Recently, I had the privilege to travel to NC and fellowship with a number of friends serving in evangelism. It was a blessed time! The preaching and testimonies were a great encouragement, and I am more excited than ever to see what God is going to do in 2016!
One purpose for the Evangelist Advance was to honor the influence of Dr. Ron Comfort upon many of the evangelists in the meeting this year. It was fascinating to note a line of evangelists who have ministered in the past 200 years.
God used D. L. Moody to introduce J. Wilbur Chapman to Christ. Chapman resulted in Billy Sunday. Sunday led to Mordecai Ham. In 1934, Ham was preaching a meeting in Charlotte, NC where Billy Graham was saved. Graham’s ministry let to the salvation of Ron Comfort, and Dr. Comfort has been very influential in my life and ministry – along with over a dozen other present day evangelists that I can think of.
More than anything else, Dr. Comfort’s ministry has challenged me to always make the Bible the primary content in my preaching.
The Evangelist Advance also encouraged me to revive regular book reading again. Recent months have been quite given to learning various coding languages, but I am really burdened to get back in the books! I’ve devoured numerous pages already. 🙂
This year our ministry will require a lot of faith! The final message at the Advance was a great challenge! Alton Beal said, “Don’t enter the new year with fear. Enter it with faith.”