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By EVA WOLEVER
Witness Correspondent
FAMILY Richard Powell, pastor, McGregor Baptist Church in Ft. Myers, with Kayla (l) and Heather, spoke of pros and cons of being pastor’s kids. Eva Wolever
EVANGELISM
Brad White, pastor of LifePoint Community Church in Tampa, distilled a process for reaching a city for Christ into three steps: “The look,” “the hook,” and “the forsook.” White said pastors need to look at the people they are trying to reach and realize they can’t reach everyone. They need to leverage their resources to hook people into the church, which means focusing their efforts on weekend services. After hooking guests, pastors keep them from being forsook by making sure to follow up to ensure they are connected into the church.
Rodney Baker, pastor of Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City, shared his passion to reach more people with the Gospel. He gave several tools for sharing the Gospel such as the EvangeCube, having a meal budgetfor taking prospects out, gift baskets at the church’s welcome center, and committing to not engage in conversation with a lost person for more than 15 minutes without sharing the Gospel. Baker emphasized the need for a sense of urgency.
“I’m telling you we could win them right here just like they’re won overseas. There is a hunger here,” Baker said. “The problem is we’re a bunch of beggars who’ve got bread and we want to keep it to ourselves and not go out and tell others where we found that bread. He is the Bread of Life and people are hungry.”
TRANSITION
Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, spoke about transitioning an established church into a more influential position—going from good to great. “It’s about leading the people of God in a journey to follow God. Anybody who isn’t leading their church through transition will eventually be leading a plateaued church,” Rice said. “It’s always about the transition.”
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