ENGAGE 2020

ENGAGE 2020 is conference that focuses more on evangelism; with its developer and speaker, who is an author, a doctor and the senior pastor of a church in Nashville, Dr. Rice Broocks. He developed Engage 2020 as a strategy for equipping and empowering local churches for growth through evangelism.





Just yesterday, I attended this seminar in Victory Pioneer. And with the fee we paid, it was worth it. We got free snacks and freebies, not to mention his new book God's Not Dead -- yes, for free!!! Well, that's beyond my point. LOL. With all seriousness, this seminar taught and reminded me of many things. There are three things that I want to highlight in this entry.


The Gospel

There was a part in Dr. Rice's talk wherein he asked us What will you tell someone if he asked you what the gospel is all about? and he let us write our answers at the back of our manual. After a few people shared what they wrote, he told us the simplest way to tell someone about the gospel. I quote from our manual, 

"The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died...in our place. Three days later, He rose from the dead, proving He is the Son of God and offering the gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins to anyone who repents and believes the gospel."

I can say that, with comparison with the answer I wrote, this was way simpler and more understandable for someone, especially those who doesn't have a background about our faith. I realized that sometimes, we are the ones who make the concept of salvation complex; thus, making non believers abandon the thought of it. With this much simpler way of explaining what the gospel is all about, I think more people will be able to grasp the simplicity of the gospel.

Explaining further, Dr. Rice made an illustration of the salvation that struck me the most. I made an effort to put it all in a GIF. I apology, though, for the cut texts.

You don't expect God just sitting on His throne and waiting for you to come back to Him. No. God initiated to come to us and give us the chance to be reconciled back to Him. He went down from His throne and went down to earth through Jesus Christ and be human like us. Jesus, who is perfect, is the only one qualified to save us from the death we deserve. He has to be perfect for the rest of his life here on earth, or else, with one mistake, the salvation thing would be over. Now, imagine the pressure-of-being-perfect Jesus had gone through in his 33 years of stay here on earth, with all the persecutions, mocks, and physical pain he received from the ones he is saving just to save us! Even while he's hanging on the cross, he still thought about us (Luke 23:34). Turn to God. He is just one prayer away.

Authenticity of the Bible

Someone from the audience brought up the issue of non believers saying that the Bible is man-made. However, Dr. Rice gave us 5 points that proves the authenticity of the Bible (which he mentioned in his book as well).

• The Bible may have been translated to other languages and versions, it's still the same.
• It is archaeologically verified. The events in the Bible didn't happen anywhere else out of this universe.
• Historically accurate
• Contains fulfilled prophesies
• Made extraordinary impact

Sharing the gospel

Dr. Rice shared his testimony about the conversation he had with his brother before his brother got saved.

Soon after Rice Broocks became a Christian as a third year university student, he discussed his faith with his borther Ben, an atheist, who was athird year law student. Though Rice was young in faith, his simple answers to his brother's questions led to Ben's acceptance of Christ, and he baptized Ben later that day. [x]

His affirmation made me thought of Esther. In her situation full of uncertainties, she chose to obey because she knows she has a purpose. In evangelism, we may not know by ourselves who to reach, but with the Holy Spirit, we would feel it. Just like Esther, we'll never know the magnitude of impact our obedience will make. We are where we are today in such a time as this [x]. God can use our situation, where we are right now, to advance His kingdom and for His glory. You just have to make yourself available.

Yes, we don't have the power to save people; but through Jesus, we had the power to lead people to Him