Columbus Baptist Association in Georgia is calling for volunteers to take part in a repeat of last year’s highly successful evangelistic outreach that resulted in more than 100 salvation decisions in a single day.
Associational Missionary Jimmy Blanton is inviting Georgia Baptists from across the state to take part on March 25 in what’s being dubbed CrossOver SouthWest Columbus. He’s hoping to have 300 volunteers going door-to-door sharing the gospel with local residents.
Heartbreaking surveys
“Southwest Columbus is an evangelistic mission field with many, many people who just don’t know the Lord,” Blanton said.
“We have just a few churches in that area, and all of them are struggling,” he noted. “They need help from anybody who can come and walk the streets and share the gospel.”
Blanton is heartbroken by surveys that show fewer than 10% of the people living in southwest Columbus attend church — an indicator, he noted, that perhaps 90% of residents are spiritually lost.
At last year’s CrossOver event, 260 people volunteered to come into the community to take part in front porch evangelism and to throw a block party for local residents. In gatherings afterward, volunteers said they were amazed at how receptive Columbus residents were to the gospel.
Blanton said people have shown an openness to talk about spiritual matters since the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.
Transformed lives
Across Georgia there has been a rise in salvation decisions over the past year, credited to churches returning to pre-pandemic activities, including revival services, community outreaches and block parties, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board reports.
Georgia Baptist churches reported 14,333 baptisms in 2022, up from 12,865 the previous year. The latest numbers account for only slightly more than half of the state’s 3,400 churches, so the total number of baptisms could be higher.
“I believe the more we saturate a community with the gospel, the more good we’ll see — not necessarily that day, but in the months to come,” Blanton said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Roger Alford and originally published by the Christian Index, news service of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
