FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Beau Brewer could hardly complete his sermon. As he preached the Gospel in a small West Texas church, he was overcome with emotion by the weeping of a woman seated in the congregation.
That woman was his mother.
Jeanne Brewer was weeping over her sins –- a starting point for faith that her son had prayed for earnestly for more than a decade. When Brewer gave the invitation, his mom came forward, and he was able to help lead her to the Lord.
“With my mother, as I started seeing God dealing with her heart,” Brewer said, “I started realizing that God was definitely in charge here. He was doing something that I could have never done.
“I don’t take credit for anything that happened with my mom, though I was there and I was the mouthpiece that day. I simply saw the Lord melting her heart.”
Brewer, a master of divinity student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was filling the pulpit of Crossway Baptist Church in Abilene as part of an evangelistic weekend coordinated by the seminary and the Cross Timbers Baptist Association. Although Brewer preaches monthly at Bisbee Baptist Church in Mansfield, Texas, where he serves as minister of music, this was his parents’ first time to hear him preach.
Eighteen Southwestern students and faculty, including President Paige Patterson, participated in the association’s outreach weekend in April. Churches that had experienced no baptisms in the previous year invited Southwestern students to do door-to-door evangelism on Saturday and preach in their pulpits on Sunday.
Southwestern students distributed more than 250 Gospel tracts and directly shared the Gospel with nearly 100 people on Saturday, resulting in nine professions of faith. Additionally, three individuals made professions of faith during worship services on Sunday.
On Saturday evening, the group of students and faculty gathered to share about their evangelism encounters earlier in the day and to pray about the next day’s preaching assignments. During that meeting, Brewer mentioned his parents would be hearing him preach and earnestly prayed over their spiritual condition.
“When you think back through your life experiences and you see the Lord’s hand working through you,” Brewer said, “how can you not pray for the lost, especially those in your immediate family?
“It’s devastating to think where they will be for all eternity if you don’t get the message across clearly. More than anything, I prayed for clarity,” he said. “I prayed that my parents would be able to look beyond who I am and all my flaws … and see Christ living in me and desire that same thing.”
Brewer was excited to see the woman who gave him life experience the new birth in Jesus Christ. He bought her a Bible and they talk daily as she continues to grow in her faith.
“What I’ve learned about the Gospel,” Brewer said, “is that the Gospel can reach anyone at anytime.”
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Keith Collier writes for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
