More than 350 commitments for Christ, including 160 professions of faith, were recorded recently during the Upper East Tennessee Go Tell Crusade at Cherokee High School football stadium in Rogersville.
The week-long event, which included 25 participating churches, reached nearly 5,000 students through Go Tell’s On Track school assemblies.
During the crusade, free meals were served to educators and their spouses, first responders and their spouses, U.S. active military, veterans and their spouses and students.
Go Tell America evangelist Rick Gage said, “We had a great week here in Rogersville. … I know of one entire family who got saved. All that God did here was because of prayer.”
‘Major impact’
Based in Duluth, Georgia, Go Tell Ministries hosts not only evangelistic crusades and school assemblies but also summer youth camps, international mission trips and high school/college internships.
“We believe that this crusade has made a major impact on the community of Rogersville, and we look forward to seeing what God has in store for us next,” said Upper East Tennessee Go Tell Crusade Co-Chairman John Butler, pastor of East Rogersville Baptist Church.
Unexpected impact
One event counselor, David White, noted before the August crusade that leaders were told that there would be decisions for Christ and that churches of different denominations would come together in unity — but that wasn’t all that happened.
“My heart was changing,” White said. “I was experiencing the zeal and passion for the lost. As the week went on, that zeal and passion, which I saw in other counselors, began to form in my heart.
“The group from our church who participated was 11 believers, and through their support and actions, that passion began taking root in me and us as a group,” he said. “We are beginning an evangelism study in two weeks. We also have started a new believers class for the teenagers who made decisions from our church.”
Stephen Kimery, chair of youth outreach for the Upper East Tennessee Go Tell Crusade and pastor of Crossroads Assembly of God, agreed.
“As we started the process, there was a lot of apprehension, seeing that denominational boundaries were crossed,” Kimery said. “Yet as we pastors came together, putting God first and allowing the cause of Christ to be our only goal, something wonderful began to happen.
“We discovered we were not strangers, we were family,” he said. “Churches from different backgrounds stood and saw men and women, boys and girls, come to Jesus.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by Tennessee’s Baptist and Reflector.
