Hundreds from school, community hear gospel
SALEM, Mo. – High school students and community members flooded the gym of Salem High School for a Real Encounter Outreach event, Sept. 25.
The outreach, hosted by FBC Salem along with the local FCA and several other churches, was particularly special for Brad Bennett, Director of the Making Disciples team and founder of Real Encounter. He served as the youth pastor at FBC Salem from 1996-1999. “Last night in Salem, our ministry came full circle,” he says. “My first ministry position was at First Baptist Church of Salem twenty-seven years ago, and it was during that time the Lord gave me a vision for Real Encounter Outreach.”
Real Encounter combines Bennett’s experience as a motorcross racer with his passion for the gospel through dynamic, multi-day events aimed to reach multitudes with the gospel while igniting passion for evangelism within local churches. This vision flows out of Bennett’s own experience when, as a 19-year-old professional motorcross racer, one of his motorcross heroes, Steve Wise, introduced him to Jesus. Just a few years later, he answered the Lord’s call to full-time ministry.
Sandee Hedger has worked with Bennett at Real Encounter for more than 20 years, helping the churches and communities with event pre-planning. This process begins 6-8 months in advance. This event was “probably one of the more perfect scenarios ever,” she says, with various groups coming together to make it happen: the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes, several area churches, the school district, and a nonprofit agency.
Rachel Privett, a teacher in the Oak Hill R-1 district, “put legs to everything,” says Paula Land of FBC Salem. Privett served as the community’s point person working with Bennett’s team to bring the Real Encounter event to Salem. “She did a phenomenal job of bringing all the schools on board,” says Hedger.
This partnership was one of the most impactful elements of the event, Hedger says, because it’s profound “for the unchurched community to see not just churches working together but to see them working with not-for-profits and the school district, to see a partnership between all of them.”
Four members of the Making Disciples Team preached at four different churches on Sunday, Sept. 22: Brad Bennett at New Harmony, Brent Longnecker at FBC Salem, Bob Caldwell at Pleasant Valley, and Dan Gibson at New Home. Later that evening, FBC Salem hosted the Life Outreach Training. Congregants from all four churches came together for training in relational evangelism.
Land says the training was worthwhile even for those who couldn’t attend Real Encounter. She walked away struck by the importance of sharing your faith in a personal way, regardless of whether using the ABCs, the Roman Road, or another gospel sharing tool. “Not just telling the gospel but what’s happened in my life…To be able to tell people, this is what God has done for me,” she says. “I heard lots of people that really took away a lot from the training.”
During the first half of the week, the team held school assemblies for several area schools at every grade level. While they can’t share the gospel in the assemblies, they give the kids a motivational talk about their worth and invite them to the Real Encounter event on Wednesday evening where the gospel will be shared.
One of the unique elements of this event was the way it coincided with See You at the Pole, which provided another opportunity to promote the big event. “It was kind of the perfect storm in a positive way,” says Hedger. “All of these elements came together for the message to get out in a clear and concise way.”
Three days of promotion culminated in the Real Encounter event on Wednesday evening, drawing such a crowd that there was standing room only in the Salem High School gym. Bennett estimates over 1,100 people were in attendance for the stunt show and gospel message.
The event garnered 116 contacts made with 70 total salvations and 16 total rededications. “The Lord moved in a miraculous way and we witnessed a multitude of people surrendering their lives to Christ,” wrote Bennett.
The churches divided up contact cards for follow up. Life Outreach provided training and a one-page document to guide them in those efforts. This follow up component is key to the Real Encounter Outreach model. “We do all we can to get them [the churches] to do it, but we can’t force them,” says Bennett. “We’re equipping the churches to carry out the vision and follow up in a holistic way.”
FBC Salem is already seeing the fruit of their efforts. Land says several kids who came to the Encounter are coming to Wednesday night class. “Some were kids that we had some relationship with at some point in time, but this renewed their interest to come and participate in the church. Several have come just because of that event.”
Hedger says that “the whole concept of Life Outreach is leadership development within the community and churches in addition to the evangelism training that they make available for that and the follow-up. It’s a turnkey compact three days, but that’s just the culmination…it really starts months in advance.”
This event – and others like it – wouldn’t be possible without the Missouri Baptist Convention. MBC offers local churches and associations a matching grant to help offset the cost of the entire Real Encounter event. “It really is an opportunity for a community to bring in a large scale nationwide show for evangelism that they otherwise probably couldn’t bring in,” says Hedger. “Without that [grant] we wouldn’t have been able to put it on,” says Land.
This is the beauty of the Cooperative Program—local churches, associations, and the state convention working together to do things they couldn’t do apart.
“A big thanks to the local FCA and Salem churches that supported the event,” says Bennett. “We love Salem and seeing lives transformed by the gospel!”