Evangelism Memory Verse:

“No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” –John 6:44

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:

“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.’”

–C.H. Spurgeon

 

 

 

 

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Saturday, December 13, 9:00AM—11:00AM: TLC Ministries is partnering with Agape Men’s Ministry of Texas for an outreach to the homeless in Fort Worth. We will meet at 9:00AM at Unity Park (adjacent to the Presbyterian Shelter in Fort Worth) to distribute coffee, donuts, and blankets to the homeless. Tim Crawford will preach the Gospel. There will be opportunities to do one-to-one evangelism as well. For more information, call 817-379-5279. For carpooling information, contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Saturday, December 13, Noon-3PM: Immediately after the morning’s outreach to the homeless in Fort Worth, TLC Ministries will travel to Dallas to assist with Operation Care Dallas at the Dallas Convention Center. The organizers expect 10,000 homeless to show up for food assistance. TLC will be there sharing the Gospel with those who come for food assistance. Volunteers are asked to wear red t-shirts or sweatshirts to identify themselves as volunteers, if possible. For more information contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.

3. Saturday, December 20: TLC Ministries will be partnering with the Austin Christmas Evangelism Boot Camp to assist in teaching the training sessions prior to the outreach as well as the outreach afterwards. This event is FREE. More information, including the registration form, can be found here: http://www.austincebc.com. For carpooling and housing information, contact Jon at jon@lostcauseministries.com. The outreach will last from 4-10PM.

3. Wednesday, December 31, 8:00PM–Midnight: TLC Ministries will take the Gospel to the Big D NYE event in Victory Park in Dallas, TX! We missed this event last year, but plan on hitting it this year with strength. Let’s close out a fantastic year sharing the Gospel with a full fledged effort to proclaim it with passion and boldness as Dallas turns out to party. This event will draw thousands of people who MUST be reminded that there is a God and that they are accountable to Him. Let’s exalt Christ! Carpools will leave the Justin TX area at 7:00PM. For carpooling info, contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

Evangelism Report:Denton Holiday Lighting Festival (Denton, TX):Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman, Chad Welty and the Diggs family all convened on the town square in Denton to pass out tracts at the Denton Holiday lighting on Thursday night. It was a busy night of one-to-ones and tract distribution. A group from The Light of Denton was there as well presenting the Gospel. Praise the Lord for all of those who heard the Gospel in print or by word of mouth.

Here’s a full report from Tim Crawford:

Thursday night was a cold one, but TLC Ministries bundled up and headed out to the Denton Historic Square for its annual Holiday lighting festival.

It was a great opportunity for us to preach the Gospel considering the thousands of people who attend this event for the festivities and the infamous “Wassail Fest” competition. This is an annual event where all of the local businesses make up a hot apple cider-like tea called Wassail and compete against each other to see which one is the best. There is also a historic courthouse on the square and the museum was open for all to see. This event has the traditional carolers and stages for musicals and kids choirs as well as many local vendors. It was a great family atmosphere with amazing opportunities to share the truth and the fact that “Jesus is truly the Reason for the Season”.

We had many great one-to-ones and to my surprise the people were willing to stop and listen at length despite the bitter cold. We had several amazing one-to-ones; the people were clearly broken by the law and brought to a place where they know a decision needs to be made. It was a great night out. One lady was broken; I decided to just minister to her and listen to her story about a broken home and children and what a mess she was in. I then shared the Gospel and some verses that seemed to give her hope and prayed with her and her friends. We need to remember that there are a lot of broken souls out there who just want you to listen. At that point you can share the gospel because, as Mark Cahill said, “Sharing the Gospel is about a conversation not a presentation.” This is so true! We need to be sensitive enough to listen to their needs and show them a true heart of love and compassion before just plowing through a presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that through a good conversation we will get to the presentation and present the Gospel of our Lord, but we need to show them that we care.

I also had a great opportunity to share the gospel with some of the big sponsors like Tom Thumb, Chicken Express and Dr. Pepper people. We got into the live feed news area and were able to get the gospel into there hands while they were being filmed for live TV. We meet some that were soundly saved and really encouraged that we were out sharing the good news.

All said and done we were able to share the gospel and distribute many Gospel tracts. Please pray that souls will be saved and God will be glorified through this out reach.

Texas Revival Series\Mark Cahill Event (West End in Dallas, TX):

TLC Ministries was blessed this past weekend with the privilege of organizing the first ever Texas Revival Series conference at the City Church International in Dallas, TX. Mark Cahill was the speaker and gave two powerful messages on witnessing. Praise the Lord, the church building was nearly full of believers who wanted to be challenged to share their faith, and they were not disappointed. Mark challenged us all to live our lives for the sake of the Gospel, to be consumed with it and the reality of death in the lives of the lost.

