By BosNewsLife News Center with reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos
BUDAPEST/WASHINGTON (BosNewsLife)– Christians around the world were urged Saturday, September 10, to leave their church buildings and preach the “Good News of Christ” in what organizers said was “the greatest soul winning effort in church history.”
After several months of preparations, American pastor Andre Brown said he had urged churchleaders not to be in one place, as on the Biblical Day of Pentecost, “but certainly on one accord.”
Those involved in the effort, who he referred to as “the Body of Christ”, believe Bible verse John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Brown explained that God had inspired him to help organize the ‘International Day for Soul Winning’, after reading the Bible’s Luke 14:23: “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” He also cited Matthew 28:19, saying: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….”
REACHING OUT
Brown said he hopes Christians will reach-out “Through various mediums of communication-spoken word, written word, television, radio, the Internet, door to door…By any means necessary, the Church would go, and share the Gospel, in their own back yard, to those of their own tongue.”
It was not immediately clear how many churches and individuals around the world planned to participate in the evangelistic effort, which was earlier announced as a sponsored message on the website of Budapest-based BosNewsLife News Agency and in other media.
In several countries evangelism is forbidden. Even in India, often described as the “world’s largest democracy”, several states effectively banned public preaching, by what critics described as “controversial” anti-conversion legislation.
Brown is among the founders of the website harvestdayoutreach.org who claimed to have been “saved” through the Christian aid organization Teen Challenge, which works among drugs and alcohol addicts.
INTERNATIONAL GROUP
Teen Challenge is an international organization, with representations in every major city in the United States. “We owe our lives to God, and would like to dedicate this outreach to Jesus Christ and Teen Challenge.”
Saturday’s event came on the heels of an announcement by the U.S. based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA),which said it has launched a new form of evangelism designed to reach those using the Internet.
An experimental ‘beta’ version of the ministry’s evangelism program was introduced in late April, and has received “a tremendously positive reaction” in a place where some people spent most of their time, organizers claimed.
“We are proclaiming the Gospel through multiple means and strategies,” said the BGEA’s vice president Preston Parrish. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that the Internet is the future arena for a majority of evangelism, but the Internet is certainly an increasingly strategic arena for evangelism.” (BosNewsLife’s NEWS WATCH is a regular look at key news developments impacting the Church and/or compassionate professionals).
