We hope to hold these events on a regular basis all through our community – as we find locations that will allow us to set up there. If you would like to take part in these events please contact Rev Rocky Rockwell, our Associational Missionary and get on the distribution list as we schedule them.
OBJECTIVES: To engage people throughout Henry County with the Gospel, in obedience to Jesus Christ and in keeping with Paul’s example of reasoning with people in the marketplace.
VENUES: We now have two potential venues, Rural King – on the southern edge of Martinsville, and the Collinsville Plaza – on the northern edge of Collinsville (directly across Virginia Ave from the Collinsville Post Office). We’re still hoping to gain new potential venues if you know of places in the marketplace where we can impact large numbers of people coming and going – like the Walmart or Lowes parking lots, high volume lunch traffic, etc.
LOGISTICS: Our plan is to set up a sound system (just one speaker) under a canopy in key locations where people shop or otherwise congregate, to allow speakers to share the Gospel through Bible readings and/or mini-sermons, with volunteers on-hand to pray for and share the plan of salvation with people one-on-one. We’ll bring some coolers with bottled water – and maybe a snack or two – to share.
BIBLICAL UNDERPINNING: To obey God’s directive to take the Gospel to all the world. (Matthew 18:18-20, Mark 16:15, Matthew 10, Acts 17:16-34, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Romans 10:14-21). There are 15 accounts in Acts and the letters of the Apostles when the numbers of believers increased by thousands. Every one of those accounts came as the result of preaching the Gospel ‘in the marketplace’ (a general term for any central hub where people gather).
In Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the Gospel, and specifically added instructions to perform tasks to meet people’s natural and spiritual needs, which Apostle Paul expounded upon. Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3 – that we are born first into this physical world and need to then be born again into the Kingdom of God – establishing a doctrine of ‘First the Natural; Then the Spiritual’. We often hear this expressed as, “People cannot hear the Gospel on an empty stomach.’ Down the road, we might think about adding something like the ‘In-As-Much’ effort to somehow meet people’s natural lives as we preach to minister to their spiritual lives.
For those who are interested in taking part, here is a series of videos by the North American Mission Board (NAMB – an outreach arm of the Southern Baptist Convention) to help us prepare our hearts for evangelism. NAMB Evangelism Kit Videos