For one personal evangelism class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Crossover Louisville was an opportunity to make more than 450 evangelistic visits, lead three people to Christ and help three more rededicate their lives to the Lord.
William Henard, assistant professor of evangelism and church growth, taught the class and led 55 of his students along with 10 from another class to participate in Crossover, an annual evangelistic blitz by Southern Baptists in the host city of their annual meeting. Most of the students conducted door-to-door surveys in conjunction with Bethany Baptist Church near the seminary.
“The numbers were low, but the pastor was excited because of the nature of the neighborhood,” said Henard, who also serves as pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky.
Several students in the class participated in other Crossover ministries. Melissa Cutrera did door-to-door evangelism with teenagers from her church in southern Indiana.
“It was a really good experience for our youth, as many of them got the opportunity to share the Gospel for the first time,” she said. “We found that a huge majority of the people were not home or not willing to answer the door, but that those who were willing to do the survey were almost always willing to hear the Gospel. My 12-year-old partner and I got to share the Gospel give times and saw one lady make a decision for Christ.”
For Adrianne Archie, a master of artsstudent from Louisville, Crossover ignited a passion for evangelism.
“I must say that the experience set my heart on fire for spreading the Gospel,” Archie said. “… I want to do this at least one to two times a month. I honestly didn’t want to leave to go to Saturday night worship but had to because of my duties at the church. I prayed that God would give me the right attitude about sharing His Word and He reminded me that He would be with me, and the nervousness went away.”
Overall, Crossover involved 95 evangelistic events and 3,000 volunteers.