USA (MNN) — Community Impact may be the only way to change hearts and minds in many communities around the United States. Ron Hutchcraft Ministries is hoping their Community Impact weeks will do just that.
"All of us know a lot of people we work with, go to school with, live around, or even family members who seem unlikely to ever attend a religious meeting or hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject. They are what we might call 'post-Christian' people," says Ron Hutchcraft founder and president of the ministry. He says, "They're not going to be reached in a traditional religious event."
Hutchcraft says it's going to take four things to help reach them. It's going to take Christian cooperation, a prayer movement, mobilization of God's people to think about rescuing desperately lost people, and it'll take "rescue" events that are non-religious in nature.
In Minnesota, that came in the form of business and parenting seminars for adults, a comedy show for college students, and a major youth event for kids. According to Hutchcraft, his 'peaceful living in a stressful world' business seminar is very popular. "We found out that most of the significant leaders in the community will come because of that subject. And we've often found that between one-in-ten, or one-in-five who come to that event will come to Christ; that happened in West/Central Minnesota."
According to Hutchcraft the Community Impact week is simple. It's about "mobilizing Christians to be rescuers, and having rescue events in place where lost people feel safe, where we're talking about a need they care about, in a language they can understand, with the Gospel clearly presented."
Once they come to Christ, discipleship doesn't start in the local church: it starts in the location where they were comfortable. "We present the four secrets of a great relationship with God in there, bridging from there into a church in the area, but giving an intermediate step."
Hutchcraft would like Christians to pray "for God's people to be both motivated and empowered and emboldened to reach out and become rescuers, to get over that huge hurdle of fear and say, 'I will take the responsibility for the lost people around me.'"
