I was a part of an evangelism team that was asked by the Colorado General Baptist Convention and Mile High Baptist Association to do mass tracting with the thousands of Democratic National Conventioneers August 24-27. We got to see a slice of American culture that most people outside of this area see.
On Sunday I was invited to preach at East Boulder Baptist Church, man did I see a lot of people going to worship, the trees, mountains, and creation instead of the Creator. I saw more tide dyed t-shirts, leather braided head bands, and sandals in one town since growing up in the sixties. I felt like I had gone back in time.
Sadly, many of the Baptists in these two towns had gotten to the point of viewing their culture and the people as not reachable with the gospel. This is a common mistake many evangelicals make as they are continually bombarded by the liberal news media that God and Jesus are not relevant anymore by our society.
The 20 plus witnesses found that the people where “different” in the sense that they were at a higher level of being Bible illiterate, but who is the blame for that? Is has to be the church because it is not doing what Jesus commanded us to do, to impact the world with the gospel. By mid week we saw about 50 people who had trusted in Jesus Christ and by the Saturday 146 had trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
We heard some usual remarks from people when we tried to engage them in a witnessing conversation. When we offered people gospel tracts some iof comments we heard were such as, “a tree had to die for so you could make that booklet.” Another man began to ridicule us for “wearing plastic shoes” which were made out of oil from the middle east.
One of my acquaintinces from another state asked me if we had Democratics get saved, that was not the heart of the matter. The issue was lost people coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and 146 did exactly that.
We were blessed that many of the local churches were involved in serving the over 4,000 law enforcement officers brought in to help keep the peace. We also had several church members who came out to join us in the witnessing efforts during the week. I read email from one church member who participated with the evangelism team, a lady say, that she wished many of the churhces could have seen the impact and the openness of the people we encountered during the week.
Another minister who helped lead the efforts is encouraging the pastors and churches to be open to what God wants to continue in Denver and in Colorado. God is up to something bigger than us and we just need to get involved where God is working.
We are scheduling a debriefing meeting in the next couple of weeks so we can discuss and discover what is it God wants to do next and how can the churches take the evangelism efforts and emphasis to a new level.
Wow, just imagine Jesus Christ does changes lives today, even in Denver, Colorado. The Gospel still works if the churches will pray for the communities and then go into the communities and engage the residents like Jesus did tell them the Good News.
Jesus is still in the life changing business and I believe in that Jesus is not done with saving lost people yet. I want to see thousands of lost people on the road to heaven with Jesus. Will you join me in telling someone about Jesus this week? Hey, Jesus still saves lost souls.
Victor H. Benavides 