Southern Seminary students are gearing up to share the Gospel with hundreds of their non-Christian neighbors as a part of Crossover Louisville this weekend.
Crossover is the evangelistic blitz Southern Baptists conduct each year in the host city of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. This year’s Crossover will occur June 20 and include door-to-door evangelism, block parties, ethnic ministries, kindness evangelism and a host of other outreach opportunities.
More than 80 students are expected to participate through courses in Southern’s Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism, and many others will participate individually or through their local churches.
Charles Barnes, Crossover coordinator, said it is impossible to know how many Southern students will be involved because volunteers do not identify themselves as students when they sign up. However, he speculated that students are contributing to the overall high registration numbers.
“There must be a significant amount of enthusiasm among the students for ministries in Crossover simply as a result of the numbers that we appear to be getting,” Barnes said.
Terry Delaney, a master of divinity student from O’Fallon, Ill., plans to participate in door-to-door evangelism and a block party.
“We think it will be an excellent opportunity in a very non-threatening way to reach people that otherwise would never darken the doors of a church,” Delaney said.
“I’m excited about it because we get to share the Gospel and allow the power of the Word to change the hearts and souls of residents of Louisville.”
Chuck Lawless, dean of the Graham School, said he looks forward to students sharing the Gospel together throughout the city. He said Southern students are especially involved in door-to-door teams and Intentional Community Evangelism teams that work the entire week preceding the SBC.
“Our goal is to get students doing evangelism throughout the city,” Lawless said. “And my prayer is that even in just a few days of intentional evangelism they would grow in their passion and desire to reach people.”
Barnes, the Crossover coordinator, noted that there is still time for students to sign up for Crossover and still a need for volunteers. The greatest need is for additional door-to-door workers.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “But we could use another 50 people to lift us from good to very good.”
Anyone wishing to participate in Crossover should call the Crossover office at 502-635-2601 or Barnes at 502-523-1675.