On the other end of the vocational spectrum is John Stillman, a nuclear engineer who spends three days a week working at Argonne National Laboratory in nearby Woodridge, helping ensure the safety of nuclear reactors around the world. He also serves as preaching pastor at Crosswinds, the Plainfield church he and Schultz planted more than four years ago.

Schultz and Stillman were both lay leaders at Friendship Baptist Church in Plainfield when the church called Odis Weaver as pastor in 2004. In an initial meeting at Friendship, Weaver said he believed God’s vision for the church was to start new churches. Stillman was at the meeting, and had a sense of what God was calling him to do in the future.

“In my heart, I thought, ‘Maybe that’s what I’m supposed to be doing,’” Stillman said.

Several years earlier, he felt a call to ministry, but didn’t feel led to leave his job as an engineer. Instead, God pointed him toward teaching and leadership roles at Friendship.

At the same time, Schultz was serving as a Sunday School teacher and outreach leader using his gifts to plan evangelism events. He felt God calling him, too, but knew he had to surrender to serving however God would lead before he could begin a specific ministry.

The specifics started falling into place soon after Weaver came to Friendship, when the church held an On Mission Celebration. Several North American Mission Board missionaries shared their stories, including a bivocational church planting strategist from Michigan. After the service, Schultz and Stillman knelt in the church parking lot to pray about the calling they both felt.

Over the next months, they met and prayed with Weaver, who helped them share the vision for a new church with the congregation at Friendship. Five families committed to help plant Crosswinds, and the core group began meeting in September 2005. At Christmas, they held a worship service at a local coffee shop, and the next month, celebrated their first public worship service in a growing section of Plainfield, four miles from Friendship.

“New churches reach new people,” Schultz said, explaining the mindset that helped the two congregations, one established and one brand new, partner together to reach unchurched families in their community. In the beginning, Crosswinds’ average Sunday worship attendance was 45 people; now, they regularly see 110 people each week. The church’s growth represents at least 35 new Christians; in other words, nearly one-third of the people attending Crosswinds accepted Christ and were baptized in the new church.

More than four years later, both Schultz and Stillman are bivocational pastors, balancing their jobs with the work God has called them to do at Crosswinds. Schultz averages 10-15 performances a month, although during the summer, nearly every day is scheduled with shows at corporate events, festivals and amusement parks. Balancing performing with his role as Crosswinds’ outreach pastor is a “constant decision,” he said, but one that allows him to uniquely identify with his church.

“There’s an influence that happens, and also an integrity of being able to be in the workplace and say to the congregation, ‘I know what you’re going through. We all have to have a job. We all have to make a living. And we all have to do ministry.’”

The pastors have found that some of their job skills are transferable to their roles at Crosswinds. Schultz, a natural initiator, designed the structures for many functions of the church, like worship and children’s ministry. He also works to develop leaders to carry part of the ministry load as the church grows.

Stillman uses his gift for analysis, which he calls “the gift of spreadsheets,” to manage budgets, timelines and projects like the recent remodeling of the church’s new meeting space. As Crosswinds’ primary Sunday morning preacher, his pastoral role allows him an opportunity to express his creativity, and to fulfill a commitment he made to God that he would always be teaching His Word.  

Recently, Crosswinds moved into a new space located near Route 59, a main highway that runs through Plainfield. The building offers room to grow and more visibility among their neighbors, who are the focus of every ministry effort.

“People come because they’ve been treated with kindness, and this is a place where needs can be met,” Stillman said. “Where we are right now, we have an even greater opportunity to minister to our community.”

For more information about Crosswinds Church, go to xwindschurch.org.

"We're surviving," says Terri Winters, a full-blooded Navajo and mother of three, who spends her days chopping firewood and caring for her children in a home with no electricity that she and her husband built themselves.

"We lived in Albuquerque for a short time," she says. "There are more opportunities and activities in the city, but we like the space and freedom of life on the reservation -- it's much more of a home life. It's difficult, but that keeps us tight together as a family."

Fortunately, the Winterses and other families on the reservation have the camaraderie of Rose Ignacio, a full-blooded Navajo who is a North American Mission Board missionary.

Ignacio is familiar with the difficulties of reservation life. When she was only 13, she lost her mother to complications during the birth of a baby sister. Following her mother's death, her father's alcoholism became more than Rose could take. On Feb. 4, 1964, she and a younger sister set out on foot with only the clothes they were wearing to live with an aunt.

They weren't sure exactly where their aunt lived, and with no telephone they had no way of letting her know they were coming. On the way, the girls were caught in a blizzard. Her sister died from exposure during the storm, but Ignacio made it through and during her recovery gave her life to Christ.

"Two missionaries came to visit me in the hospital," Ignacio says. "They said I needed to accept Christ. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but I knew God protected me during the storm. I remembered seeing the words to Acts 16:31 when I was unconscious." The verse declares, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

"So I prayed, 'Lord, I will open my heart to You. My relatives have traditional Navajo beliefs, but I will follow You no matter what. I believe and I will trust You.'"

