Evangelism Memory Verse:
“Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” –Psalm 34:14,15
Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml
Evangelism Quote:
“Peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy.” –William Gurnall
Evangelism Opportunities:
1. Thursday, October 2nd, 10:30AM-2:30PM: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the University of North Texas in Denton. We have reserved a free speech area on campus, in front of the Student Union building near the bus stops (Free Speech Area A) and will pass out tracts, do one-to-one and open-air preach. You can find directions to the campus at www.unt.edu. If you would like to join us, please let me know.
2. Friday, October 3rd, 7:30PM—11:00PM: State Fair of TX at Fair Park in Dallas. We will organize some open-air preaching and witnessing at a couple of the gates. We will focus on Gate #5, “Grand Gate”, which is off of R.B. Cullum Blvd. We will carpool to save money on parking. If you would like to carpool from Justin or Southlake, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com. Keep in mind that The Great News Network has established in court that the property in front of these gates is indeed public property and the police are well aware of that fact. This is a great opportunity to preach the Gospel at a venue where the right to preach the Gospel has been firmly established.
3. Friday, October 3rd, 6:00PM–??: Northwest ISD home football game in Justin. First Baptist Church of Justin has a hot dog\refreshment stand offering free goodies to the football fans. This is a great opportunity to pass out tracts and witness while working at the booth. If you are interested in helping, please contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.
4. Sunday, October 5th, 1:45PM—4:30PM: Gay Pride Parade in Fort Worth. If you would like to come to this event, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com and I’ll give you the details on where we will be meeting. As you know, we did the pride parade in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and found a loving and uncompromised Christian witness to be effective in presenting the Gospel to the homosexual community.
5. Saturday, October 11th, 6:00PM-9:00PM: Celebrate Roanoke festival in Roanoke, TX. TLC applied for a festival booth for this event and was denied a booth space in spite of having all of the paperwork properly completed, the fee paid in full, and submitted well in advance of the due date. However, this is an excellent event to evangelize; many believers have passed out tracts here with no trouble. Our plan is similar to the Grapefest outreach we just conducted a couple of weeks ago. We’ll go and pass out tracts and do one-to-ones. If the opportunity presents itself, we will do some open-air preaching near the entrances. We will meet at the parking lot of First Baptist in Justin at 5:30PM to carpool to the festival. If you are coming, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.
Evangelism Report:University of North Texas, Denton:
On Thursday, a small group of us went out to UNT to give glory to God in evangelism. TLC Staff, Jeff Clayton and Anthony Crawford (no relation to Tim) set up in the free speech zone and did open-air, passed out tracts and had many one-to-ones.
The highlight of the day for me was when Anthony found us there and spent the day with us. Anthony is a new believer; a former false convert who we met a couple of weeks ago during an open-air. He’s been reading the Word, attending church, and now has a desire to share the Gospel with his lost family members. I spent a lot of the day yesterday discipling Anthony, teaching him about sharing the Gospel and answering his questions about the Bible. While I did that, Tim did a couple of open-airs and Jeff passed out tracts and did one-to-one.
During one of Tim’s OA’s, Anthony helped me form a small “rent a crowd”. A student from one of his classes stopped to chat with Anthony to see what was going on. It turns out that the student is a Muslim and they got into a deep discussion about Christianity. At one point, Anthony asked me for my Bible and he shared with this guy the Word. I tried to leave him on his own with this guy so that he could learn from the experience and to his credit, he didn’t ask for help.
After it was over, we did a little debriefing, but rejoiced with him because this was the first time Anthony ever witnessed! It wouldn’t be the last time that day.
Later, Tim was open-airing again when an angry atheist (and his wife) stormed across the street from the bus stop and started arguing with Tim. His wife sat on a bench nearby patiently waiting for the tirade to end. Without any prompting on our part, Anthony went over and sat on the bench next to her and engaged her in conversation.
The discussion the atheist had with Tim and a Christian friend named John from First Baptist Church of Briar, TX didn’t seem to go anywhere. The guy claimed he had been saved five times as a kid and used to be a “Bible thumper.” The discussion went around and around and Tim faithfully sowed the Word of God.
