I am an evangelist. I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ for the explicit purpose of seeing people make a decision of repentance from sin. There is nothing else I want to do, and honestly, nothing else I can do. Many times when people hear the words "evangelist" or "evangelism" it turns them off because of the cultural stereotypes associated with those words. Big haired preachers on TV taking loads of cash from old women, or rehearsed, memorized gimmicks that begin with questions like, "If you died today…"

But it has been my experience that the gospel still works. For anyone (and, I might add, EVERYONE. I would like to go on the record, theologically speaking, and say that it is possible for anyone to be saved if they repent and believe, because I believe that God loves the whole world).

At Liberty University a few weeks ago, over 150 students stood to their feet, without music or singing, with the lights on, and were saved during a morning chapel service. In Oklahoma, an 82 year old woman was saved during a Sunday morning worship service. In Statesville, NC, over 200 adults and students were saved during a 3 night youth outreach, everyone of them standing publicly, on the spot, with all eyes open, to begin a relationship with Jesus. At the Shoutfest Music Festival in Myrtle Beach, hundreds of people responded to the gospel, and Jeremy Camp, the headlining musician for the event said. "I have never seen anything like this! Look at all these people giving their hearts to Jesus!"

Let me be clear. It is not me, or my presentation, or my personality, or my experience that God blesses. It is never the delivery, the jokes, the promotion, or the person preaching that makes a difference. It is prayer and the gospel. When God’s people pray for souls to be saved, He saves them. When the gospel is clearly proclamied, He saves them. Someone asked me recently, when I shared with them how many people had come to faith over the past several months, why I thought so many people were converting to faith in Jesus. Other than prayer and the gospel, I honestly believe that we live in a culture where very few people have actually heard the gospel. Maybe they have been exposed to the religion of Christianity, but fewer and fewer people, in my opinion, have experienced the grace of God in the gospel. That is why I believe so many people in our generation are being saved. When the simple gospel is proclaimed in a relevant and Biblical way, The Holy Spirit calls people to salvation.

We assume that everyone, especially in the South, is a believer. That may be the most deadly assumption we ever make. Just in the past 8 weeks, I have seen Jesus save over 1,400 people all over the United States. Many of them, dare I say most of them, had been exposed to Christianity in one form or the other, whether church services, Christian concerts, or a retreat as a teenager. But no matter how much Christianity we expose people to, without the gospel being central and paramount (that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead for our salvation, and that we must choose to believe in Him an repent of our sins), then all we do is innoculate them Jesus by giving them a false hope that by exposure to Christian stuff, they somehow get Jesus through osmosis.

We do not get salvation that way. We must come face to face with our lostness and His grace, choosing to believe that He is the only hope for us, and trusting Him wholeheartedly. It is so simple that a child can understand it, but so deep that theologians still drown in it’s waters. But I will keep preaching it until I draw my last breath, assuming nothing except that the gospel must be proclaimed.

Newspring- Anderson, SC

I remember the good old days when there was “an election year.” Twelve months before a Presidential election and everyone began raising money, airing commercials and doing their best to convince the country to vote for them. Those days are gone. Politics has become a circus and politicians run perpetually, around the clock, every day of every year. And the thing that drives me most crazy is how the media manipulates issues to bring a sense of blame and guilt on Americans for every single thing that is wrong in the history of the world.

While we are not innocent by any means, we are also not to blame for the fallen state of humanity. But this is not a reflection on the good old stars and stripes or a rant about patriotism. This is about my own personal decision to become part of the solution and not the problem.

I have never personally tortured anyone, burned down a rainforest, intentionally kept a family in poverty, or dropped bombs on civilians in a middle-eastern country. I have also never hurt anyone in Darfur or taken giant bribes while working for the United Nations. I have never clubbed a seal or purposefully discharged an entire bottle of hairspray to open a hole in the ozone. And I have never even been to the polar ice caps, so I certainly have never built a bonfire on a glacier just to watch it melt and raise ocean levels.

My point is, it’s not all my fault. And it’s not all your fault either. But there seems to be a “mood” afoot today, whether instigated by the media, legalistic Christians or the very lord of darkness himself, that says we should all feel guilty about how things are on our little planet.

But emotions of guilt accomplish nothing. NOTHING. I have learned this with my own two boys. Making them feel guilty for their misbehavior simply brings shame, and shame cripples us into inability and inactivity. If guilt is all we feel (for poverty, corporate corruption, materialistic waste, AIDS in Uganda), we simply try to transfer that guilt to someone else by looking for another scapegoat to blame for the horrendous mess in our world.

So I am stopping the madness.

I declare that it is NOT my fault. None of it. I will not take the blame for all the ills and evils that plague our planet.

But I also declare that it IS my responsibility. As a man who loves Jesus Christ and follows Him as my Lord and King, I am compelled to act out of compassion to heal a broken world because that is what He did. I am guilty of countless sins and evils, but because I have been redeemed, I need to minister redemption to the world.

I will not not just sigh and moan when I see pictures of hungry kids on late night info-mercials. I will use my influence to speak for those children, raising awareness and dollars. I will go. I will give. I will pray. I will listen and pay attention.

Since 1998, students at our Crossroads Camps have raised over $360,000 for hungry children in orphanages in India. They see the pictures and hear the statistics, and they do something about it.

So quit thinking it is your fault. That is a coward’s way out. Be brave and take responsibility. Take the initiative and change things. Your guilt will disappear and your energy will be used to love those around you with the love of Christ.

Winston Churchill said “It is easy to criticize. It is much more difficult to create.” Forget blame. Give us responsibility!