Many years later, as a Mission Service Corps missionary, Ignacio is still on the reservation, pointing her people to Christ. At Tinian Baptist Church, she leads a weekly class for Navajo women and teenage girls. One of the many ways she shares Christ is by teaching them to speak and read their native language. "I want them to read their own Bible in Navajo," she says.

She also teaches them about their customs, but most of all, she teaches them about her faith in Jesus Christ.

"I love to explain to young people that our culture and traditions are two different things," Ignacio says of the belief often held by Navajos that they must leave behind their cultural identity to follow Christ.

"You may have to give up some of the traditional practices to become a Christian," Ignacio says, "but you will always be Navajo. God created us as a tribe with a unique language, arts, food and clothing, and He doesn't ask us to give that up."

In addition to language and cultural lessons, Ignacio pours her life into the young people who attend Tinian Baptist Church by teaching children's Sunday School and serving as the youth leader for several teenage girls.

Earning the privilege to share Christ with the Navajo is often a long process. Ignacio spends many days going house to house on the reservation, bringing donated clothes and serving in other ways. If there is a need, she finds a way to fulfill it.

"I like to help because that builds relationships," Ignacio says. "You get to know people and then one day, they'll be open when you talk about the Lord."

"It's always a good thing when Rose comes," Winters, the mother of three, says. "She watches the kids while I work outside and she just starts cleaning the house. Not many people would do that, but that's Rose, and it means a lot to me."

Ignacio compares the process to weaving the Navajo blankets she sells to make her living. "It's hard work and it takes a long time, but in the end something beautiful is created.

"When I got saved," Ignacio says, "I wanted to tell anybody about the Lord -- how He is real in my life. God opened my eyes and gave me a burden for the Navajo people."

Jami Becher is a writer for the North American Mission Board. To find out more about Rose Ignacio's ministry and see a video of her testimony, visit the video gallery at www.namb.net.

The report’s findings suggest the most effective evangelistic churches are those which are utilizing attractional evangelistic events.

Evangelistic events are defined as special events, which intentionally draw lost people through relationships and attraction, clearly present the Gospel and provide an invitation to respond.

The report comes at a time when, in some quarters, the value of attractional methods has been questioned for reaching communities with the Gospel.

“This research further proves that the line of thinking that event evangelism does not work anymore is simply not true,” noted Tim Sadler, Illinois Baptist State Association director of Evangelism. “There are four major components to a great evangelistic event – planning, publicity, production and post-event follow-up.  If done with excellence, event evangelism remains one of our greatest tools to identify, meet, and engage unchurched prospects in our communities.  Prayerful intentionality, superb planning, organization, information gathering and post-event follow-up are the keys to an evangelistically successful event.”

The study revealed several common denominators emerged among highly effective churches:
– They sponsor attractional evangelistic events, do several of them annually, do them especially well and get excellent results.
– Two-thirds of highly effective churches sponsor both evangelistic events and an active personal evangelism program.
– Significantly more highly effective churches sponsor evangelistic events than lesser effective churches.
– They sponsor significantly more evangelistic events and do significantly better preparation and follow-up for evangelistic events than lesser effective churches.
– They sponsor more holiday-related, revival-like and sports and recreation evangelistic events than any other types (in that order). More than half sponsor revival-like evangelistic events.

The report was compiled from survey’s of 3,200 Southern Baptist churches last year as part of the Evangelistic Event Research Project.

With additional reporting by Lisa Sergent.

The 4 components of a great evangelistic event
SPRINGFIELD | IBSA Director of Evangelism Tim Sadler offers advice for churches working to maximize the effectiveness of their evangelistic events through four key components:

1. Planning demands excellence in budget planning, organization and delegation and intentional prayer opportunities.

2.  Publicity demands planning when to begin the promotion, where and how to promote the event (a flyer at the local nursing home will probably not maximize your effort), and design and information excellence in the publicity piece.

3. Production effectiveness demands excellence in event components (music, food, games, schedule, time frame, give-aways, etc.), information gathering/registration for intentional follow-up, and a concise clear presentation of the gospel.

4. Post-event follow-up success demands that we set a date for follow-up during our planning process.  Follow-up teams should be enlisted and trained within seven days of the event just as you would your food crew or games crew. A “thank-you for coming to our event” bag should go to every family that attended.  I advocate only four things in the bag: gospel tract, brochure detailing major church gathering times, one piece of glue (a piece that invites them to an upcoming event they would want to be a part of), and a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies.

For more information about planning a successful evangelistic event at your church, contact Sadler at (217) 391-3131 or e-mail timsadler@IBSA.org.

    “These students come ready to hear from God, ready to be taken to the next level spiritually.” Medford said the students’ expectation to hear life-changing teaching, and to have an opportunity to respond to God, is what sets Super Summer apart from most camps.

This year, 183 students from across Illinois came to Super Summer at Greenville College, joining more than 60 staffers who volunteered as teachers, worship leaders and logistics coordinators. The students were divided by age into schools, and each school focused on a different element of the Christian life. Topics ranged from “Foundations,” for students going into eighth grade, to “Accountability and Staying Christian in College,” for recent high school graduates. Other schools focused on evangelism, purity, worldviews and discipleship.

