SMITHVILLE, Tenn. (BNc) by Eugene Adkins — The Smithville Fiddler’s Jamboree and Craft Festival is a community tradition that’s been going on for over 40 years in DeKalb County, during the Fourth of July holiday. It attracts thousands of local and worldwide visitors.
This year the Jamboree Festival committee allowed local organizations to set up information booths. The church in Keltonburg took advantage of the opportunity to present the Gospel in multiple forms.
In spite of the unseasonably wet and cool weather, the church’s booth had a great deal of success in getting out the word on God’s word.
Along with the offer of a free bottle of water, the church offered Bible tracts, scripture reference cards, previous House-to-House issues, and various mail-in Bible correspondence courses, free for the taking.
By the time the tent came down, hundreds of Bible tracts and scripture reference cards were taken, and several Bible study courses were ready to go, one of which is heading all the way down to Texas.
Booth workers also had many conversations with people who were both familiar and unfamiliar with the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church also received words of encouragement from other brothers and sisters in Christ from the community, and even out of state, who were glad to see the booth set up.
The church is looking forward to next year’s festival as a continued opportunity to share God’s word with the community.
2013-07-07 at 6:57 pm
Let’s’ stop promoting The church of Christ and promote Christ and His teachings. Being a member of The church of Christ is a benefit after baptism.
2013-07-07 at 7:43 pm
How cwn you promote Christ without promoting Hie Bride? Perhaps I misunderstand your comment. But those in Christ are members of His body which is the Church.
2013-07-07 at 8:30 pm
They will learn after baptism that they are now members of The assembly of Christ [Christ”s church or assembly]. What I have seen happen is that an assembly of 200 has a problem and all but 20 go to other religious groups. My opinion is that those people were converted to The Church of Christ as opposed to converted to the Baptist Church, etc. We are told in Scripture to preach Christ; not The Church of Christ. After conversion to Christ then they join other brethren in what is called The church [assembly] of Christ for singing, praying, etc.
In the years I had a Bible correspondence course ministry in Latin America I never mentioned The church of Christ. It was named Estudios Biblicos. The student never heard of The church of Christ [except in a BCC lesson on the assembly] until a brother knocked on their door. Thousands were baptized. After baptism, they were informed about other brethren in their area.
2013-07-07 at 8:23 pm
Ken,
The purpose of posting this story was to encourage local evangelism, not to attract uninformed and negative comments from those who may be members of the body of Christ, so I don’t quite understand your comment, unless you were out there personally and misperceived something. If that happens to be the case then I would like to meet with you personally and discuss the issue.
As far as our “promotions” go, I believe we had 10-15 different Bible tracts from House-to-House for the public to choose from. If memory serves me correctly, only one tract dealt directly with the church (When Did the Church of Christ Begin?) and another dealt with the importance of attending worship service and the benefits of the church (Church, Why Bother?) while the rest dealt with various topics such as baptism, various doctrines, the Bible and the importance of Bible study. I know for a fact that we had tracts that dealt 100% with Jesus and his sacrifice for sin. As far as the scripture reference cards, they were just that – scripture reference cards. So I don’t see the harm in handing out any of these.
My friend, don’t take this the wrong, but if you got busy rowing the boat you’d have less time to rock it. Don’t be presumptuous; I’m sure you don’t like it when others are presumptuous with you so keep the “golden rule” in mind when it comes to situations like this and start edifying the church and bringing glory to God.
2013-07-07 at 9:01 pm
I am discussing the brotherhood evangelizing methods. The church in America is in apostasy and dying. We must do more evangelizing. 70% of our young people lose their faith upon graduation from HS. I sow The Seed using Bible DVDs and The Good News From God booklet. The NT says promote Christ and Him crucified.
