Idaho Conference Members Get Ready to ShareHim Evangelism is taking on a new face in the Idaho Conference. Lay members, instead of only heading to a foreign country to hold meetings, are planning meetings for their own communities. The momentum began at camp meeting. During his Sabbath morning sermon, Robert Folkenberg Sr., ShareHim president, challenged Idaho Conference members to make evangelism a personal priority. They should be supporting members who speak in their own churches, not just be supporting members to a paid evangelist, he said. People just like them can do it—it isn't necessary to be pursuing ministry as a pastor or a conference- or union-sponsored evangelist. This new initiative is called ShareHim (www.sharehim.org). More than 240 Idaho members responded to Folkenberg’s call that camp meeting Sabbath. Steve McPherson, Idaho Conference president, and Don Klinger, conference secretary, met with churches in different regions of the conference to give everyone the opportunity to participate. In September, more than 100 participants attended an “Evangelism Boot Camp” at Gem State Academy that provided training for lay members as speakers and support teams. Many of these people have already signed up to be speakers at meetings to be held in their churches and even in their homes. What they learned in theory at the camp will soon be put into practice. One set of meetings started in October with many more scheduled for January and February 2007. Fledgling evangelists, armed with DVDs, scripts, computers, projectors, and DVD players, are spreading their wings, trusting that God will provide the lift they need to accomplish His work. One participant, Newton States, has preached many times in his home church in Emmett, Idaho. His pastor asked him to demonstrate one of the sermons for Sabbath worship service, to give him a feel for how it worked and to have a friendly audience. States discovered that the hardest part was coordinating his words with the graphics, since the series he had didn’t include sermon notes on a split screen. He said that comments from the congregation were on the order of, “The sermon was good, the graphics were good, but the speaker sort of stuttered while trying to coordinate everything.” After setting things up a little differently and using the Truth For Today split screen series provided by ShareHim, the next time went much smoother. “We’re presenting each sermon during prayer meeting,” States said. All of the elders of the church are learning how to present the sermons during prayer meeting. States says, “If I can do this, anyone can!” Idaho Conference will celebrate 100 years in service to God in 2007. Our constituency session and camp meeting theme is “Share the Light.” That’s just what Idaho church members like Newton States are doing.
Idaho Conference Members
Get Ready to ShareHim
Evangelism is taking on a new face in the Idaho Conference. Lay members, instead of only heading to a foreign country to hold meetings, are planning meetings for their own communities. The momentum began at camp meeting. During his Sabbath morning sermon, Robert Folkenberg Sr., ShareHim president, challenged Idaho Conference members to make evangelism a personal priority. They should be supporting members who speak in their own churches, not just be supporting members to a paid evangelist, he said. People just like them can do it—it isn't necessary to be pursuing ministry as a pastor or a conference- or union-sponsored evangelist. This new initiative is called ShareHim (www.sharehim.org).
More than 240 Idaho members responded to Folkenberg’s call that camp meeting Sabbath. Steve McPherson, Idaho Conference president, and Don Klinger, conference secretary, met with churches in different regions of the conference to give everyone the opportunity to participate. In September, more than 100 participants attended an “Evangelism Boot Camp” at Gem State Academy that provided training for lay members as speakers and support teams. Many of these people have already signed up to be speakers at meetings to be held in their churches and even in their homes.
What they learned in theory at the camp will soon be put into practice. One set of meetings started in October with many more scheduled for January and February 2007. Fledgling evangelists, armed with DVDs, scripts, computers, projectors, and DVD players, are spreading their wings, trusting that God will provide the lift they need to accomplish His work.
One participant, Newton States, has preached many times in his home church in Emmett, Idaho. His pastor asked him to demonstrate one of the sermons for Sabbath worship service, to give him a feel for how it worked and to have a friendly audience. States discovered that the hardest part was coordinating his words with the graphics, since the series he had didn’t include sermon notes on a split screen. He said that comments from the congregation were on the order of, “The sermon was good, the graphics were good, but the speaker sort of stuttered while trying to coordinate everything.” After setting things up a little differently and using the Truth For Today split screen series provided by ShareHim, the next time went much smoother. “We’re presenting each sermon during prayer meeting,” States said. All of the elders of the church are learning how to present the sermons during prayer meeting. States says, “If I can do this, anyone can!”
Idaho Conference will celebrate 100 years in service to God in 2007. Our constituency session and camp meeting theme is “Share the Light.” That’s just what Idaho church members like Newton States are doing.
At the camp meeting Sabbath morning worship service, more than 240 people came forward during Robert Folkenberg's call to make evangelism a personal priority. (Eve Rusk)
"Boot Camp" trainees spent part of their weekend learning how to conduct their own evangelistic serieswith themselves as speakers! (Don Klinger)
Newton States, Emmett Church elder, practiced his presentation at his home church and with a friendly audience. (Leanne Strickland)