Along with twice-a-day meetings in their schools, Super Summer participants signed up for elective classes covering topics like leading worship, expressing faith through art, answering hard questions, and growing to maturity in Christ.

Students are asked to leave cell phones and iPods at home, so they can fully focus on what God is saying to them. It all adds up to “as intense a discipleship experience as is offered for young people,” said Travis Peterson, who has served as a Super Summer leader for more than 10 years. Peterson, who also pastors Olney Southern Baptist Church, said the students are characterized by a thirst for a deeper, authentic expression of their faith. In the school focused on evangelism, for example, rather than learning different methods of sharing their faith, students learned to internalize the Gospel message, so that sharing it becomes a natural part of their lives.

Jordan Richter is one student on whom the training week has had a lasting impact. The high school senior from First Baptist Church, Columbia followed this year’s Super Summer with a mission trip to Bulgaria. He went as part of a team of students from across Illinois to share the Gospel through community ministry and specific outreach initiatives. This was his second summer in Bulgaria; his first trip to the country came as a result of a calling he first felt at Super Summer.

Richter said God has used the camp to clarify things He wants him to do, and to remind him of the ultimate purpose of his life.

“Put aside your pride, put aside what you think about yourself, and give it to God. Let Him be in charge of your life.”

This year’s Super Summer theme, “The Kingdom,” also will serve as the basis for Youth Encounter, a two-day event held December 28-29 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield. See future issues of The Illinois Baptist for more information about Youth Encounter.

The past two summers, Caleb’s friend Ryan has joined us in our hiking adventures.  Mt. Huron was Ryan’s eighth fourteener, and he clearly has caught mountain fever as well.  As we were sitting and nursing our sore feet and legs a couple of nights ago, he said to me, “I want you to know I still remember one thing you said when we were hiking last year.”

I must confess that I tend to toss out spiritual observations or life lessons as we hike.  I was delighted that Ryan found something I said memorable, though of course I was a little surprised there was only one thing.

"What’s that?” I replied.

“You said, ‘Remember, when you get to the summit, you’re only half way there.’”  We both smiled in agreement with the truth that the hike back down the mountain is often as demanding and dangerous as the hike up.  You don’t truly finish your journey to the mountain until everyone is back down safely.

This summer many of our churches are witnessing mountaintop experiences of their own.  Vacation Bible Schools, summer camps and even mission trips often bring a surge in professions of faith, especially from excited children and students.  When those professions are made public or those testimonies are shared in a worship service, the entire congregation celebrates, along with the angels.

This is as it should be, and I hope your church is one of those filling its baptistery with regularity this summer.  As we celebrate the mountaintop of someone’s salvation, though, let’s remember that the Great Commission of Jesus is to make not just converts, but disciples.  The steps that take place after a new believer’s conversion are just as important as the steps that led to it.

I remember with gratitude the Vacation Bible Schools I attended in Southern Illinois, when my teachers taught me how to explain the plan of salvation using different colored hearts.  I remember the incentives they gave us to memorize at least one Bible verse a day, and only later realized how strategically selected those verses were as they equipped me with key foundational truths from God’s Word.  And I remember how my Sunday School teachers continued that discipleship process in my life on a week-by-week basis.

Later as a teenager, when I was trying to reconcile my childhood discipleship training with the pressures of high school in suburban Chicago, volunteer youth leaders taught me how to have a quiet time, how to study the Bible for myself, and how to find answers for the questions and temptations life was throwing at me.

Then as a college student and young adult, it was my Christian friends, usually meeting in small groups for Bible study, prayer and fellowship, who continued the discipleship process in my life.  Their encouragement, positive peer influence, accountability, and discussions of the deeper truths of the Bible helped me further down the path toward Christian maturity.

I’ve been occasionally surprised at how little intentional discipleship has apparently been invested in the lives of even the adult Christians I meet.  And when I see children or students come forward to profess their faith in Christ or be baptized, I wonder if they will have the same opportunities I had.

As you celebrate the mountaintop of salvation with children, students and, yes, adults in your church, do you have a solid, intentional plan for walking down the path of discipleship with them?  Do you have the kind of small groups or one-on-one mentoring relationships in place that will protect new believers from the cares and distractions of the world?  If we here at IBSA can help your church in this area, we’d love the opportunity.

As we descend the mountains we’re climbing this week, we encourage one another, guide one another, and point out potential dangers and stumbling blocks.  We direct other climbers to the summit where we’ve just been.  We talk about the joys and challenges of today’s journey and how to prepare for tomorrow’s.  And this week, for the first time, I took a day off to nurse a sore toe and let Caleb and Ryan hike alone.  In a sense, I’ve discipled Caleb as a climber, and now he’s walking alongside Ryan.  And Ryan is learning the lesson that we need to keep remembering in our churches.  After the mountaintop comes the rest of the journey.