Houston team promotes evangelism using the power of service with testimony

For Houston’s First Baptist Church, fulfilling the Great Commission begins in their city.

Making disciples who follow Jesus is the mission, and God accomplishes this work through member volunteers and ministry partners.

This winning combination includes building lasting relationships that help engage and infuse the diverse population with the good news of Jesus.

Houston’s First accomplishes those goals using simple and practical ways through the church’s four Faith Centers across the city.

Five people from Houston’s First came to the Valley with this interesting and powerful presentation at a conference at Grace Baptist Church of Glendale. The meeting emphasized the overall effectiveness of outreach evangelism, with the hope the idea will spread, creating a groundswell of participation that spurs revivals in the churches across the Valley.

Mission

The team, led by Houston Missions Director Alan Stumbaugh and Cypress Church Missions Director Ivan Adams along with three others, brought decades of domestic and overseas missions experience and know-how to impart to fellow Christians seeking better ways to reach out to the lost.

“Evangelism on frontlines is an all-hands-on-deck operation,” Stumbaugh said. “It’s does not rest with the pastor alone but is the responsibility of all God’s people.”

The mission team was in the Valley working with Samaritan Touch Homeless Services in the streets and city parks in Phoenix, Glendale and Mesa, helping by listening and serving the needs of the homeless populations in those cities.

Samaritan Touch Homeless Services works the streets daily across Maricopa County and cooperates with several local churches to help the homeless with pastoral direction, food, shelter resources and solutions to the challenges of life and living on the streets.

Adams said the work in Houston First’s Faith Centers has been a strong vehicle in demonstrating the power of Matthew 28:18-20 and has been a very effective connection in outreach, as it draws people from the community to meet basic needs and opens doors of opportunity for all volunteers to share the loving good news of Jesus Christ.

The secret weapon in the process that is key to winning souls and church growth and expansion at Houston’s First is the combination of the Faith Center model as the main driver combined with the humble, honest and compassionate approach and heartfelt appeals made by sincere Christian volunteers who have a story to tell.

According to information from the Faith Center website, the impact on the city of Houston is phenomenal.

The group’s second mission in the Valley last week centered on bringing together groups of churches, pastors and leaders at Grace Baptist Church to discuss a very effective way to reach the homeless, needy and poor in any community.

This evangelism tool in Houston has not only brought out some spirited volunteers but also spurred a revival of support and help for the program from local grocery chains and businesses that has boosted the visibility of the church and its impact on the Houston community.

In 2024 alone, the Spring Branch location saw 295 individuals come to saving faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The center also distributed 3.2 million pounds of food and provided clothing for more than 6,200 families and 22,500 individuals.

Currently, God is using the Faith Center and its members and friends to feed and clothe more than 400 families and 1,400 individuals monthly.

According to the group, combining the two most powerful components of filling needs and personal testimony provides great opportunities to make a difference.

It starts with an appointment to Houston’s First centers and then uses the center as a way to connect Christian volunteers and services, starting first with sitting down with each individual and assessing physical, mental and spiritual needs.

To make appointments to receive food and clothes, clients can call the center Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., and leave a message with their full name and phone number. After a visit, families are allowed to come again with 60 days in between each visit. IDs and proof of address are required at the time of the appointment.

During the visit, each person sits down with two volunteers for a short session to get to know the clients. The discussion opens opportunities to get to know the needs of each person initially and determine how best to minister to the needs.

Houston’s First Missions Director Alan Stumbaugh shares information on how to write a powerful personal testimony and share the small tract “Do You Know.”

Method: The Personal Testimony

One of the most powerful elements of Faith Center operations is not just the distribution of food and clothing alone.

The power rests in the ability of humble members to demonstrate God’s love by pulling back curtains on their personal lives and sharing powerful personal testimonies of change that rock the souls of hearers and stir hearts to change.

“This is not a take-it-or-leave-it message with a one-time, one-shot, fire-and-brimstone message,” Adams said. “We want people to know the love of Jesus, understand what the gospel means and how it changes lives.”

