Praying to Be an Evangelist

This article from the Presbyterian Outlook, (registration required) is intriguing and inspiring. The story is also told here. Pastor Dave Peterson, pastor of a large Presbyterian church in Houston, began building relationships with other pastors. As they met and shared and prayed, a vision came to launch a large city-wide evangelism program called City Fest. It was timely, creative, and ongoing. And it has spawned some genuine community projects of compassion.

Here is the story, but check out the Outlook.

Here is a prayer that Dave Peterson, pastor of a 4,500-member Presbyterian church, has taught himself to pray: Lord, make me an evangelist!

“When I started out in ministry, evangelism was literally No. 13 on the list,” said Peterson, who leads Memorial Drive Church in Houston. Peterson is also co-chair of the steering committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s major fundraising drive, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, which is raising money for new church development and international mission work.

But as a young pastor, Peterson said, evangelism “was the last thing I was interested in.”

With time and prayer, Peterson began to realize the importance of showing people what faith can mean in everyday life. As he put it, “How do we ever figure the gospel is going to go out in the world unless we start doing something about it?”

So Peterson has prayed hard to learn to be an effective evangelist. And recently he served as co-chair of a massive evangelistic outreach in Houston known as CityFest. It organized churches from many denominations in a blitz of community service and brought an estimated 250,000 people to a festival Oct. 7 and 8 led by Argentinian evangelist Luis Palau.

It was an exciting weekend – but its structure also was a signal to Peterson of what opportunities may be ahead. More than 600 congregations – Roman Catholic parishes, nondenominational megachurches, Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches, big and small – worked together on the planning.

They are also cooperating in a new Web site, which they hope will serve as a virtual meeting ground for Christians throughout the community. On the website, people can post information on events, prayer groups, and volunteer and ministry opportunities – everything from the creation of a new Japanese fellowship to programs to assist Alzheimer’s patients and their families.

Before Peterson moved to Texas 11 years ago, some people from the community had caught that vision – they began wondering what might happen if churches in the city started to work together. At first, “it was real slow going,” Peterson said in an interview. “It’s awfully difficult for whatever reason to get churches and pastors working together-- maybe because we’ve got plenty to do in our own congregations, and congregations tend to be somewhat territorial.”

But about five years after Peterson came to town, he realized he didn’t know many local pastors. So he started calling up ministers, asking if he could stop by or if they could meet for lunch. Some were a little suspicious – they wanted to know what he wanted.

But “all I wanted to do was to get to know people,” Peterson said. “I secretly assumed there was a big club of pastors and they were making sure I didn’t get into it.”

After a while, some people approached him with the idea of CityFest, and asked if Memorial Drive would be willing to be the lead church and if Peterson would chair the festival. He agreed, and after a while got some big names on board to help, including the owner of the Houston Texans football team, Bob McNair, and Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, agreed to be honorary co-chairs.

The planners built a city-wide prayer circle – with Christians praying for nonbelievers around the city every day.

A “share your story” seminar drew close to 5,000 people, who learned more about how tell their own stories of faith, giving them skills “to be able to tell their walk with Christ in a personal way,” Peterson said.

The event, free of charge, was not “like an old Billy Graham crusade where you get everybody into a stadium,” Peterson said. Instead, events were offered at several venues, including a music stage; a sports zone where major league players signed autographs and talked about their faith; a children’s block party; and a “Living It” area with motocross, skateboarding and BMX bicycle demonstrations.

A lot happened before that October weekend, too.

Houston was divided into 42 regions, each with networks of churches from the area. And those regional teams organized a series of “compassion projects,” often working in partnership with local public schools.

Peterson’s church, for example, along with some other smaller churches from the area, worked with a local elementary school that had been built for 250 students and now has 950 enrolled. Many students attend classes in temporary buildings with rusted-out air conditioners “making so much noise it was hard to teach,” Peterson said.

So church volunteers raised the funds to buy and install 56 new air conditioners at Piney Point Elementary, where more than nine students out of every 10 are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch because of low family income. They landscaped the school grounds and built a deck with picnic tables. A book drive for the library brought enough books that each student was allowed to take some books home to keep.

Last year only 25 parents belonged to the Parent Teacher Association. People noticed, however, when 400 church volunteers showed up. The principal told of one mother who came up and said of the volunteers, “These people don’t even have kids who go to this school.”

So that mom, inspired by their example, volunteered for the PTA – which this year has 75 members, triple the membership of just a year ago.

And, while CityFest is over, the regional teams haven’t disbanded – they’re planning more compassion projects. “What we’re trying to do is demonstrate to the city that the church is not a problem to be managed, but an ally to be engaged with in battling the chronic problems cities face,” Peterson said.

“Our basic hope is that churches can take the lead in making Houston a great place for kids.” His mantra: “We’d like to raise one generation of whole and healthy children in Houston, Texas.”

That’s something he suspects can bring people together.

I wish there were more stories like this one! (H/T Hans at Presbyweb)