When mass-media appeared Adventists rejoiced because personal witnessing was a thing of the past. Each member only had to provide money and a few specialists would do the rest!

I have news for you!  Evangelism cannot be mass-produced.  At some point every unsaved soul must encounter someone who represents God and the message of salvation.  If a person watches a television program he/she can ask for a book or a Bible lesson.  But all media ministries will agree that unless a real-life encounter takes place with a child of God the seed planted is unlikely to germinate!

Furthermore, God designed the plan of salvation so our salvation and the salvation of another, are linked!  Paul wrote, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9 NKJV).  Both belief and confession are required. Neither is optional.  Our confession is evidence to us that our belief is genuine.  Both our salvation and the salvation of another are at stake!  Now you see, God designed that people would be saved one at a time!

But HOW do we identify those who might be interested in what I have to say, and then what?  Why not start with a few basic steps.  These are the steps we urge each church Outreach Leadership Team to practice:

1. Write down the name of every non-Adventist you know, and beside it, write the word or phrase describing how you know that person.  I call this word or phrase the “context.”  (Examples: Neighbor, relative, co-worker, plumber, hair-dresser, etc.)

Our church family gathered and prayed together, several times, asking the Holy Spirit where He wanted us to go with our ShareHim outreach and it was amazing to see His plan unfold. Our prayers led us in choosing two ministries. One ministry focused on a local homeless shelter where we began serving food one Sunday a month. Through this service relationships are being built with the staff and homeless clients. 

The other ministry group formed we call “Reclamation Ministry”.  Our goal is to reach out to those who have stopped coming to church for various reasons. First, we prayed over a list of individuals for four months. Then we matched ourselves up with individuals on that list based on previous connections - even if the connections were minimal.  We started reconnecting by sending greeting cards and personal letters and by making home visits - all the while continuing to pray over each person.  How encouraged we were as we witnessed individuals and families come back to church. We were seeing the work of the Holy Spirit!

One outreach member visited a man who had been a family friend for years. That reconnection and personal invitation in the mail brought this man to the meetings. I believe his heart had been prepared through the many prayers that were offered up to heaven before he was even contacted.  For the first time in years, he began to attend worship service weekly and eventually chose to be re-baptized.  Yes, several baptisms and re-baptisms have resulted simply because our Church family cared.  The Holy Spirit was able to call people back to the Savior’s side through our willingness to reach out.

During this series, 16 church members participated in the 20 presentations. We all have expressed an interest in doing this again and several even commented that it wasn’t as hard as they thought it would be. A gentleman who was just re-baptized into our church on December 6, 2008, stated that his regular attendance of the ShareHim meetings was based in part on seeing members of the church body take part in sharing our message.  Amen.

Kris Guido,
Keith Sopp, Personal Ministries Coordinator,