On 17 to 18 March, youth from Aries Zulkarnain and Josephine Lim zone underwent two days of intensive and fruitful training at the Jurong West church premise. The main objective of the Evangelism Xplosion daycamp was to bring about a renewal in the mindsets of the members, equipping them with relevant knowledge and tools and empowering them to do effective evangelism.
The first session kicked off with a vibrant time of praise and worship, followed by an insightful teaching by Zone Pastor, Aries Zulkernian on the Caring System. In a two-part series over both mornings, Zulkarnain went into great detail expounding on the three stages of the Caring System, namely the Discovery stage, Responding stage, and the Integration stage.
Zulkarnain pointed out, “It is not enough just wanting growth, or wanting to care. You need to have a definite, well thought-out, workable plan for caring and reaching people outside the cell group.” It is indeed true that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. With detailed teaching on topics like the Receptivity-Rating scale, Maslow’s scale of human needs, Prospect list, First Contact and many more, the people came away equipped with a greater understanding on how to do effective evangelism.
Another highlight of the camp were the very popular workshops conducted over the two days, which included topics such as Counselling, Self-esteem, Writing, Business Management, Campus Ministry, and Beat-boxing. The focus of the workshops were on how these areas could be used to reach out to people as tools for evangelism. Says Anzoe Sim, one of the participants of the Self-esteem workshop, “I didn’t realize how a simple thing like self-esteem can be used in reaching out until I attended this workshop. It was very useful to me.”
A debate competiton was held on the afternoon session of the first day, which served to raise awareness on the cultural mandate. There was an intense battle between the proposition and opposition team as they debated on the motion — “This house believes that culturally relevant messages dilute the truth of the Gospel.” After a tough fight, the proposition team emerged victorious.
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| PHOTOS: Matthew Foo |
After the debate session, the much anticipated Q&A session with Zulkarnain began. The aim of the Q&A session was to equip the members with knowledge, enabling them to answer difficult questions about God and the church. The members seized the opportunity to seek answers to questions such as “How do I know if I am hearing from God?”, “How do I know if I am in the will of God?”, and “What happens to sinners who die without having heard the Gospel?” It was truly an enlightening session. In addition, a booklet of 50 most commonly asked questions was also prepared and distributed.
Another highlight of the camp was the screening of a video sermon by Bill Wilson. In the video, Bill shared about his encounters with the underpriviledged, abused, destitute and needy people. It was the plight of these people and his witnessing of many deaths during the course of his ministry that gave him an urgency for life. In his sermon, Bill shared on how we should always aim to meet needs with the love of God regardless of our race, language or ethnicity.
The revival meetings held on both nights closed the day-camp on a high note. In the meetings, Zulkarnain shared about the power of relationships and also gave out a toolkit for the members to use in their outreach. The toolkit included a CD containing self-composed songs in 3 different languages — English, Indonesian and Tamil. A connection ring as well as a booklet containing real life testimonies of members in the zone was also given to help members to engage their friends.
Evangelism Xplosion was an experience that exploded faith, fire, and passion in the hearts of the people. Truly, every individual can be a soul winner!
