How many times in the past week have you seen people walking down the street on a side walk in the area of where your church is located at? That’s a question that I asked myself and realized that I hadn’t really paid any attention to the surroundings of me. But wait! Had I really ever had a desire to care? I should of! But sadly I didn’t. Sadly I didn’t seem to care about what was happening around me and who I was ignoring and possibly cause of me they would never get to hear about this gospel.
As some of my readers know (those who are my friends off the internet and have talked to you recently), this weekend I got back home from another youth conference and this time it was PEAK. I’ve heard about this conference before and mostly I’ve heard bad about it because it’s such a big conference and many of the people who had sad bad things about it have never gone it to, but had heard about it “through the grape vine”. I, myself, had heard bad things about it but I had also heard it through the great “grape vine”. But I had also heard a ton of great things about it from people who had actually gone, and what they said over-road what the other people had said, in my mind. So, I had decided that if at all possible I was going to try and go to it. I’m very thankful and grateful that I was able to go!!! Even though I only got to go Thursday night and all of Friday, it was awesome! The focused a lot on the preaching and less on the worship since there was so many people there that when we did worship, you barely had much room.
The service was Friday night. The preacher was Bro. Cody Marks. The place was PEAK 2010, Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Spirit Bank Center. The message was for me and was awesome! The part that got to me the most was when he asked the congregation some questions and some of there were “Stand if you believe in one God”, “Stand if you back and support your pastor”, and a couple of other questions and most times almost everyone stood up. Then he asked this question “Stand if you are currently active in teaching a Bible study” and man that question hurt. Why? Because one I couldn’t stand up and two only about 1 out of 75 people stood up. Then the next question hurt so much that I cried because it hurt and all of a sudden I had a huge burden. He said “Stand if you have won someone to the Lord and discipled them and they’re still in church” then when he saw the amount of people who stood up, he cried like I’ve never seen a preacher cry while preaching. There was only 1 out of 150 people that stood up then (the ratios aren’t 100% correct, but they are my best guess)… It was horrible cause that was only a small amount of people compared to the 3000+ people that were there!!!! I cried and wept and began to pray cause the burden started to really press on me.
He preached for a little more, but had to stop cause the Holy Ghost was moving so strong. After a couple of other things happened and as many people that could fit in the front were down there, he asked for all the preacher’s sons to go on the platform and pray with each other. I left where I was standing and praying with a guy in my church and went on up there. I started praying with some guys who I didn’t know, but then a couple minutes later I saw a guy who I was friends with and we started praying together. This went on for a while and then I don’t really remember what happened because some preachers came and prayed for me, and I became completely filled with the Holy Ghost all over and more. The next thing that I do really remember was laying on the ground and speaking in tongues, but my mind was going over a plan and ideas for outreaching for young people and teaching Bible Studies. I knew this wasn’t from my flesh because I had never really thought about this and honestly had no desire to do anything of the sort. Well the service ended a while later, or could have been a short time later cause I honestly don’t remember I was so out of it and full of the Holy Ghost.
After the service was over, I found a young man in my church who has brought some people from his school to our church and one of them is actually seeking the Holy Ghost right now. I talked to him about trying to get a youth outreach together and learn how to teach Bible Studies. He was all ears and more than willing to do it, so I went away from our conversation feeling good! Well I got home Saturday night and was dead tired, in fact I went to sleep very shortly after getting home. That Sunday night when we was having youth service, two visitors showed up for the youth service. We had it and later I was to find out that they had actually been there before when I was out of town one time. Then regular church service was going on and pastor was preaching really awesome, one of his best messages in a while (probably cause I haven’t heard him for a while, but needless it was a very AWESOME message!!!). But during his message they got up and left cause I found out later that one of them were “uncomfortable”, I could see why they were but I don’t know if that was the true reason why they did. But after the regular service ended with a awesome alter call (or after preaching), I sat down and talked with my youth leader about a ton of things. One was youth outreach, another was youth Bible studies, and another one was a name for our youth group.
The discussion with him was long and very good. We discussed youth outreaching and asked him what he thought of a different style of youth outreaching. I liked it because it’s not the norms of what we do on our regular outreach and you’re very sure of talking to someone (and they can’t slam a door in your face!!! lol). If you wanna know what he suggested, email me at: bradley (@) greywolf336 (.) com (this email is a different one then my personal one, so if you have my personal one email me there and I’ll answer the same). Then we discussed youth Bible studies and came to the conclusion that this was a must and we talked about different ones that we could do. We’re yet to make our final decision, but I’ve got one coming in the mail sometime soon and hopefully it’ll be a good one to do for the youth. As far as the name for our youth group, we’re undecided on a couple. But I can’t tell you, or it’d ruin the surprise on the one we finally did decide on and if we have something special for the launch of it. 
Last night (7/26/10) I got a call around 5:45 asking what I was doing and if I was doing nothing, then did I want to go on some outreach. That call was from my youth leader, so since I wasn’t doing anything last night I agreed. We went to a pretty rich neighborhood in Lansing, KS and did some outreach there. I was starting to get discouraged because we didn’t have very good results. Nobody seemed to be answering the door, a couple told us that they had their own church and then didn’t want anything to do with us, and one person treated us like we were trash. I almost was ready to stop but then thought “that’s exactly what the devil wants us to do” and so we kept on. The last house that we did was worth the whole time we spent out there! This family had just moved into the area and the lady that answered the door seemed very interested, she seemed even more interested when we told her that we had somethings for our youth group. We told her that she’d have to see for herself what our church and church services were like! I’m praying that she and her family will come sometime!!!
Then tonight (7/27/10) I was driving home from youth prayer and some fellowship with some people in our youth group, and then that question I first asked at the very start of this blog post hit me. I started looking around while I was driving home and realized that were a ton of people outside walking around. Something in me stirred and I wanted to stop and invite some to church, but sadly my flesh and it’s “shyness” kicked in and I didn’t. When I got home I felt very sick because I didn’t stop and the thought about maybe because I didn’t stop, someone would never hear this gospel and not have a true chance of going to Heaven. I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to try and do as much personal outreaching and personal evangelism as possible!
How? By overcoming my flesh and my “shyness” and talking to as many people as I can about church and about God. Inviting them to church and then if they like it or even show a little bit of interest, ask them if they would like a Bible Study. Where would I do the Bible Studies? I want to try to do them at public places, like McDonalds and other public places like that. Why there? Because more than likely they’re gonna be more comfortable there and who knows, someone might be sitting behind and act like they aren’t listening but they’re straining to hear what you’ve got to say cause they see you’ve got a Bible out.
I’m ready to start doing personal evangelism and with the Lord’s help, I would like to win at least 10 people within 2 months! But I need your help! (You my readers!) I want your suggestions on some other things to do to help me in outreach and personal evangelism! Have any? Contact me or send me an email at bradley (@) greywolf336 (.) com – If you do send any, I’ll be in great thankfulness of you!!!
God Bless,
Bradley Hilton
P.S: Sorry for such a long post! It’s probably the longest one I’ve done yet! Lol – Also why does everyone think my birthday is Friday?? Lol I wasn’t born on July 30th….
According to Wikipedia, object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Babies learn object permanence between the age of eight and twelve months old. A baby that hasn’t learned this enjoys playing peek-a-boo because they think whenever they close their eyes or cover their eyes they no longer exist! Another example of a baby not having learned this is if a blanket covers a toy the baby will appear distressed because that toy has now disappeared!
