On August 17, twenty lay and clergy leaders from across the Hawai’i District of The United Methodist Church gathered at First United Methodist Church of Honolulu. They were there to hear about how to share their faith with the people they live, work, and “do life” with. The Foundation for Evangelism’s president, Rev. Dr. Jack Jackson, was there to guide them through “REVEAL: Equipping Laity to Share the Gospel,” a seminar he developed during his time as an evangelism professor. He shared,
“We had a wonderful morning of learning together about how to share our faith in Jesus Christ with people we know, love, and trust. Twenty leaders from around Oahu gathered in downtown Honolulu for conversation and formation as we thought about how to link Jesus story, with the Biblical story, and our friend’s story.”
Jack served 15 years as a pastor in Florida and understands the challenges of helping laity to claim their calling to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with people they know. His time as an E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, and as Visiting Professor of Evangelism and World Methodism at United Theological Seminary allowed him to train new leaders in the church to see evangelism as the responsibility of all Christians. The invitation to lead the training in the Hawaii District of The United Methodist Church came through relationships built through that teaching experience.
As the group learned together, they saw how sharing Jesus is best done through common, daily, interactions. As they departed that afternoon, they left with a renewed sense of being God’s light in the world, and a dedication to helping others claim that light too..