2013-07-09 at 9:31 am
Looking at the above statement about loss of high school graduates and the stated condition of the church that exists, it would appear to me that evangelizing is important, but so is the church that exists today. Christians are told to “Go into all the world” to teach the gospel–they are not told how to go, walk, fly, or ride a donkey; neither are they told what method-CD’s, videos, or printed material. Regardless of how this is done, it is imperative that local church should not be neglected or put on back burner to accomplish this. What I see in what the church in Tennessee did was a great attempt to carry out the Great Commission and also to give the “cup of water” as mentioned in the Bible. This was involvement of local membership that could result in a stronger church. If a church is not involved in local activities that are upright and that give an opportunity to further the gospel, it is likely to become a “dying church” that was mentioned above or is already dead.
In addition I feel compelled to say that my mate as been on several successful Latin American Missions, and they have successfully used “Iglesia de Cristo” (Rom. 16:16), which translates Church of Christ. LAM as well as natives use this term.
All of the above is said with much love and concern for all Christians above–we may use different tools and methods to save lost, but what really matters is that they are scripturally sound.
2013-07-09 at 12:36 pm
You are 200% right. I have tried to get the congregation where I worship to have a display at the county fair. They will not. They do little evangelizing. I can remember when there were 2000 members with 300+ baptisms; now 1100 and 35 baptism [our children mostly]. Little evangelizing. A brother told me that in 2011 he visited 100 congregations in the 18 western states. 97 are dying and 3 are baptizing many. People are searching for Truth.
2013-07-07 at 8:31 pm
If I understood the article correctly, it was praising Christians who had taken a very important opportunity to spread the gospel of Christ. Obviously, Jesus was not available to work at the booths, so his followers did. To promote Christ is to promote the church, and to promote the church is to promote Christ. It’s too bad other churches don’t follow the example set here to take advantage at given opportunities to spread the gospel.
2013-07-07 at 9:25 pm
Ken,
I’m going to make one more comment in reply to your last comment and let it go since it seems as if you’re going to ignore the fact that your initial comment was off base and uncalled for since it was uninformed and did not apply to actual story that was posted.
I understand much of what you’re saying. There is a great, great need to encourage conviction of sins and devotion to Jesus, but to say that talking about the church with others is something that needs to always wait until they obey the gospel is simply wrong my friend.
Do you not think that Paul ever preached about God’s kingdom, which became a reality on Pentecost Day (Isaiah 2:1-4), to his Jewish brethren along side with his preaching about Jesus? I assure you he did! (Acts 13:45-48). The union of both Jews and Gentiles within the “household” of God was an important subject that Paul covered with both the saved and unsaved, both the Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11-122; Acts 19:8-10).
Peter also placed a great emphasis about the privileges of living as God’s chosen people as well (1 Peter 2:1-10). I see no reason why Peter would have ignored preaching about the very kingdom that Jesus taught him about until someone was baptized (Matthew 16:18-19).
I understand that there may not be people in Latin America who have never heard of the church of Christ and that there may be advantages that come along with that, but people in DeKalb County, Tennessee have heard of the church of Christ and many have presumptuous ideas and options based upon “hear say” (I listened to a few snide comments due to such) and then there are others who genuinely want to learn with questions. When someone asks us, “What church are you with?” what are we supposed to say?
The simple fact of the matter is that “preaching Jesus” is a synecdoche that represents many aspects of the Gospel rolled into one. As a matter of fact, check out Acts 8:12, 35; 10:36; 17:18; 28:17-31 and you’ll see that preaching Jesus includes preaching many things, one of which includes the kingdom of God which is enjoyed today only through the church of God.
In times of great religious confusion people need to be reminded that by the grace of God they can be a Christian and Christian alone, which includes being a member of the same church that people were added to in Acts 2:47.
I did not grow up in the church of Christ, but I am glad to be a member of her today and for that reason I have no problem discussing the importance of the church when the need arises.
Thanks.
