Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Perhaps that’s what inspired his lifelong motto: Great things have small beginnings.
That has been true of spiritual awakenings in the United States as well. The Haystack Revival of 1806 began with four students taking refuge from a thunderstorm under a haystack.
The Laymen’s Revival of 1857-58 began with Jeremiah Lamphyre gathering on the third floor of a church with just five or six other men. I believe the same God who brought about those awakenings could do the same in Missouri.
That’s why we’re inviting every Missouri Baptist church to gather in their communities on Saturday, Oct. 24, for One Great Day of Evangelism. One Great Day is an event inspired by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Crossover, which occurs on the Saturday before the SBC annual meeting.
However, unlike the national Crossover events, in which churches and mission teams descend on the host city, we have a different vision. In Missouri, we want churches from around the state to host intentional outreach opportunities in their own communities, even as the churches in the St. Charles area do so prior to the MBC annual meeting.
Just as our churches are unique, we anticipate the outreach efforts to be unique. One church may decide to host a block party with bounce houses and face painting, while another hosts a car show. Perhaps another plans to host a Christian illusionist to share the gospel at a “magic” show. Another church may decide to host a free car wash for the community.
Regardless of the outreach event a church chooses to host, the goal is for church members to be equipped to engage in gospel conversations with those who are present. Imagine the impact of hundreds of MBC churches all hosting outreach events on the same day, with church members engaging in thousands of gospel conversations!
Our vision is to share four key metrics from our One Great Day of Evangelism at the 2026 MBC annual meeting. We want to share how many churches participated, how many church members participated, how many gospel conversations were engaged, and how many people made commitments to Christ.
We want to celebrate how God moves in our rural churches, our urban churches, our normative size churches, and our larger churches. We want to celebrate every outreach effort, every gospel conversation, and every soul that comes to faith in the Lord Jesus.
The Prayer and Evangelism Group of the MBC stands ready to assist our churches in thinking about effective outreach efforts and in equipping church members to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations.
Please contact the Prayer and Evangelism Group at the MBC today for help in planning One Great Day of Evangelism in your community. Our web address is mobaptist.org/prayer-evangelism/.
Let’s watch what great thing God does from a small, obedient beginning!