Just Imagine - What Would Happen if We Caught the Passion for Evangelism?

A passion for evangelism...

Our Daily Bread wrote about Francis Asbury on Nov. 25. Here's an excerpt:

Francis Asbury rode 6,000 miles a year on horseback for nearly half a century. Despite ill health, he drove himself tirelessly. He sustained himself with venison jerky—a food that wouldn’t spoil during his extended travels. Asbury is remembered for introducing the Methodist “circuit-riding preacher” as an effective way to capture the American frontier for Christ. Planting new churches in remote areas was central to his approach.

At the close of Asbury’s ministry, he had recruited over 700 traveling preachers. In 1771, when Asbury arrived in the colonies, there were only about 600 Methodists in America. Forty-five years later, there were 200,000!

That's awesome!


But check this out. At the signing of the Declaration of the Independence in 1776, the population of the colonies was about 2.5 million. That means, through the efforts of Asbury, in his lifetime about 10% of the population of the United States became Methodists in America.

That's awesome!

What would it take in today's world for God to impact the lives of people like that? If we can impact 10% of the population of the US today, it would mean 35 million people coming to know Christ through evangelism in my lifetime. How cool would that be?

The question is, what would it take today to share the gospel effectively? What sacrifice is needed from people like you and me?

And most importantly, are we willing to make such sacrifices for the sake of the gospel?