Oh That Beloved Eunuch! Evangelistic Mission in Action

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch…”

As I read this familiar passage from Acts 8 last month, the four words “so he started out” jumped from the page into my heart. As I prayed over these words, the Lord reminded me of two truths about working to share the Good News of The Gospel within our communities. First, noting the word so, we see that Philip chooses to act in response to the prompting of the Lord’s messenger. In other words, when deciding how to pursue evangelism, Philip actively looks to the Lord for guidance and direction. In doing so, the Lord gladly offers him the specific directional course to take, which led him directly to the Ethiopian eunuch, a soul who was already in the process of asking questions about the Faith.

Secondly, we see Philip’s desire not only to seek the Lord’s direction but also his faithful willingness to pursue it. In other words, Philip found the strength and determination to actually walk that southern desert road to which he had been directed… a route that was undoubtedly hot and, even more, incredibly lonely at times. We don’t know how long it took for Philip to find the eunuch, whether it was days or months, but we do know that he walked with an expectation of the Lord’s movement within his heart. 

After concluding a rich time of fellowship and conversation centered on evangelism at the 2024 Synod, Bishop Alex challenged each of the 42 churches of the Gulf Atlantic Diocese to pursue both of these truths found in Acts: (1) look to the Lord to see the specific community that He intends for us to reach with the Gospel within our church’s context; and (2) start out with a faithful determination in our hearts to pursue such direction. This beginning must be done together to ensure encouragement along the way.

Relational Evangelism Next Steps

Specifically, each church was instructed to create and pursue three immediate action steps to share Christ with those in their community. Since that time, we have been greatly encouraged to hear from differing churches and the way that the Lord has worked in sending them out to pursue such work. Here are just a few examples of what we are seeing…

Prayer, the Sharing of the Gospel in Third Spaces, and a Dinner

Incarnation Tallahassee reported that they were greatly encouraged by their time together at Synod. Their delegation returned to their church and had several levels of conversation about the work that the Lord was leading them toward. Fr. Jon Hall was eager to share that they arrived at three specific goals they will be pursuing together. Here they are:

1. At our Tuesday prayer meetings, we will reshape our time together to do less talking and more praying for greater evangelistic outcomes from our ministries. This dedicated prayer time has already begun.
2. We are going to do a big push for third space ministry (Editor’s note: the third space is a core concept discussed at Synod that is centered in the idea of intentionally joining subcultures of people such as secular clubs, sporting teams, senior centers, etc to build relationships with those outside the church and then sharing the Gospel), starting with leaders and going through the congregation. To pursue this work, we will go through the following steps:
   • Identify what third spaces our people already take part in on a regular basis, by means of a short survey to all parishioners within the next 30 days;
   • Review the provided answers and pray about the creation of new “third space” missional community groups;
   • Encourage church members who do not have good third spaces in their lives to add one in 2025 – this will be a focus of our core leader gatherings in January.
   • Invest in specific teaching on how to befriend and deepen relationships with non-believers in those third spaces mid-year [2025], once we have established some good third spaces.
3. We propose two special gatherings before the end of 2024 for the purpose of evangelism. First is a student dinner, hosted by Fr. Jon and Fr. Peter. Second is an “Ask Me Anything” event hosted by Tom Rubino, one of our vestry members. Tom will partner with Stephen Passetti, one of our gifted evangelists, to gather friends from outside the church to entertain questions about our Faith.

Sharing Jesus Over Coffee

Church of the Redeemer in Jacksonville reported that it has now begun taking the command to “love thy neighbor” very literally. Their church is located in the heart of an active office park and so their literal “neighbor” is each of the employees who work at the businesses in the park. They have begun building relationships by simply seeking to be a blessing to all of the people that walk past throughout the day.

They just began paying for a coffee truck to come out on the grounds to provide free coffee to the employees as they start work, or take walks outside during their breaks. During this time, members of their congregation are present and intentionally mingle with all their neighbors while they wait for their coffee. Fr. Scott shared that it “gives them a chance to just be known and to be loved by us in Christ.”

They also shared a small flier that outlines ways to connect with the Church between now and the new year. The parishioners at the coffee truck have especially sought to invite such neighbors to both the men’s bible study that meets onsite Thursday mornings and to their Christmas Eve service. Within only three hours, they were able to engage with more than fifty different people! Moreover, they are making plans to provide similar coffee offerings in the coming months. 

Across the Diocese

We have also learned about a new Sunday school centered in evangelism that has started at Christ Church Savannah; invitations to international students to come for Thanksgiving dinner and intentional preparation to help parishioners best share their testimony at St. Luke’s; vestry evangelism training, testimony preparation, and a dedicated sermon series at All Saints; the creation of a clear and concise Gospel presentation booklet at All Souls; a Caribbean food fest for the local neighborhood at a parishioner’s house at Incarnation Jacksonville; and the inclusion of prayers for the lost in the Prayers of the People, Christmas caroling centered in evangelistic outreach, and an altar call through a sermon at St. Peter’s. The Lord is certainly beginning to move in express and tangible ways to bring his people to a place of deeper sharing with the lost within our communities.

Action Questions

Given the great evangelism movement that we are now seeing within the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, I want to challenge you to consider working with others in your church to answer the following questions: 

1. What specific steps has your congregation taken since receiving the Bishop’s charge to actively pursue a renewed focus upon evangelism within our churches?
2. What is the specific and measurable plan that your congregation will be pursuing to better live into our call to share the Gospel with our neighbors over the next six months?
3. How will your congregation follow up with the visitors you had at your Christmas services this season, and specifically engage with with them through in-person person follow-up occurs? How will you prepare for future big services like Easter? How can you put evangelism at the heart of your Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and other major seasonal planning?
4. Who from your church should be participating in the monthly Gulf Atlantic Diocese evangelism network meetings? They are held the third Monday of every month. There were more than eighteen of the churches represented at the November gathering! Our next meeting is January 20 at 8pm Eastern, and you can easily join this unique Network and find out the schedule for upcoming calls by emailing Michelle Herbst.

So as we again consider that short phrase “so he started out” from that Acts 8 passage, I wonder if the Lord might not be asking you to faithfully join Him by walking on your church’s own desert road, a unique and specific path that will lead you toward those people in whose heart Jesus is already working. Will you seek to hear from him and, even more, will you and your fellow parishioners start out on such an evangelism journey with Him together?

If you are interested in learning more about evangelism or have specific questions about the efforts being pursued within the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, please contact me by email.