2013-07-07 at 9:31 pm
Sorry for the typos. Part of the 5th paragraph should have read:
“I understand that there may be people in Latin America who have never heard of the church of Christ and that there may be advantages that come along with that, but people in DeKalb County, Tennessee have heard of the church of Christ and many have presumptuous ideas and opinions based upon “hear say””
2013-07-07 at 9:58 pm
Ken,
I’ve read your articles and for the most part agree with you. Convert man to Christ and he will following all the teachings of Christ! With this I agree!
But what good does does your comments do? It seems your straining at a gnat just so you can argue. Why don’t YOU go
down next year and help him at the Jamboree ???
Question for you? Have many have you led to Christ this year? Just taking a survey!
Agape
Jerry
2013-07-08 at 10:04 am
None that I know of but God knows. I SOW THE SEED all over the world. I am a sower. I have mailed out 12,000 DVDs BIBLICAL RESEARCH LIBRARY from Roger Dickson in SA. Since 2010 I have mailed out 40,000 Bible DVDs. I have the Jesus film in 40 languages I mail free all over the world. I have the equipment to burn and print DVDs.
Since March I have distributed over 3,000 copies of THE GOOD NEWS FROM GOD booklet.
You can condemn me for saying that The church is dying in America but you can see the facts for yourself.
2013-07-08 at 10:16 am
With the ubiquity of audio devices (mp3 players, tablets, smart phones, etc.) it seems to me that giving away audio bibles would be standard. However, of all of the booths by the various Christian groups I’ve seen at various fairs over the last decade, none of them have given away audio bibles.
2013-07-08 at 10:33 am
To reach those under 30, it must be electronic in most instances. http://www.childrensbiblestudy.com has millions of hits per month. More than 50% are adults. DVDs are the way to go in Africa and Latin America. We must use mass evangelism to sow The Seed to 7B people on earth. The internet is too expensive for the majority but DVDs are cheap and people can play them. Audio Bibles are available and can be reproduced free of charge. Digital Bible Society. Good News booklets are free. “Dennis Ensor” ,
2013-07-08 at 6:52 pm
Jonathan:
We weren’t giving away Bibles, unless requested. We were giving away Bible tracts and scripture reference cards and other Bible study aides such as correspondence courses. Anyone who is tech savvy (as the people you are referring to would be) should know that they can get an untold number of apps for the their phones or tablets (many of which contain audio versions that are absolutely free) so it wouldn’t be very profitable to give something away that they can already get if they have that equipment.
Ken:
Brother, I don’t know you from Adam, but to speak plainly for a second I just want to say shame on you. The story that was posted here did not call for any of your comments. You sound like a bellyacher in reaction to good people spending their time and resources to spread the good news of Jesus and God’s word. If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.
You say the church must do more evangelism yet you talk negatively about a church doing just that! I appreciate your efforts and I hope that God blesses them if they’re sowing the word of God, but I don’t remember the great commission saying anything about evangelizing “Ken’s” way.
Thanks to your negative attitude about something that was meant to encourage the very thing that you say you support, an untold number of people from around the world are going to read this post and then read your unnecessary and distracting comments. Your attitude reminds me of the disciple’s attitude that rebuked the woman for anointing the feet of Jesus…you need to think about that for a while before you decide to make more negative and uninformed remarks because this story does not fit your soapbox for the moment.
For anyone else who has a negative or critical comment to make:
What part of “In spite of the unseasonably wet and cool weather, the church’s booth had a great deal of success in getting out the word on God’s word.” don’t you understand??? Rejoice for a second or two instead of acting like you’re repulsed!
To those of you who have made kind and supportive comments:
Thank you (2 Corinthians 1:11).
2013-07-08 at 8:32 pm
That congregation is doing what every congregation should be doing and in all the ways we can think of. I never said anything negative about that congregation. The church is dying in America and we can stick our heads in the sand but that will not change the way things are going. That is not my opinion; there are facts to prove it.
2013-07-09 at 8:19 am
I’m a member of the Church of Christ in Dominican Republic. And I want to congratulate these brothers for their effort. I think we’re going to do the same thing over here following their good example. It’s a wonderful idea.
May God bless you so much.