Soul winners continue to find unique ways to get the gospel into the hands of the unsaved. Pastor Reg Kelley of Liberty Faith Bible Church, Norwood, MO, was on a cruise to Alaska. When the cruise ships docked, thousands of people would pour off the ships to explore the town. God spoke to him that they needed a welcoming committee with information about the town and, of course, a gospel message.
When he returned home, he placed a challenge before his congregation to rent a house for the summer in Ketchikan, where teams from his church could spend a week meeting the 8000 people a day who came off the cruise ships. The people caught the vision and by the end of the summer, they had placed 140,000 Chick gospel tracts in the hands of the tourists who came to Ketchikan.
Along with the tracts, they prepared a top quality brochure of the attractions in Ketchikan and a Bible message on a CD. Pastor Kelley says he felt like they were "reaching the world" because tourists from all over the globe were on those ships.
Churches encourage their members to do "short term missions" going to foreign countries to help build a church building, dig a well or help a school. Pastor Kelley`s church has come up with a unique variation on this. Are there similar events or gatherings that you know of where hundreds or thousands of gospel messages can easily be placed into the hands of unbelievers?
When it comes to ships, other soul winners have used gospel tracts in a variety of languages to minister to shipping crews who load and unload cargo at ports around the country. These ships often welcome visitors aboard and are glad to receive literature in their languages. Do you live by a port where a ministry like this could be developed?
Besides tracts, Pastor Kelley also has a ministry to truckers. He has developed a network of contacts throughout the country where his church sends copies of sermons on CD. These are placed at truck stops in displays that say, "FREEāTAKE ONE." Several thousand CDs a month flow through this system into the truck cabs where bored drivers spend hours every day. The church then receives calls from cell phones with drivers asking for prayer or more information about the Bible.
These days, it is hard to get some people into the church. But with a little thought, we can take the gospel to them.