Confronting With Care

Video Training Seminar

Reflections on a We Care Seminar

by LARRY WEST

Our weekend Evangelism Seminars begin Friday night, continue all day Saturday, and ends after Sunday-morning services.  They are both instructive and reviving.  How it affects those in attendance can best be testified by them.  Following is Tom Payne's report.  Can your congregation benefit by such a Seminar?  Call on us.

by Tom Payne

Minister of Evangelism, Madison Street church of Christ, Clarksville, TN

The weekend finally arrived. We had been heavily promoting our WE CARE seminar encouraging our own members to attend as well as sending letters out to sister congregations. Oh yes, we had been inviting them...but would they come? Like most congregations across America we find ourselves in an evangelistic crisis. Could a WE CARE seminar re-ignite that passion?

After Larry West finished the weekend seminar he asked me to write down these thoughts. As I reflect back over the weekend we can see and measure results two ways. First we can look at numbers and secondly, but most importantly, we can see the impact on the hearts of our own members. Now that Larry has gone, the question comes, how have those hearts been touched? What did they feel? What would they be willing to do? Would this be like a "church camp" experience where we come back all excited and hyped, but after a few weeks things are back to "normal"? That question can be answered only in time.

We started Friday night with 192 people attending, and of that group, an impressive number had come from other congregations. Some had driven an hour to attend. Peggy, Larry's wife, told me it is usually between 10% and 25% of a congregation's Sunday morning attendance in attendance during the weekend seminar. We had around a 35% attendance rate, so we were pleased. Our Saturday sessions produced about 160 in attendance and it was clear by then hearts were being moved. As Larry spoke boldly and passionately about winning souls we could see a sort of somber conviction, an awakening if you will, in the hearts of God’s people. Good people were thinking now, praying, questioning priorities, and searching their own hearts with some tough questions. On Saturday night, Larry asked the congregation to come down to the front, kneel with him and pray about our efforts to win souls. Few eyes were dry. There was a conviction felt by many good people as we prayed together. Was God humbling us? Well, Sunday morning's sermon brought 24 responses.

Was this seminar what we needed to knock us off dead center, was this what we needed to restore our zeal?

Perhaps the most touching part of the weekend was after Larry had gone. It was just "us" on Sunday night and several of our men had been asked to speak about what the seminar meant to them. This proved to be a time of reflection and confession for many of us. This was from their perspective, from their hearts. Listen to some of the comments they made. This is powerful stuff!

The first speaker said to the congregation, "This weekend was a blessing to me." He shared how his parents were converted into the church, a church that was growing in the 60's, a church that would exhort one another to be evangelistic. He went on to say, "Where in the 70's and 80's did we loose that?" And then he added, "I was convicted. It is like the building props you see in the old western movies, a facade that looks great, but if you walk around back you will see something is missing. I appeared to be doing what I needed to be doing as a Christian, but a huge part of me was missing. I'm not actively sharing my faith with others." He concluded by saying, "The devil may have pulled the wool over our eyes. We were busy being good Christians but not doing the Lord's work."

Another speaker told us, "If we get excited about our own salvation, this town will not hold us!” He encouraged us to use the various WE CARE tools, like the video, the soul-winner’s New Testament, and the We Care’s “Salvation Highway” flow chart. Then he said, "We can do this!" Another speaker, a young man who is active with our college group, said, "I've grown up here and have never seen us come together, kneel in prayer, and pray as a body." He saw it that weekend! He said he would like to see poster, a banner showing Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, placed somewhere a round the building and student center to remind us of our mission.

Another man who spoke to us confessed that he and his wife had been faithful to support overseas mission work. After his careful study of Romans 10, he told us he came to the conclusion that Paul was talking about local work. Yes, local soul-winning efforts. "Our mission work should include local work," he added. He concluded his talk by saying our concern for the lost should be "a concern translated into action! Just concern is not enough!"

Another said, "I've been pretty comfortable - but this weekend I've been challenged about passion." He had written down some statements made by Larry and shared them with us: "God wants souls, and when you love Him, you give Him what He wants." He also reminded us of another saying from Larry: "We have forgotten that hell is real, that hell is hot." He concluded by saying, "We all can do at least one of these things we've learned, but it would be a lot easier if we did them together."

As I close, I saved the most touching testimony for last. One of our elders spoke to us from his heart and then went forward to ask for courage to share the gospel. Listen to these words he shared from his heart: "My wife asked me who we were going to invite over. I told her (new members’ names) and she said, ‘No, no! Who are we going to have over so we can share the gospel?'" Then he went on, "I need what I am about to say. I can't change you. Hopefully I can be an encouragement to you, but I can't change you. I'm the only person that can change me, and I need to change. I was reminded of it this weekend. I was reminded of things I that I already knew. Our mission is the mission of Jesus Christ. The way that Larry challenged us this weekend … his boldness to share the gospel, his passion for Jesus Christ, the urgency, the way he felt the urgent need to share that gospel …Larry West made me uncomfortable. He took me out of my comfort zone. What is my comfort zone? I might be a little embarrassed. Have you ever thought about the apostle Paul's comfort zone? He was beaten, he was in jail, he was shipwrecked, and he was stoned. Now that's a comfort zone to overcome! I'm afraid I might embarrass someone? I can't get off the couch and stop watching television. I'm too busy and don't have a lot of time.” Then there was a long pause. After it, he continued, "All weekend long I thought of something that I will take with me to my grave, and I'm ashamed of it. I watched my brother die for one year with cancer, and he was lost, and I didn't share the gospel with him. I was not raised in a Christian home. Had it not been for (my wife's) dear sweet parents, I would not have heard the gospel. I have other biological brothers and sisters and I want you to pray for me that I can have the urgency that Larry West has, that I can have the boldness that he has, that I can have the passion that he has so that others won't die because I didn't share the gospel."

As I was writing this, I spoke to this same elder over the phone and with a great deal of excitement he told me, "I asked the question today!" He said it was "so easy" and he was able to set up a study with a coworker and her husband. He's picking up more gospel presentations and We Care New Testaments tomorrow night and, boy, is he ready!

The Monday night following the seminar 43 people showed up for a WE CARE training session. It was time to take our conviction and convert it to action. These good people had given up that entire weekend and there they were again on Monday night, workers reporting for duty. A week later on the following Monday night we had 51 people show up for our training session … and get this! There were two new Christians who had just obeyed the gospel! Oh yes, God is moving some hearts! Pray the fire will burn brighter and brighter! Fan the flame, Lord!

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