Good News for Christ Church Savannah

The Network's Good News Initiative team was in Savannah, Georgia, this past weekend for its fifth "Sharing Our Faith" Conference. Only God could have orchestrated the timing of this conference the first weekend after Christ Church's announcement that they are now under the Anglican Province of Uganda, under the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey. The team consisted of Michael and Rosemary Green, Carrie Boren, Peter Rothermel (Dir. of Christian Formation for the Diocese of South Carolina) and me. One hundred sixty people registered for the event and all services were open to the public.

The weekend started off with the team attending a bible study for college students on Thursday night. More than 40 college students crammed into the basement of a Savannah couple's home for a weekly study that is completely student-led and not connected to any particular church. We invited the students to attend as many of the weekend's events as they could and especially to bring friends to Saturday night's outreach service.

Throughout the weekend, many of these students attended the Saturday evening's outreach service, Sunday School, Sunday morning's worship service as well as the 9 p.m. service of Compline followed by coffee and conversation, all of which were held in the historic and beautiful Christ Church. By the end of the weekend, connections were made between the students and the members of Christ Church which we hope will blossom into a new ministry to students in the downtown Savannah area.

The conference kicked off with an evangelistic luncheon on the topic of "The Gospel and Islam." The luncheon was sold out at 100 and Dr. Green aptly handled the subject and fielded some very good questions from those gathered. The talk was videotaped and is being made available as a DVD for only $5. Download an order form here. Watch it on Google video here. Dr. Green explained the similarities and differences of Christianity and Islam in a very clear and informed presentation - I recommend the video highly!

At the evening service, Dr. Green spoke on "The Church God Uses" outlining the traits of the Church at Antioch and why it was that the Gospel was rooted so deeply in and spread so quickly from that place. The ministry time afterwards offered many dedicated lay and ordained leaders prayer for renewal, healing and strength in these trying days.

Saturday's evangelism training covered "What Good News?" and "One-to-One Evangelism" in plenary sessions followed by ten different workshops offered in two sessions. The beauty of team ministry is that we can offer such a wide variety of workshops and give people plenty of choices. Workshops topics included "Christian formation begins at home," "But I'm not an evangelist," "Introducing Jesus in today's spiritual landscape," and "Handling difficulties in evangelistic conversations."

Even the lunch break held an evangelistic opportunity when the participants were encouraged to take the left over box lunches out into the public squares and give them away to those in need along with an invitation to come to the Saturday evening service.

Following lunch, the team shared from its breadth of experience in a panel session called "More Ways Than One" and the day training concluded with a plenary session on "Follow Up and Nurture of New Believers" which emphasized the importance of one-to-one discipleship as well as integration into a small group and the life and ministry of a local congregation. (Carrie and Peter pictured left.)

During the break before the evening outreach service, Carrie Boren led conference participants into the streets to hand out invitations to the evening event. Our conference weekends are designed not only to give biblical teaching and practical information on evangelism, but also to give participants real opportunities to put into practice what they are learning!

The evening service drew in many guests. Christ Church's wonderful folk group led worship music (every church should have their own lute player!) and Dr. Green presented a talk entitled "Halfway to Faith." Three people including Rosemary Green shared powerful testimonies about coming to faith. Rosemary, although a self-professed "goody-goody," realized in college that there was a relationship with God to be found in Christianity not just a heady religion.

Gene Prevatt shared how he thought he had it all as a successful businessman, husband, and father when a battle with alcoholism brought his whole world crashing down. He did lose his marriage and his business, but found God "while I was still a long way off My Father saw me, and ran to me. He put His arms around me and led me to Christ Church where I finally understood who He is. He found me and led me to the place where I could find Him. He prepared a feast for me at His Table. He rejoiced at my homecoming."

Finally, Brian Dennison shared how God began to speak to him during a mission trip to Uganda about leaving his job as a new law partner and moving his family to Uganda so that he could teach law at Uganda Christian University. The thought seemed ludicrous at the time - maybe the African heat was getting to him - but after several "fleeces" in which God confirmed this calling, Brian and his wife have announced their intention to move their young family to Uganda! They will join Christ Church missionaries, Jason and Louise Mehl, already serving at UCU. With Christ Church now under Uganda's jurisdiction, this announcement puts real meat on the bones of this mission partnership!

On Sunday morning, Dr. Green preached at two services and everyone enjoyed an intergenerational brunch at which rector, Marc Robertson, Dr. Green and I all shared our testimonies about coming to faith in Christ. During the Sunday morning service, Dr. Green commended the congregation of Christ Church for standing for the historic, biblical faith handed down by the apostles. From the epistle reading from 2 Timothy "I know whom I have believed," Dr. Green encouraged the congregation as Paul encouraged Timothy from his prison cell not to let even persecution or prison chains stop them from continuing to uphold and to share the Gospel message. The congregation stood giving glory to God through extended applause after the sermon concluded!

Scores of people took the opportunity to accept Christ, reaffirm their commitment to Christ or receive ministry through prayer and healing at the Saturday evening, Sunday morning and even at the Compline service Sunday night. Children, students, and adults young and old secured their place in God's heavenly kingdom, joined God's family and began to live into the eternal life that starts now and continues forever. We give God all the praise for the many ways that He moved in, among and through us during our wonderful time in Savannah!