The event was also a time to network with other believers and ministries which focus on evangelism in our area. Ministries represented at the event included Voice of the Martyrs, Gospel for Asia, Fish with Trish\Way of the Master, The Lost Cause Ministries and One Million Tracts. We’re especially grateful for 91.7 KVTT for not only giving us a good deal on radio ads, but for their DJs who went the extra mile and strongly promoted the event during their live broadcasts. 91.3 also ran an announcement on their community calendar, for which we are grateful.

After the event on Saturday night, we became doers of the Word and not just hearers and went out to the West End Marketplace in Dallas to proclaim the Gospel. The West End proper was pretty dead, but we split the team of more than 40 believers into two teams and the other went to the train station. The DART police officers threatened to arrest several team members for attempting to open-air preach and simply passing out tracts. One officer stated, “I wish we could just arrest them all right now.”

Apparently, there is a procedure to be followed for gaining permission to hand out tracts at a DART station. These details can be reviewed here. TLC Ministries intends on following these instructions in the future since the West End station is a fantastic venue for sharing the Gospel. At the same time, we recognize that these policies may very well be unconstitutional and open to legal challenge. It is our understanding that attorneys have been contacted in order to test the legality of these claims.

Notwithstanding the efforts of those who oppose the Gospel, the Lord worked powerfully on the DART trains. Some of the team boarded the train and engaged in open-air preaching and one-to-one witnessing. One young lady made a profession of faith in Christ as a result, and was directed to a local church. We praise the Lord for this fruit in spite of the best efforts of the enemy to discourage this very thing.

I had the privilege (together with Rhonda Stroud and Trish Ramos) of discussing the true Gospel at length with a member of Tony Evans’ church named George who was out witnessing in the West End. George’s view of the Gospel is a mix of easy-believism and elements of the truth. He is confused on repentance, but seemed to be open, at least by the end of the conversation, to consider what we were saying. Please pray that he will contact me in order to continue the discussion.

On Sunday, Mark preached at the City Church International on the fear of man. Sunday night, he spoke at First Baptist Church of Justin on the same subject. There were many visitors at FBC Justin on Sunday night including a large group from UNT in Denton. All told, the event was a rousing success. Hundreds of Mark’s ministry resources were offered by donation only and will be distributed in the days ahead.

Evangelism Resources:

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!

2. Here is an excellent evangelistic sermon (text) from John MacArthur called “The Ugliness of Christmas.” Check it out here.

3. Here is a good evangelistic video which runs about 30 minutes. It’s worth passing along to unsaved friends. Here is the link.

4. Rick Warren is up to his usual cheap marketing tricks with the Gospel. Check out this article by Steve Camp on Warren’s challenge to Hannity & Colmes to “try Jesus for sixty days or their money back”.

Speaking Engagements:

Jon Speed will be filling the pulpit at Garner Baptist Church near Weatherford, TX on Sunday December 14th while Pastor Ted Winton is on vacation. If you are in the area and do not have a local church home, please consider this your invitation. The church is located at 2304 FM 113 Weatherford, TX 76088. Morning worship begins at 11:00AM and the evening service begins at 6:00PM. Hope to see you there!

Evangelism Training Opportunities:1. Reduced Price! Reduced Price! Reduced Price! 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 is now ONLY $225 (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) , Dr. Elias Medeiros (professor of Missions at Reformed Theological Seminary) and Andy Lapins (Transfired Ministries). 3. Here comes another great seminar opportunity! On February 19-22, Anchored in Truth Ministries will host the “Wonderful Grace of Repentance” conference in Muscle Shoals, AL. Guest speakers include Voddie Baucham, Conrad Mbewe (the Spurgeon of Africa), David Miller, Jonathan Sims, Paul Washer, and Jeff Noblit. Prayer Update:

1. Pray for all those who heard the Gospel in Denton and in Dallas.

2. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

3. Pray for the upcoming outreaches.

4. Prayerfully consider attending the Super Bowl Outreach in Tampa Bay in early 2009.

5. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Pray for the financial situation of TLC Ministries. We are beginning to raise support for the time when our salaries are cut by 33% on January 1^st. We are confident that the Lord will continue to provide.

7. Pray for the salvation of a UNT student who is a former agnostic but who has been reading Mark Cahill’s book, “One Heartbeat Away”. This student has been asking some great questions by email and seems to be very close to repenting and believing. Pray for good soil in this student’s heart!

8. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

 

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“Jesus answered and said to her, Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

–John 4:13,14

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: “Rebirth brings us into the Kingdom of grace, and death into the Kingdom of glory.” –Richard Baxter

 

 

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. CANCELLED (due to “dead week” before finals) Tuesday December 2^nd, 10:30AM-2:30PM: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the University of North Texas in Denton.

2. Thursday, December 4^th 5:30-9:00PM: Denton Holiday Lighting Festival. http://www.dentonholidaylighting.com/ TLC will be doing tract distribution, one-to-ones and open-air preaching at this Christmas event. To arrange carpooling, please contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com. We will meet in front of Recycled Books (corner of Locust and Hickory Streets on the square in Denton) promptly at 5:30PM. Carpools will leave the Justin area at 5:00PM.

3. Saturday, December 6^th, 7:30PM—10:00PM: Evangelism after Texas Revival Series’ Mark Cahill event at the West End Marketplace in Dallas. Plan on coming out to hear Mark Cahill and then hit the streets with us! Register for the Cahill event for FREE here: www.TexasRevivalSeries.com.

Evangelism Report:Youth Detention Ministry:

On Monday night I joined Ernie Black and Joe Todd of Countryside Bible Church at a local youth detention center to do a Bible study. There were about six teens present and we studied Matthew 22:23-40. Joe did a great job with the study and the guys listened well, which is always a blessing when it happens. We were able to review the Ten Commandments with the guys in the context of the lesson. Pray for the Word to find good soil in their hearts.

University of North Texas (Denton):Our time at UNT on Tuesday was kind of quiet, since we had to settle for Free Speech Area D, near the business administration building. However, we passed out hundreds of tracts and had several good one-to-ones. TLC Staff was joined by Jeff Pittman for a great day of effective evangelism. The weather was gorgeous with the temperature around 70 degrees.

We all took turns preaching towards the end of the day, without amplification. The one good thing about that free speech area is that the acoustics are phenomenal. We could be heard, without straining, more than 100 yards away.

I had one good one-to-one with a couple of students who were “textbook” conversations. They thought they were good enough to go to Heaven, but the Law obliterated their self-righteousness. They had Christian backgrounds, but did not know the first thing about the Gospel. I also spoke to a Catholic named Mark who did not know about the issue of justification by faith in relation to the Reformation and I was able to open my Bible and show him 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 5:8-9.

Tim had a heated conversation with an atheistic evolutionist who, when cornered on various positions would respond with vulgarities rather than reason. Tim, for his part, responded with grace, but this only made the atheist even madder. Eventually the guy stormed off, but he heard the Gospel. Wesley said that there are one of two ways people will respond when convicted: they will either grow sorrowful because of their sin or angry. We trust God that this anger may have been evidence of his own conviction. Please pray for his salvation.

Parade of Lights (Fort Worth):

We were blessed to be able to join up with several other teams to form one team of about 25 Biblical evangelists to hit the streets in Fort Worth, TX for the annual parade of lights. TLC Ministries was represented by myself, Tim Crawford, Jeff Pittman. Tom Sadowski, who preaches at UNT twice a month (on the days we’re not there) and in the West End in Dallas twice a month came out with some folks from his church, a few of which work with Gospel For Asia. Stephen Starnes’ Fort Worth team was there as well.

We began passing out money tracts to the crowd. Parade evangelism is like shooting fish in a barrel. As we walked in the street along the parade route (before the parade started) dozens of hands shot out from the crowd asking for the tracts! We received so many requests that we just passed the tracts to people in the crowd in stacks and asked them to give one to everyone, which they did. In about one hour our group of five (Ron and Ben Moore from the Fort Worth team joined us) went through all of the money tracts we had (about 2,000)! Shortly thereafter we ran out of ALL of the tracts we brought.

So, we turned to one-to-ones and open-air preaching. We found a quieter spot near one of the intersections behind the crowd and passed out the few tracts we had left and engaged in some one-to-ones. Tim Crawford had some good one-to-ones with some gangster teenagers. They started very self-righteous and confident that they were saved, but after they spoke Tim asked them again if they thought they’d be going to heaven or hell when they died? They all admitted that they would be going to hell. Tim presented the Gospel to them, focusing on justification by faith and the guys listened eagerly. We saw them later and Tim called out to them, “Hey guys, choose you this day whom you will serve! You guys could be great men of God one day. Leave it all behind and follow Jesus!” They smiled sheepishly and thanked Tim for sharing with them.

After the parade concluded, the massive crowd began moving towards Main Street where the city’s tree was about to be lit. Tom Sadowski began preaching near the porta-potties where a large crowd was waiting and where others were passing by. We supplied him with our amplifier and he preached a strong, faithful call to repentance and faith. Tim Crawford followed this up with his own unique presentation of the Gospel. I concluded with a message focusing on false conversion (which we deal with a lot here in the so-called “Bible belt”).

