A world-wide search for better ways to save souls launched in August 2006 has identified profoundly more effective ways for Christian evangelism to be practiced by engaging vastly more Christians in witnessing at much lower cost. The winning solutions require a church building a team to assist learning about evangelism by the church’s full congregation, dedicating part of each church service to training congregants about ways to witness and evangelize, and pursuing low-cost ways to joyfully share congregants’ testimonies with more unsaved people.

Contact: Donald W. Mitchell, 781-647-4211, save_more_souls@yahoo.com; Dale P. Combs, Senior Pastor, Jubilee Worship Center, 219-947-0301, jwcpastor@verizon.net; Jim Barbarossa, co-founder, Step by Step Ministries, 219-762-7589, jim@step-by-step.org

WESTON, Mass., May 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- Management expert Donald W. Mitchell announces the winners of a world-wide contest he sponsored to give a Christmas gift to God by finding ways to conduct Christian evangelism more effectively.  Mitchell happily noted, “The best solutions vastly exceeded my high expectations for this contest. Praise God.”

The winning solutions were provided by Jubilee Worship Center in Hobart, Indiana and Step by Step Ministries in Porter, Indiana.

Senior Pastor Dale P. Combs of Jubilee Worship Center conceived of having in-house evangelists who would concentrate on preparing congregants to share God’s love with those who had not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Pastor Combs’ vision has been fulfilled by “Ephesians 4” evangelists, Jim and Carla Barbarossa, who lead a team of evangelism fire starters from the congregation to provide five minutes of witnessing and evangelism training, and encouragement as part of every church service.

These efforts seek to fulfill the direction described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:11-13:

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” (NKJV)

From these educational efforts, the majority of congregants at Jubilee Worship Center have prepared written testimonies of their Christian rebirths and the positive effects of rebirth on their lives. These testimonies have been converted into tracts and books that almost all congregants share on a regular basis with the unsaved. Since the evangelism-training program was begun, tens of thousands of tracts and books have been shared by congregants with unsaved relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and old and new acquaintances.

“I am absolutely amazed at how God uses such simple ideas,” states Pastor Combs. “When God told me that we were to train those who come to Christ to be active participants in the Harvest as part of the Vision for Jubilee Worship Center, I had no idea how to put it all together. Not long after, God brought Jim and Carla into our church and they were the missing piece of the puzzle. Together we began training our congregation to share their stories with their lost friends. Little did I know the impact of what God was going to do on a global scale!” The effect has been to increase the evangelistic efforts of this average-size congregation by over 100 times.

Lisa Combs shared that she is grateful for the evangelistic efforts of the congregation. “This allows the pastor the time to spend on other issues that press the church. Since there are people who are trained to share their faith, more lives are being reached than if just the pastor was doing so.”

The harvest of saved souls has been large. The cost per soul saved has been small compared to traditional efforts by full-time evangelists.

Mitchell noted, “I would never have realized that God had done so much good in one congregation if I hadn’t read these powerful, heart-felt testimonies.”

Jim Barbarossa explained why the unsaved have responded so well to these testimonies. “Our witnessing tools focus on many practical aspects of how being saved improves your life on Earth. Because people are looking for answers to their biggest day-to-day problems, these life-changing gifts are received with joy. With this approach, witnessing is made easy and comfortable for even the shyest Christians because they experience warm acceptance of their help, rather than rejection.”

Carla Barbarossa noted that “God has used the witnessing and evangelism teachings that He gave my husband, Jim, to set me free from a paralyzing fear that stopped me from sharing my faith for the first 25 years of my Christian life.Today, I enjoy sharing my faith and especially like doing the 5-minute witnessing and evangelism sessions to encourage others to get free from fear and share their faith.”

This work has been expanded to fulfill Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NKJV)

Step By Step Ministries has found that the practices and tools developed at Jubilee Worship Center are readily transferable to other churches in the United States and to evangelistic ministries in other nations. In a number of African nations and in Pakistan, Step By Step Ministries has been providing tracts, tapes, CDs, and books based on Jubilee Worship Center’s witnessing. As employed by evangelistic ministries abroad, these materials have been used to save tens of thousands of souls at a cost of less than 25 cents per soul. As more experience is developed with using the Jubilee Worship Center approach, the foreign ministries are developing their own materials in local languages based on the experiences of those reborn there by using Jubilee Worship Center congregants’ testimonies. As a result of redirecting evangelism by Christians who live in foreign nations and producing materials abroad, the cost of saving souls is much lower than for sending missionaries from the United States to share the Gospel with unsaved people in those nations.

As a result of these activities, congregants at Jubilee Worship Center and the evangelists at Step by Step Ministries (who are part of the congregation) are helping present Jesus’ offer of salvation to more than 400 times as many unsaved souls as an average-sized American church’s congregation does. Because of this higher level of witnessing, the Holy Spirit has a chance to work in the hearts of more unsaved people.

Details of these Holy Spirit-inspired practices will be reported in a new book to be published within a year which is tentatively titled, Christian, Can You Share Your Testimony and Spare a Quarter? Congregation-Based Evangelism Delivers a 2,000 Percent Squared Solution for Helping Save 400 Times More Souls, which will be co-authored by Donald W. Mitchell, Senior Pastor Dale P. Combs, Lisa Combs, Jim Barbarossa, and Carla Barbarossa. A publisher has not yet been selected. All profits and royalties from the book will be donated to Jubilee Worship Center and Step By Step Ministries to further their evangelism efforts.

The seven-month-long contest is described and entry details are included at: click here 

For more details about Mitchell’s past efforts on behalf of Christian organizations, see: www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/donald-mitchell-amazon-tech-media_cz_hc_books06_1201amazon.html

Donald W. Mitchell is co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Portable 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. He may be reached at 781-647-4211, save_more_souls@yahoo.com.

Dale P. Combs is senior pastor at Jubilee Worship Center. He may be reached at 219-947-0301, jwcpastor@verizon.net.

Jim Barbarossa is co-founder of Step by Step Ministries and senior evangelist of Jubilee Worship Center. He may be reached at 219-762-7589 jim@step-by-step.org.