Perception Artist Sean Emory trains adult church volunteers on how to share the gospel. (Alex Blankenship/ABSC)
VILONIA, Ark. – The Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) recently partnered with local churches in Vilonia to present Fuel and Fire, a catalytic event geared toward promoting church partnerships and reaching students for Jesus Christ.
Carmen Lane, student minister at The Summit Church in Vilonia, said Fuel and Fire was “a great event and impactful for our community.”
“Fuel and Fire was an event that brought local churches together to reach students for Jesus Christ,” Lane said.
As part of the event, on Sunday, Jan. 12, Perception Artist Sean Emory trained more than 100 adult church volunteers on how to share the gospel. Four churches participated in the evangelism training.
“It was a special time for adult leaders from local churches to come together with the common goal of loving students and pointing them to Jesus,” Lane said.
The Vilonia School District allowed Emory to come into the schools and lead an hour-long character ed assembly for seventh through 12th grade students over multiple days, Jan. 13-15. The assemblies gave students an opportunity to see glimpses of the main event that was promoted for Wednesday night.
“We saw the success of the assemblies when over 800 people from our community came for the event where they were able to hear the gospel and respond,” Lane said. “Many students gave their life to Christ and connected with local churches. This event was a wonderful way to bring churches together, train volunteers in how to share the gospel, see students come to know Christ, and give volunteers the opportunity to collectively minister to our community.”
Approximately 50 students came forward during response time at the city-wide event held Wednesday night at Vilonia High School.
In a Jan. 16 Facebook post, Friendship Baptist Student Ministry shared, “Fuel and Fire was a BLAST last night!! Thank you to Sean Emory, the Stunt Dudes, and everyone who made last night possible across our community! And thank you to all our students who came out and participated!”
Arkansas Baptist State Convention Next Gen and Discipleship Strategist Bill Newton said the hope is for Fuel and Fire to be catalytic in church partnerships and in giving an opportunity for evangelism in a different way.
“It will hopefully spur evangelism conversations and, hopefully, ultimately lead to salvations and discipleships,” Newton said. “We want to make sure churches are equipped to not only do the response time well but also equipped for the follow up for any people that make decisions. We’re trying to be super strategic in not just the partnerships but also in the follow up and discipleship.”
Newton said things went well for their first time out of the gate. He said the goal is to have six Fuel and Fire events throughout the year, three in the spring and three in the fall, which is made possible in part by Cooperative Program giving of Arkansas Baptists. The next Fuel and Fire event is scheduled for Pea Ridge.
If a church would like to potentially partner for Fuel and Fire in their area, they can reach out to Newton at [email protected]. The only requirement is that the primary partner church for a Fuel and Fire event be a member of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Once the main church partnership is confirmed that church then finds church partners within the community.
“We want it to be a partnership. They don’t all have to be ABSC churches, but the main partnership church does. Any churches in the community are welcome to be a part of it,” Newton said.
“One of the things that we’re really hoping is this not be just for cities but also for rural type places that wouldn’t normally be able to bring in something of this scale. We’re really hoping this will be a benefit no matter the size of a city or church.”