“Spend more time in study and prayer. That’s the secret of successful evangelism.”
Billy Graham was one of the most recognized and influential evangelists during the late 1900’s and early 2000’s. Known as a crusade of evangelism, Graham put all his effort in evangelizing and ministering the Gospel to an estimated number of 2.2 million people all across the world. Of that, about 3.2 billion accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
His story is actually quite ironic because he never imagined that he would become a great evangelist. He always thought that he would only be a minister and preacher of the word, however, it is apparent that God has other plans for his life.
As leaders, one thing remains true and that is we should always be spending time studying the bible and praying. If we are not actively engaging in these spiritual activities then there is no way for us nor our ministries to flourish. God is our source and in order to do effective evangelism, we must have love and passion.
So, how do we receive love and passion? We receive it when we set out time to read the Word of God and to pray to him. These two practices are our spiritual food and if we are not consuming them, then we lack the love and passion to carry out our commission to us.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
Although we are in a new era, evangelism is still a work that we are called to do as Christians. Today, there are many college students that are harassed and helpless. They are wandering in this world with no guidance. However, as leaders of God’s kingdom we have the opportunity to help them recognize the love of God. How exactly do we do this? By finding effective strategies to preach the Gospel.
A recent study by Paul Worcester suggests that the way to evangelize college students during the digital age, is to create and promote fun online activities.
“We’ve planned a trivia night, a game night using Jack Box, and a virtual game night where we’ll use the break-out feature on Zoom to play online board games like Settlers of Catan.”
The strategies that AM HQ staff has implemented in their social media outreach efforts include monthly campaigns and recorded testimonials. For May, they plan to continue the Bible series, short uploads of bible teachings, conduct surveys, and play Kahoot games.
The aim is to teach the Word of God through creative outlets with hopes of being able to gather the students in a large group setting. This is still an odd time for a lot of people, but the Word of God and social interaction can make the difference.
May we all continue to implement creative and effective strategies in our ministries, so that we can draw more young adults to come to know the love of God.