Pastor Joel Eason, of Bridgeway Church, was sitting in one of my Renegade Pastors Network coaching sessions when he felt convicted by something I’d said about evangelism: “We tell our people to be evangelistic, but we don’t offer them any training on how to do it.”
For Joel, that was a metaphorical raising-of-the-hand moment — he knew he wanted to host a Difference Maker training.
In the spring of 2001, Joel and his wife, Carolee, started Bridgeway Church in New Tampa (now in the Wesley Chapel area) with the hope it would be different than the traditional church. Bridgeway Church was going to seek out the lost, focus “on reaching people who were not yet engaged in a relationship with Jesus.”
For over 20 years, this has been the church’s mission, but recently Joel knew he needed to remind his church family — as well as himself — of the Christian’s call to evangelize; the apostle Mark records Jesus’ command to His disciples in Mark 16:15: “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”
So Joel hosted the first Difference Maker training at Bridgeway Church.
SOWING THE SEED
Bridgeway saw 50 people come out to training in person. Running it from 9 to 11 a.m., this two-hour workshop turned out to be perfect for the Bridgeway community.
“It wasn’t too exhaustive that it needed to take the entire day and it wasn’t too light in material that you would do it in less time than that,” Joel explains. “It’s a good investment of time but it hasn’t taken your day per se. It allowed for people to feel that their Saturdays are still theirs.”
The training is based off of my book, The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, a practical guide that will show you how you can begin using your everyday life to make a difference in the lives of those who don’t know Jesus. The pocket-size 80-page book, combined with the training materials I make available, equips you to teach your church members how to share their faith effectively, without fear.
Joel has confidence it will have impact down the road: “It’s the seed that you’re going to sow.”
Bridgeway walked through the three tools presented in my Difference Maker curriculum: the Romans Road, the Bridge illustration, and the sharing of your personal testimony. From Joel’s perspective, the Romans Road and Bridge illustration are so tried and true because “they’re consistently equipping or empowering somebody to know what to say.”
“You don’t have to know the whole Bible to be able to share your faith,” Joel says.
AN ETERNAL RESULT
Bridgeway people who’ve been following the Lord for over 30 years said it was good to be reminded of the importance of evangelism.
Others who’d never had any form of training felt it was a boost of confidence now that they had strategies on how to approach talking to others about Jesus — about the fact He lived and died and rose again three days later to pay for the sins of humanity and reconcile us all to God.
“While we would love to see results of that individually, we’re certainly confident that we will see results of that eternally,” Joel says.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
P.S. Get FREE resources to lead a Difference Maker Seminar in YOUR church!
To help you lead your own seminar, you can access over two dozen FREE resources and tools (Over $149.95 value) to train your people to share their faith, talk with others about Jesus and help their friends and family come to Christ.
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And click here to learn more about purchasing the book in bulk to use at your church (just $4 ea!).
Plus each book comes with a free Romans Road to Salvation bookmark to help your people share the Gospel with others.
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