SALT LAKE CITY, June 8-Nearly 100 employees of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board were among the 2,000-plus volunteers participating in Crossover Salt Lake City before and during the SBC’s June 9-11 annual meeting.
NAMB President Bob Reccord asked each employee attending the convention to participate in Crossover as an expression of support for the agency’s evangelism priorities and to help them become involved in personal evangelism.
Mike Ebert, director of NAMB’s publishing team, spent most of Saturday staffing a booth at a block party in Salt Lake City, helping children toss darts at balloons and telling them about Jesus.
“The neatest part for me is being able to interact with folks, being able to share and be out here with the kids while someone else is sharing with their parents,” he said. Ebert added that the excitement of the local sponsoring church, First Southern Baptist of Salt Lake City, was encouraging. “It’s really neat to see a group of folks with that much passion for the people in their neighborhood.” Harry and Shirley Lewis of Atlanta said they received a gracious welcome in Ogden where they went door-to-door sharing the gospel message. “Only two of more than 100 people declined to let us share the plan of salvation,” said Lewis, NAMB’s lead strategy coordinator. “The younger couples seemed more open to and interested in what we had to share. Older couples were mostly polite, but we planted a seed.” John Yarbrough, NAMB’s vice president of evangelism, attended four block parties and found the most success at an inner-city location sponsored by Second Baptist Church. “People were getting saved every time you turned around,” Yarbrough said. Reccord, who participated in several events, said he was encouraged by the response he had seen — particularly from a 16-member inner-city evangelism team that led 54 people to Christ the first day alone. And at a block party in Ogden, Reccord said, “The pastor of an African American church gave the gospel so clearly every half hour. Shortly after the block party started, a young man said, ‘I’m so tired of killing people. Can you help me get what you have?’ They led the gang member to the Lord.” Employee involvement in mission activities and spiritual development has been a continuing priority for the board, nearing its first anniversary. This year each employee of the board is being given a week away from their regular duties to participate in a volunteer evangelistic mission project of their choice.
