” Library Vice President Tom Phillips said. “People were just jumping in and really taking part.”
Vision for Evangelism is built around Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The workshop isn’t a set of instructions on how to do evangelism, but a guide to help people develop a Christ-led vision for how He can use them one on one. Many participants find inspiration in the Library’s Journey of Faith tour, which shows how God used Billy Graham, a North Carolina farm boy, to reach millions with the message of Christ.
But like Hutchinson’s students learned last fall, the burden of evangelism isn’t all on them. It’s not all about seeking non-Christians to share your faith with, she said, but being open to the Holy Spirit’s work in your life and allowing Him to connect you with people who need Christ.
Five leaders who attended the workshop over the weekend, including Hutchinson, already plan to bring more young people back to participate—high schoolers, college and seminary students, along with young pastors.
“We have a young team that could be greatly encouraged by this, as well as further challenged to answer a greater call to this work (of evangelism),” Chris McFarland said.
McFarland is executive vice president of the Minneapolis-based Pulse Movement, a nonprofit that engages, trains and disciples young adults on serving God and proclaiming the hope found in Christ. The movement reaches hundreds of thousands of people each year.
But the Vision for Evangelism workshop also touched the leaders themselves.
For McFarland, the weekend at the Library added some concrete ideas to the vision he’s had for years.
And it gave Hutchinson some perspective on her life outside of her job.
“In my work, I am surrounded by Christ followers,” Hutchinson said. But the weekend workshop reminded her not to become so busy with that work she overlooks God’s command to share her faith with others.
Jeff Bogue, senior pastor at Grace Church, an Ohio megachurch, also attended the workshop and has been thinking about some teenagers and young adults he could send to it. His children attend a Christian high school, and he’d like to get their teachers involved as well.
“All ministry should lead with evangelism,” Pastor Bogue said. “You can’t love people without caring about their eternal soul.”
Email VisionForEvangelism@bgea.org for more information.