This success starts with volunteers who use a worksheet to prepare a short conversation surround their personal testimony. That short, simple testimony is personal and talks primarily about what changes God helped with in their lives. The changes can be negative or positive and relate to events or a challenging turning point in life.

It looks directly and honestly, holding nothing back about going from the negative, such as worries, despair, emptiness, grief and fears, to the positive results of peace, comfort and joy, hope and faith.

Volunteers literally write their own short story in statements to share covering the change at every step by filling the blanks in four areas:

1. Life before I started my relationship with God.
2. The change when I started my relationship with God.
3. What has happened since I have a relationship with God?
4. A closing statement about the best thing of all now: I know for sure I will be in heaven forever with God.

The next step after listening to the client’s life story and the short testimony is the permission to ask one more question: Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?

Application

During the discussions at a Faith Center, the direction of the conversation changes based on the information shared by the client. After listening diligently, volunteers open up about their lives and life-changing personal testimonies that brought them to faith in Jesus Christ and a new relationship with God.

Those short heartfelt personal testimonies lead to more questions and comparisons and ultimately to the tract and questions about “Do You Know.”

“Anyone can use this tract without fear or intimidated by any lack of Bible knowledge,” Stumbaugh said. “It removes the barriers and roadblocks. All it takes is a sincere heart and a desire to reach someone for Christ.”

The small tract appeals to the honest heart using simple non-threatening, non-invasive questioning to help clients think about their spiritual condition and challenge them to a personal examination about their current relationship with God.

Each client comes face-to-face with his or her spiritual condition and learns of their lost condition and the free gift of grace through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The tract paves the way to understanding saving faith, salvation and eternal life.

The one-on-one opportunity gives each volunteer the opportunity to offer a personal appeal to accept Christ, repent and pray for salvation. At the end of the conversation is prayer and the celebration of a new child of God and the signing of a memorable “spiritual” birth certificate making the date of the commitment to Christ.

“Those few moments and that small tract has opened the gates of the kingdom to many passing through the Faith Center,” Stumbaugh said. “The Faith Center and ‘Do You Know’ and the personal stories of volunteers are vehicles that we use and provide a winning combination for us to reach the lost in Houston.”

During the event, mission team member Pat Thrash shared her experiences volunteering and using the tract, combined with her own moving personal testimony about how she came to Christ from an unchurched background. She was led to Jesus by a friend who invited her to sit down and just talk about life and how Jesus made a difference in her situation and her life.

“One-on-one personal discussions are at the center of changing hearts,” she said. “Someone sat down with me, and it changed my life. I am now committed to do the same to help others.”
Stumbaugh led the group in a short teaching session on how to write a personal testimony and use the “Do You Know” tract effectively in any situation.

“This has helped us build confidence in rank-and-file members and re-opened the door to the Great Commission in modern times,” he said. “All you are doing is bringing the story of Jesus to life and, at the same time, demonstrating how that simple story had the power to impact and change your personal life.”

Houston mission team member Pat Thrash (left) shares a soul-stirring story about how the simple testimony of a friend changed her life. She now spends time as a faithful volunteer at Houston’s First Spring Branch Faith Center doing the same.

Reaction

Participants walked out of the conference excited and with a fresh commitment to share Jesus Christ.

“We are thankful for what we heard tonight,” said Grace Baptist Church member Joy Meadows. “This is an eye-opener and will help us all in reaching out to the lost.”
One of the pastors attending said it changes his past ideas about the Great Commission.

“I was pursuing this all wrong,” Pastor Albert Bolden said. “I have got to be one who leads in a way that I must be a better example and teacher and carry the message outside my four walls. [I have to] teach my congregation that the Great Commission must become active and not passive discussion in the lives of the membership.”

Adams added that we all can have an impact wherever we are, but that impact starts with me and then can spread far beyond the church, community and the world.

Darwin Campbell, a member of First Southern Baptist Church at Sahuaro Ranch in Glendale, is CEO of Samaritan Touch Homeless Services.