Meanwhile, Anthony spoke with the atheists wife. He said later that he was able to reason with her and she seemed more open than her husband. Please pray for her, that the Word which was sown in her will bear fruit.
We have strong reasons to believe that Anthony’s recent profession of faith is real. He’s not afraid to align himself with campus preachers when we’re not exactly the most popular people on campus. And now he’s witnessing! Praise the Lord!
Tim had many good one-to-ones, as did Jeff. I didn’t catch all of the details from them, so I can’t report on them. I had one tough one-to-one with another atheist named Richard. Richard knows all about WoTM and did not let me get very far. He’s been pretty well schooled in what’s called “Counter Evangelism”; there’s even a free book that’s been circulating on the internet. I spun my wheels with him for a long time. Finally, our discussion went like this:
Me: “Richard, I don’t expect to be able to reason you into Christianity, but that’s what you want.”
Richard: “Exactly.”
Me: “The problem is I can’t. I believe the Bible is true and since that’s the case, it teaches that you are dead in your trespasses and sins and can’t even respond to this message because you are born in sin.”
Richard: “You’re saying I don’t have a free will?!?!”
Me: “Exactly.”
Richard: (starting to catch on) “So, you think that God doesn’t choose some people for salvation and that’s why I’m not listening to this (expletive deleted)?”
Me: “Yes, the Bible teaches election.”
Richard: “That’s absurd! I could never believe in a God like that!”
Me: “Which just proves my point. It’s all about you. Unless God does a miracle and gives you life, you can’t even make the choice to repent and believe.”
Richard: “So why do you bother preaching?”
Me: “Because God uses the preaching of the Gospel to give life to those He has called. He uses His Word. We just come out here, preach, and see what God does.”
In the end we disagreed, but Richard took a business card and promised to email me to continue our discussion.
I wouldn’t usually preach Reformed doctrine while I’m evangelizing. However, in Richard’s case he needed to hear it. He was extremely arrogant and “intellectual”. He was ready for me when it came to the Law. Atheists need humbling and nothing is more humbling to the pride of man than the truth taught in Ephesians 1-2 (and elsewhere) that we don’t choose God; He chooses us.
I’ve read their counter evangelism book and they don’t prep their people for Reformed doctrine, so I gave it a whirl. Please know I’m not looking for a debate on this if you disagree. I do share it here so that if you are Reformed, you can use this when you run into atheists who are schooled in counter evangelism. They don’t know what to do with it.
May God get the glory for what He continues to do at UNT.
Mormon Visit (Justin, TX):
On Thursday night I was blessed with a visit from several Mormon missionaries and Margaret, the Mormon UNT student I mentioned last week, at our home in Justin. By the end of the hour and a half visit, six Mormons (mostly missionaries) stopped by the house. Margaret is not a missionary and another of the men (who was a little older) seems to be a teacher from a local LDS church.
The first part of the visit consisted of their standard presentation: their reasoning for the need of a modern day “prophet”, a passionate relation of the first vision that Joseph Smith had, and their testimonies to what they believe is the truth of this vision. Once this portion was done and it was time for me to ask questions, the female missionary and Margaret were quick to try to leave. Margaret is not a missionary and it’s likely that they didn’t want her to hear my questions, which definitely were not “faith promoting.”
Rather than give a blow by blow of what happened, perhaps it will be helpful to have a brief outline of my approach with them
1. Before challenging LDS beliefs, it is important to establish that your questions are important because the Biblical definition of faith is “trust in someone or something which is trustworthy”. By this definition, I cannot accept the claims of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the teachings of the LDS church (they are not all the same) because these claims do not match the Bible and have been proven historically to be false.
