A Vision for Church Growth
Under the camp meeting tent in the June heat, tears started running down Stephen Brooks’ face. For some time, he had been feeling the nudge to study for the ministry, but leaving a good job and moving to an unfamiliar place was just too risky. Now the words of evangelist E. E. Cleveland clarified Brooks’ calling. Two months later, he was in class as a theology major at Oakwood University.
Today, Stephen Brooks is the executive secretary for the Southwestern Union. He also serves as the director of evangelism. In this role, Brooks encourages and equips members to be active disciples of Christ. “Evangelism is not just for the professionals, the well-trained and the credentialed,” he says.“It’s for everybody.”
Brooks has high aspirations for what could happen with this kind of involvement. Currently the union’s growth rate is around 3 percent. Through his initiative Project 10, Brooks believes that, by partnering with God, that number can increase to 10 percent.
Brooks is leading the Southwestern Union toward this goal with coordinated evangelism efforts in major cities, rallies like “Fanning the Flames of Evangelism” and the training of Bible workers within the union territory.
Last year, the Southwestern Union focused its evangelistic efforts in New Orleans and El Paso, partnering with the Arkansas-Louisiana, Texico and Southwest Region conferences. Through coordinated local evangelistic meetings held in English and Spanish throughout the selected cities (sometimes in conjunction with city-wide meetings), the Southwestern Union is, in Brooks’ words, “fogging the devil’s kingdom” by evangelizing all parts of a city simultaneously. Brooks has noticed bumps in the number of baptisms and professions of faith during the quarters in which these events were held. This year, these same efforts were duplicated in Oklahoma City, in partnership with the Oklahoma Conference and the Southwest Region Conference.
But it isn’t only these cities where the union wants to see growth. Members everywhere are invited to join the Fanning the Flames rallies held throughout the union. At these rallies, individuals are inspired and equipped for evangelism. “We are trying to stir up evangelistic fervor,” says Brooks.
The next big step Brooks plans to take to increase the evangelism efforts in the Southwestern Union is to start training local members to become Bible workers. This key role supports churches that are giving evangelistic series, but there are currently so few trained Bible workers in the Southwestern Union territory that it’s often necessary to bring in Bible workers from other locations. Brooks wants to see the pool of Bible workers within the union increase through these efforts.
Referring to Matthew 9:37, where Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” Brooks asks, “If the harvest is plentiful and ready now, when do we need disciples for the harvest?” The answer is now.
“My sincere prayer and desire,” says Brooks, “is that every member would be a discipling disciple of Christ.”
