When we lived in Jacksonville, Florida I learned a great lesson on vision. I was with Campus Crusade for Christ and as part of out ministry we often conducted evangelism training classes for churches. We always had a great time and the people appreciated it. However the result was that most did not share their faith.
At the same time I observed a large church in town , First Baptist Church, where they did very little training yet many shared their faith. I wondered what was going on. We trained and the people did not share. They did not train and the people did share their faith.
After observing I realized the main difference. Their pastor at the time, Dr Homer Lindsey Jr., always did two things. First he always kept the vision of changed lives before the people. Before churches had vision statements he always said, "Fall in love with Jesus and reach our city for Christ." These words came out everywhere.
Second they kept stories of changed lives before the people. There were opportunities in various settings for people to share how they were able to share their faith and how God was at work.
I realized that as they shared vision and changed lives it produced zeal in the hearts of the people. We produced training. They produced zeal. Guess which goes further.
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