2. Before challenging their beliefs, I establish that I am aware of their history and have read both pro and anti-Mormon perspectives on their history. I have read the stuff by faithful Mormons such as Arrington, Juanita Brooks and Stegner as well as the stuff by Fawn Brodie, Vardis Fisher, and others. I tell them that I sympathize with them about the persecution they have faced everywhere they have gone: from Palmyra to Kirtland to Nauvoo to Carthage. The people who ran them out on rails, tarred and feathered them, and even killed them may have claimed to be Christians, but they were probably false converts (Matthew 7:21-23). I tell them that my point is not to persecute them by asking these questions, but to establish whether or not the Book of Mormon and the LDS church are worthy of placing faith in. It’s important to establish this because they view any serious questioning of their faith as persecution.
And here is a simple list of the points covered:
–The Book of Mormon has no archaeological evidence.
–The Bible clearly does not teach that God was once a man.
–Clarification of what their terms “repentance” and “faith” really mean (membership in the LDS church is expected in real repentance and faith).
–The Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, although later “prophets” have explained this away in later editions’ footnotes.
–The Bible does not teach that man may become God.
–A presentation of the Ten Commandments, proving that we’re all liars, thieves and adulterers. How then can we become God, who is perfectly holy (Isaiah 6) and always has been?
–Establishing that the Church has always had a remnant of true believers who held to the true Gospel taught by the apostles, even through the Dark Ages. Paul said that anyone who preached a different Gospel is “anathema” (Gal. 1:8-9).
–Reminding them that the Lord Jesus told us that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. LDS teaching insists instead that they did prevail, and thus the need for a prophet.
–Pointing out that the Book of Abraham Egyptian papyrus, the foundation for the book of the same name in the Pearl of Great Price, was discovered at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1967 and when translated, was discovered to be a common “Egyptian Book of the Dead” with no reference to Abraham or ANY of the contents that Smith claimed in the Pearl of Great Price. In short, it is evident that Smith knew nothing of Egyptian and translated nothing. His so called translation was a hoax.
–A challenge to ask them where the “corrupted versions” of the Bible are, because the thousands of manuscripts do not attest to such a corruption of the essential Gospel message.
–A presentation of the true Gospel.
May the Lord use this simple outline to assist you in your witness to the Mormons who come to your door.
State Fair of Texas\Lower Greenville Avenue:
On Friday night, TLC Staff met Jason Sides at the State Fair to do some evangelism. Only problem: the gates were just dead. No activity. So after we regrouped, we drove over to Lower Greenville Avenue and did one-to-one out there. Jimmy Reesman met us there as well and we had a good night of evangelism.
Tim had several good conversations. He spoke with a homosexual named Drew who was a bit resistant at first, but then warmed as Tim compassionately, reasonably and uncompromisingly presented the Gospel to him. This is the beauty of using the Ten Commandments to bring the knowledge of sin; it puts us all on equal footing and in equal need of salvation. He also spoke with Alan, a guy with a sweet motorcycle (Ninja), who did not want to take a tract at first. Tim engaged him in casual conversation about his bike (Tim used to race motocross) for about 15 minutes. As Tim got ready to leave, Alan asked for a tract! They had a good conversation about the Gospel, in spite of his initial reluctance.
My best one-to-one of the night was with a valet named Ryan. The conversation was pretty much “text book”; he was extremely open to talk and thanked me for taking the time to share the Gospel with him! His questions when we were discussing justification by faith showed that he was “getting it”. Please pray that the seed planted will bear good fruit.
Both Jason and Jimmy had good conversations as well. Jason spoke with a woman who, after hearing the Gospel, said, “Okay, what do I do from here?” Apparently this is the Lower Greenville version of the classic “What must I do to be saved?”. Jason carefully explained to her what she must do and she not only listened, but indicated that she will! Pray that the Lord will draw her unto Himself.
One Day Evangelism Training (Patillo Baptist Church)\Stockyards (Fort Worth):
On Saturday, TLC Staff traveled with Trish Ramos of Way of the Master Radio to Patillo Baptist Church near Lipan, TX. Rhonda Stroud, a dear friend from our days with The Great News Network, traveled up from Temple to take part as well. This was a fantastic seminar because of the participants. We had about 25 attendees, including the pastor and his wife! It is always a blessing to meet a pastor who cares deeply about biblical evangelism. Pastor Devin does not do regular street evangelism, but he is opportunistic about sharing the Gospel. He carries tracts with him everywhere and creatively engages strangers and friends in order to share Christ.
