Lone Oak FBC finds much joy in evangelistic initiative

PADUCAH, Ky. (KT) - Lone Oak First Baptist Church embarked on an evangelistic journey over the past four weeks that is already reaping lost souls. And the story is still being written.

"I don't know what is about to happen, but I believe we'll be talking about it for long time," said senior pastor Scott Thomas, who is six months into his tenure.

The church has already experienced some breathtaking moments through an evangelistic initiative called REACH that had four goals:

1. Understanding the value and practice of fasting.

2. Host a churchwide week of prayer for evangelism.

3. Celebrate 500 gospel conversations.

4. Extend 2,000 personal invitations to the three Easter services.

"I'm six months into my tenure at a very healthy church," Thomas said. "This was our first big initiative under our pastorate. The first thing pushed out would be the thing that I valued the most, which is evangelism. I wanted to make sure we were pushing something we wanted to be remembered for. My personal heart is to see lost people get saved and raise up the lost as disciples."

He said the staff began exploring the idea before Christmas to have the REACH idea and then saw that the Kentucky Baptist Convention had a REACH evangelism conference also in March. "Really, though, they just complemented each other," he said.

Thomas preached about fasting and led the church to understand the value of it. He also had a tutorial session on fasting where 347 church members came to learn.

"It blew my mind," he said.

The following week, more than 500 members reportedly participated in a week of fasting, Thomas said.

The second goal was a week of prayer for evangelism and nearly 350 came to pray for the lost on a Sunday night. "It was a remarkable experience," Thomas said. "The sanctuary was full."

As prayers were being lifted, a father and young son, both emotionally sobbing, came walking through the sanctuary toward Thomas. When they got to him, the pastor raised his head and asked them if everything was OK. The pastor won't forget the moment.

"His son said, 'I just got saved.'"

More weeping from everybody ensued.

"We were just praying, nobody was preaching or saying anything," the pastor said. "That young boy saved that night are like things you read about in preacher books."

And there was more to come that carried the weight of the gospel.

The third goal was for the church to celebrate 500 gospel conversations. The criteria for calling it a gospel conversation included sharing that there is a consequence for sin, telling them the only way of salvation, which is Jesus, and to ask them to respond.

"We had these guys build an installation that would have 500 light bulbs on it and spelled the word REACH in lights," Thomas said. "Anytime a person had a personal gospel conversation, they would turn on a light. We ended up having 557 bulbs because of the spacing. It was a lot. We had 543 gospel conversations in four weeks. It was amazing."

And nobody was left in the dark.

"I told the church, in evangelism, we are called to be witnesses," Thomas said. "God is responsible to save people."

They took it to heart, from young to old.

"One lady gave a testimony - she was over 80 - she is not entirely shut-in but close to it," he said. "She kept ordering from Walmart and witnessing to the different delivery drivers."

The father of the son who was saved during the prayer meeting shared a powerful testimony with the church, too.

Even the young in the church were motivated to share the gospel.

Caleb Genis, a third-grader, packed his Bible and went to the school to share with his classmates. He was met with resistance and some in the class made fun of him for carrying his Bible. But that didn't stop him from trying to reach others. At recess he went on the playground, opened the Bible to John chapter 3 and began reading to the kids who would listen.

"He was sharing the gospel on the playground," the pastor said.

Caleb shared his story in front of a large church crowd - there wasn't a dry eye in the building Thomas said - on the Sunday night when they celebrated everything that had happened with worship and testimonies. That Sunday morning there were 11 baptisms during the three morning services and seven of those came back that night for the testimony service.

The last goal was to invite 2,000 to attend Easter services at the church. Thomas said it was a big number, even for Lone Oak. But the church has found throughout the past month that nothing is impossible with God.

A second-grader named Charlotte came up to Thomas holding Easter invitation cards that the church had printed. She was going to give one to each of her classmates and asked the pastor to pray over them with her. "I prayed with that little girl," he said.

Thomas said he was thankful to be serving in such a healthy church and credited former pastor Dan Summerlin for "planting and watering" so an initiative like this could be completed.

"We'd never been in this position without Dan's leadership. It's a worthwhile tip of the hat to him. When you leave the church well, it impacts the future.