At this point most of the crowd had moved over to Main Street, so we found a good spot there and began preaching. Stephen Starnes preached a passionate, heart-felt plea to the lost to come to Christ. Stephen would not want me mentioning this, but at several points he was so overcome with emotion that you could hear the tears in his voice. It was a powerful illustration of what we all ought to be striving for: the spirit of 2 Timothy 2:24-26. Pastor Ted Winton followed Stephen with his usual powerful call to repentance. I preached again on all of the 10 commandments and on the reality of death, along with justification by faith in Christ alone. Tom preached after that, but I didn’t hear his message because I was busy talking with some folks.

The TLC contingent left after a season of prayer with everyone right around 9:00PM. The rest of the team continued on for another couple of hours.

What a blessing to have such a wonderful group of saints to preach with! The crowds were fairly respectful as we preached; this was a different crowd than the typical Friday night crowd in Sundance Square. Many families were there and some Christians stopped to listen and support the open-air. At one point, we even had an “amen corner”, with believers shouting out encouragement to “keep going”, “preach it!” and “that’s right”. It was a glorious night of presenting Christ. We had no problems with the police or security and Christ was glorified.

To God be the glory!!!Evangelism Resources:

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!

2. Please read this blog on the recent passing of former Dallas Theological Seminary professor and easy-believism proponent, Zane Hodges. Be sure to read the comments as well.

3. Monergism.com is giving away the MP3 version of Art Azurdia’s “The Doctrines of Grace” CD’s. You can order the MP3 here. It comes as a CD; all you pay for is shipping.

4. Check out this great video clip by Alistair Begg on the issue of making a “decision” for Christ.

Speaking Engagement:

Jon Speed will be filling the pulpit at Garner Baptist Church near Weatherford, TX on Sunday December 14th while Pastor Ted Winton is on vacation. If you are in the area and do not have a local church home, please consider this your invitation. The church is located at 2304 FM 113 Weatherford, TX 76088. Morning worship begins at 11:00AM and the evening service begins at 6:00PM. Hope to see you there!

 

Evangelism Training Opportunities:

1. This weekend! This weekend! This weekend! The Texas Revival Series presents Mark Cahill! Mark is the author of “One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven”. He has shared the Gospel with celebrities like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Vanilla Ice, and Charles Barkley.

Join us for an evening of evangelistic motivation in Dallas, TX on Saturday December 6th! Afterwards, we’ll be taking it to the streets!

Schedule:

Saturday, December 6th (City Church International)

5-6PM: Session #1

6-7PM: Session #2

7:30-10:00PM: Outreach in Dallas, TX (location TBD)

Sunday, December 7th:

10:00AM: Mark Cahill speaks at City Church International worship service

6:00PM: Mark speaks at First Baptist Church Justin in the evening service.

Registration is FREE. Advertising Resource: Steve Murphy has compiled a FREE video advertisement for this event using the 30 second radio spot that KVTT 91.7 is using to advertise the event the week before. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX4hB1PCpoY. Let’s make this thing “viral” and spread it around the internet! 2. Reduced Price! Reduced Price! Reduced Price! 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 is now ONLY $225 (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) , Dr. Elias Medeiros (professor of Missions at Reformed Theological Seminary) and Andy Lapins (Transfired Ministries). 3. Here comes another great seminar opportunity! On February 19-22, Anchored in Truth Ministries will host the “Wonderful Grace of Repentance” conference in Muscle Shoals, AL. Guest speakers include Voddie Baucham, Conrad Mbewe (the Spurgeon of Africa), David Miller, Jonathan Sims, Paul Washer, and Jeff Noblit. Prayer Update:

1. Pray for all those who heard the Gospel at UNT and at the Parade.

2. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

3. Pray for the upcoming outreaches.

4. Prayerfully consider attending the Super Bowl Outreach in Tampa Bay in early 2009.

5. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Pray for the financial situation of TLC Ministries. We are beginning to raise support for the time when our salaries are cut by 33% on January 1^st. We are confident that the Lord will continue to provide.

7. Pray for the salvation of a UNT student who is a former agnostic but who has been reading Mark Cahill’s book, “One Heartbeat Away”. This student has been asking some great questions by email and seems to be very close to repenting and believing. Pray for good soil in this student’s heart!

8. Pray for a strong attendance at the Mark Cahill event on December 6^th-7^th.

9. Pray for those who heard the Gospel in Australia, and continue to hear it, because of the efforts of faithful believers there.