After the seminar, we traveled an hour to the Stockyards in Fort Worth. We gathered in front of the Stock Exchange and Trish did a great job using trivia questions to draw a crowd. The crowd of 15 from Patillo Baptist helped draw more interest. At that point, she turned it over to me and I offered to give $10 to anyone who could name the Ten Commandments. No one took me up on it and then I switched to the Good Person test and at that point we got a vet from the war in Iraq to give it a try. We established his (and all of our) guilt before a holy God, using the Ten Commandments. I finished with a presentation of the Gospel and Trish followed my presentation with a straightforward challenge about the demands of the Gospel.
After that, we split up the team. Me, Tim, Rhonda and Trish all took folks from the church to pass out tracts. They did a great job. The four teens I worked with stepped out of their comfort zones and approached people from a variety of backgrounds up and down Exchange Street. Hundreds of tracts went out and there were many good one-to-ones as well. We bless God for a productive partnership with Trish in this endeavor and an amazing church that took time out of their weekend to learn about evangelism.
Evangelism Resources:1. You may have noticed that Way of the Master Radio is not playing locally anymore. Please consider signing a petition to bring back Way of the Master Radio to 91.3 and 91.7. The petition is co-sponsored by Fish with Trish, Sovereign Joy Community Church and The Lost Cause Ministries. The company tries to trick you into making a donation, but it is not necessary. Once you have signed the petition (clicked the button) the signature is recorded. TLC, Sovereign Joy or Fish with Trish do not make any money on this petition. Here is the link.
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2. Fireproof opened this past weekend and was number three in sales on opening day (Friday)! This is an excellent movie on many levels. The acting is well done, the writing is tight, but best of all, the movie creatively shares the Gospel! It is a great movie for married couples and is a great reminder of how we need nurture our spouses. We (Jon and Kim) saw it Sunday afternoon; it’s one of the few movies I’ve been to where the audience applauded when it was over and did not move when the credits began to roll. Click on the image above to see where and when it is playing near you. But bring a box of tissues.
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3. It’s not too early to start thinking about Halloween! On October 31st minions will be knocking on your door, begging for tricks or treats. We recommend giving them the biggest candy bars in your neighborhood AND a creative Gospel tract. Click the image at the left for a great deal on some creative Gospel tracts ($3.00 for a pack of 100). Kids WILL read them.
4. Here is a great overview of the Emergent Church by the apologist, Dr. Norm Geisler. You can read it here.
5. Here is a great thought provoking video on the duty of evangelism for the local church. Don’t miss this!
The Lost Cause Ministries & Missions:
TLC will be represented at First Baptist Church of Justin (TX) during their Missions Summit October 19-22. TLC will have a table at the Summit. Please stop by and say “hello.”
If your church is having a missions conference and would like to have a ministry representing the mission field in the United States, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com to book us.
Speaking Engagement:
Jon Speed will be preaching on Sunday October 26th at The Light of Denton while Pastor Tim Camp is away. The church meets at Faith Baptist School at 3730 E. McKinney Street, Suite 106 in Denton, TX (76208). The worship service begins at 10:00AM. Please stop by if you are in the area and are not attending elsewhere.
Praise
Friends of the ministry donated a total of twelve tickets for the Texas State Fair so that TLC representatives can go and present the Gospel there. These will enable us to go inside to use the bathrooms, get food, and covertly speak to fair goers one-to-one. We thank God for the Feucht family and for Randy Engstrom of DARR Equipment.
Recent Emails
Here are some recent emails we have received over the past couple of weeks, offered here without comment.
From a professing atheist:
“Hi Jon, this is __________. I’m not sure if you remember me, but I’ve seen you up at UNT twice now. I haven’t been around the past couple weeks because of my homework load, but I just thought I’d let you know that your speeches are still on my mind! I have actually started praying again, to see if it will do anything for my thoughts on religion.”
