CLERMONT, Fla. (BP)–The address was not listed on John and Sherrill Boone’s contact sheet. But it didn’t take long for the Florida couple to realize they were at the right house.
Dodging the spray from neighboring lawn sprinklers, the Boones walked up to the newly built house June 10 — as the late-morning temperature neared 90 degrees — and knocked on the front door. A woman in her 40s, originally from Jamaica, opened the door.
After introductions, John Boone, associate director of the Sunday school department of the Florida Baptist Convention, asked if he and his wife could conduct a brief survey on behalf of Four Corners Baptist Church. The congregation recently began holding services about six miles away in a former pizzeria.
Responding to a question about how churches can help individuals deal with today’s pressures, the woman responded by saying the church needed to provide “someone to listen to me and talk to me.”
A few minutes later, the woman bowed her head and prayed with the Boones at her front door, asking Christ to forgive her of her sins and become Lord of her life.
For Rick Ergle, pastor of Four Corners Baptist Church, news of that single conversion just a couple of hours into their day-long evangelistic outreach had made Crossover Orlando 2000 a success.
Similar scenes were played out across the Orlando area June 10 as hundreds of volunteers from Southern Baptist churches in the Greater Orlando Baptist Association and throughout the country participated in the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual Crossover evangelization campaign held each year in the convention’s host city.
By late afternoon more than 60 volunteers from about 20 churches had contacted 710 homes in the central Florida area of Four Corners, identifying 43 prospects while recording 13 professions of faith in Christ and conducting 135 surveys.
Crossover Orlando 2000 is part of a major initiative of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association called “Through Every Door.”
Herb Long, minister of evangelism and missions at First Baptist Church, Oviedo, Fla., northeast of Orlando, has served as chairman of the association’s planning committee for the past year.
Long said more than 1,000 volunteers from 80 churches in the association have been preparing for this evangelistic outreach aimed at contacting 200,000 homes in the Orlando area through personal visits.
Several weeks ago, a number of local churches began their evangelistic outreach with prayerwalks through neighborhoods and conducting door-to-door visitation.
Members of Aloma Baptist Church visited 1,500 homes and recorded 14 professions of faith in Christ in early June, reported Stan Clark, one of the Crossover 2000 organizers.
Clark said churches in the Greater Orlando Baptist Association have personally prayed over 400,000 resident addresses in preparation for Crossover 2000. “We’re going to be the answer to someone’s prayer,” Clark said.
Long said the door-to-door evangelistic focus will continue throughout the week as youth from across the country participate in the Frontliners outreach ministry June 12-14 aimed at reaching 15,000 homes in Oviedo and Kissimmee, Fla.
Clark said Crossover Orlando 2000, which also includes rallies, day camps and block parties, is guaranteed to be a success, whatever the outcome. He described a successful witness as “sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.”
“Our responsibility is not to get decisions,” he said. “Our responsibility is to share the message.”
