Emerald City Community Church introduced an unusual friendship evangelism approach recently: major gospel concerts to make new friends and increase the church’s visibility in the community.
Emerald City’s concert series had three goals. First, get people to come to the church who would not normally come otherwise. Second, allow the concert experience to create a worship experience that unites community and church. Third, collect data from tickets sales with the goal of accumulating 2,000 new interests to lead into Bible studies, new friendships and/or baptisms into the faith.
Emerald City’s first concert was on Jan. 21, 2023, with world renowned Grammy-winning artist Fred Hammond. The church prayed for 500 people. By the time the concert began, the audience was not only sold out, but church leaders estimated close to 900 people were in the building.
On April 2, the church hosted its second concert with Grammy-winning recording artist Jonathan McReynolds one week before resurrection weekend. This concert also saw a record number of visitors in the church who not only witnessed the move of God through song but were introduced to the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the first time.
Many attendees at both the Fred Hammond and Jonathan McReynolds concerts said they had never been in an Adventist church before. They could choose from available literature and interact with dozens of people on a personal level in conversation.
From the first two concerts, Emerald City discovered more than 600 new interests, had an uptick in website visits, saw church attendance increase and celebrated 11 baptisms, three professions of faith and nine transfers into the church family — just in the first quarter of 2023.
The concerts are a lead-in to a two-week “Almost Home” spiritual extravaganza happening in Seattle in late July with Debleaire Snell, Breath of Life Ministries director and speaker.
Just like John 12:32 advises, the gospel artists that Emerald City chose to feature in its concert series are known to lift up Jesus in song.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” It’s a form of communication that transcends space and time, touching the hearts of people worldwide. With just one note, a shred of hope, happiness and even sadness can be transmitted from one soul to the next. Church leadership wants to be the note the Holy Spirit uses to connect with one soul to the next.
By hosting these concerts, Emerald City wants to present themselves as an alternative to the violence, hate, bigotry, racism, greed, sexism and narcissism commonly seen around the Greater Seattle area.
The leadership team’s greatest desire is to help the community, through a language everyone can understand, to know that the kingdom of God is here now, and that God is in the process now of “making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
Pastor EuGene and Johnnette Lewis welcome their community to a gospel concert series at Emerald City Church in Seattle.
Music provides a common language that unites hearts in praise to God and nurtures a desire to know and grow in a relationship with Jesus.
Most of the people in the maxed out crowd for Emerald City Church's gospel concert series had never stepped into a Seventh-day Adventist Church before. The church has hundreds of new friends now.
Fred Hammond, a Grammy-winning gospel artist, kicks off Emerald City Community Church's first-ever gospel concert series. The church family is praying about meeting 2,000 new friends in preparation for a two-week revival in July.
