Urban Evangelism

Luke Davis, Senior Student at BJU (Business Administration, B.A.)

Every Friday night, my friends and I go downtown Greenville to hand out tracts and have gospel conversations. God has allowed us to see several people coming to Him through this outreach.

I was introduced to urban evangelism by my brother. He was leading this outreach my freshman year. He had asked me several times to “come out just once,” but I kept pushing it off until about a month into my second semester. I finally decided to go because of an assignment in one of my classes. I was taking “The Life and Ministry of Paul” with Mr. Vowels and the assignment was witnessing to one person that we didn’t know and writing about the experience. I figured this was a great time to try the Urban Evangelism outreach. So I finally went and boy, was I nervous! I had no clue how it was going to go and I had no idea what I was going to say. The entire thing was new to me—Greenville, the people, and even witnessing, sadly, were new to me. At the end of the night I was amazed. I knew nothing. What I thought I knew about the gospel was not enough. I also learned that God had to be central in my life to really reach the lost. Unfortunately, God was not central in my life until second semester sophomore year when I put my faith in the Lord. But what I realized then is that there is such a need for the gospel in Greenville. I also saw the need for leaders and, just in general, guys in the ministry. At the time there was about 11 of us—4 guys and 7 ladies. There was also a need for younger people. I believe there was only 2 of us who weren’t an upperclassman or a grad student.
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There are many reasons why I continue to go on this outreach. First, I want to be uncomfortable. So many Christians today will stay where it is comfortable and we have become complacent with where we are. We think our job is merely to be a church member. Second, I want to partake in the Great Commission. God has called us as believers to proclaim Christ to every person. I want to be like Paul when he says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ:” (Romans 1:16). Third, I want to reflect Christ. He went and sought the lost throughout His ministry. And fourth, I want to impact people’s lives with the gospel. The same power that changed my heart needs to spread to every person. Everyone should get the chance to be changed forever. I understand that there will be people who reject God, but that should not stop me or anyone else from proclaiming the saving power of Jesus Christ.