From a Gay Pride Parade attendee:
“________ you. Why do you feel the need to push your beliefs upon everyone else? You’re a great example of everything wrong with Christianity. Go to Hell.”
From another Gay Pride attendee:
“I am fairly certain I would not even be welcome to stand on the sidewalk in front of one of your churches and talk about issues of concern to gay people. Believe me, we all get your message. You have every right to spread the message of hate.”Evangelism Training Opportunities:1. Consider attending the Deeper Conference in Woodstock, GA on October 17-18. Deeper is sponsored by Way of the Master. The featured speakers include Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, Ken Ham and Pastor Johnny Hunt, among others. After the conference is over on Saturday the 18th, a group of Christians from the conference will meet in Atlanta, GA to spread the Gospel. Transplant Ministries is spear-heading this effort called “The 500”. TLC Ministries is assisting Transplant Ministries in organizing this outreach. You can find out more about the outreach and register at www.thefivehundred.org. 2. TLC Ministries is partnering with One Million Tracts and Sports Fan Outreach to do the Super Bowl Outreach in Tampa Bay, FL in January 29-February 1, 2009! Come to Tampa for intense, powerful Biblical evangelism at one of the best venues to do evangelism in the world! From personal experience, we can tell you this is a great opportunity to share Christ with the average Super Bowl fan, other partiers who attend the Super Bowl pre-game events, and celebrities. This outreach costs $325 (plus your own airfare\travel) and includes: two meals per day, lodging, evangelism speakers, travel throughout the Tampa area, formal and informal personal training, customized tracts designed especially for this event, a t-shirt, and a commemorative picture from the outreach. The following speakers have been confirmed for this event: Tony Miano (Living Waters\Ambassador’s Academy), Al Whittinghill (formerly of Precept Ministries and now of Ambassadors for Christ International, recommended by Kay Arthur, Steve Green, Johnny Hunt, Leonard Ravenhill, Richard Owen Roberts, Ravi Zacharias, Vance Havner, Larry Burkett and others) , and Dr. Elias Medeiros (professor of Missions at Reformed Theological Seminary). Prayer Update:
1. Pray for all those who heard the Gospel at UNT, Lower Greenville Ave. and in the Stockyards.
2. Pray for the six Mormons who heard the Gospel.
3. Pray for the upcoming outreaches.
4. Pray for finalizing details of The Five Hundred outreach in Atlanta on October 18th.
5. Prayerfully consider attending the Super Bowl Outreach in Tampa Bay in early 2009.
6. Pray for the ongoing Texas Youth Commission ministry at McFadden Ranch in Roanoke. Pray that the kids will be obedient and that the kids in our Bible study will consistently walk with Christ (if they are Christians) or that the Lord would bring them to repentance (if they are not).
7. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
8. Pray that we will be men of God who lead our families in integrity.
9. Pray for wisdom as we consider future Evangecamps in various parts of the country.
10. Pray for the financial situation of TLC Ministries. We were informed recently that our annual financial support (salaries) will be cut by a third beginning in October. This places us in the position of raising financial support to make up the difference and shuffling our personal budgets accordingly in the meantime. Please pray for us while we make the adjustment and make plans for raising financial support. We thank God for the fact that we have been able to have our needs met to this point and we trust Him to continue to provide. He is truly Jehovah-Jireh. This is His ministry and He will sustain it.
“Yet remember, though He condescendeth to reason, to persuade, to [call], and to beseech, still His Gospel hath in it all the dignity and force of a command. If we would preach it in these days as Christ did, we must proclaim it as a command from God, attended with a divine sanction and not to be neglected, save at the infinite peril of a soul…’Repent ye’ is as much a command of God as ‘Thou shalt not steal.’” 
1. It’s that time of year for Christmas evangelism! Do you send out an annual Christmas card? If so, why not use that opportunity to include a tract and a fun Christmas quiz? Click the image to the left to see the tract from One Million Tracts. And click here to get a great FREE, reproducible Christmas quiz from Living Waters to print and send to your Christmas card list! 
“Indeed, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world-namely, that a righteousness that resides with a person in heaven should justify me, a sinner on earth.” –John Bunyan
