Every church and pastor goes through seasons of ups and downs. There are years when baptisms come in waves, and new people show up each week. And there are dry seasons, where it can feel like a struggle to reach the lost.
When pastor Will Ferguson of Temple Baptist in Canton, Illinois, came to an Ignite evangelism training in Peoria, he was personally in a dry season. “I was starting to lose a little bit of my passion for (evangelism),” he said.
Ferguson went away encouraged to lead his church to be more outwardly focused, but wasn’t sure where to start. He reached out to Illinois Baptist State Association’s Scott Harris for consultation where Harris guided him through IBSA’s Next Step process that “help(s) pastors think through that one key next step that you can take and lead your church toward that really captures the heart of what you feel like God is doing in your heart as a pastor.”
Starting with prayer
That led to diagrams and a plan drawn out on large sheets of paper that still hang on Ferguson’s office wall. The current cycle started with a prayer movement for specific names of friends, family, and neighbors and will end with church members participating in planned opportunities to engage the community around needs.
“God’s at work,” Ferguson said. “People are praying for people, and they’re sharing their stories.”
After a few months of specific prayer and invitations to people on their list, Temple had one of the highest attendance Sundays in their history and has more than doubled baptisms from the previous year.
In his evangelism work around the state with churches like Temple, Harris sees a common denominator in turning churches inside-out to reach the lostness in their communities.
“If your people aren’t praying for lost people that they know by name, then they’re not sharing the gospel with people that they know are lost,” he noted. “They’re not inviting them to church. Because it’s through prayer that God gives us his heart for these people.”
‘Pray and go’
With between eight and nine million lost people in Illinois, it can be easy to pray for this large number, but become numb to it, Harris said. His work keeps the gravity of the enormous mission field right here in Illinois in view, but helps move churches to local action in places like Canton by helping them reach the lost people they know.
“When we start to pray and go, Oh, God, my mom’s lost, my son’s lost, my spouse is lost, my daughter’s lost. We began to think about that and pray for them with a passion of God.” And according to Harris, changed prayers turn into personal action, “God’s heart wasn’t just broken over lostness. It moved God’s heart to do something about lostness.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Illinois Baptist Staff and originally published by Illinois Baptist.
