by Terry Barone

FRESNO - Southern Baptists can touch as many as 4 million people with the Gospel of Christ at Easter this year by participating in Across California, according to the state's top evangelism leader.

Randy McWhorter, California Southern Baptist Convention healthy church group leader and evangelism specialist, said with 1.3 million packets of evangelistic materials available for churches to distribute to homes in their ministry area, 4 million gospel seeds could be sown in March and harvested in April.

However, McWhorter noted, churches must order the materials to get them into the hands of those who need to hear the Good News of Christ.

Across California is the 2010 campaign of God's Plan for Sharing, a 10-year strategy of the North American Mission Board with the goal of every believer sharing and every person in North America hearing the gospel by 2020.

To ensure the message is delivered, McWhorter emphasized, churches must first order the materials, a gospel "drop-in" piece (available in English and Spanish) and plastic door hanger, before March 1. The cost is $30 per set of 500.

The plan is simple, according to McWhorter: order the materials, prayer-walk the ministry area Saturday, March 20, distribute the door hangers and materials March 27, conduct Easter services April 4, and celebrate by following up on every decision.

An added benefit to the campaign is a statewide television media blitz from March 15-April 4 in which 2,239 30-second spots will be aired, including more than 600 in Spanish.

"Every California Southern Baptist church could be involved in reaching their local ministry area by mobilizing their members while spending less than $400 for materials and a banner publicizing the effort," McWhorter said.

He explained the gospel drop-in piece, television commercials and banner send people to a Website - www.findithere.com - where they can learn more about how to invite Christ into their lives.

California Mission Offering gifts were used to underwrite the majority of the costs for the materials to be distributed and to purchase the air-time for television commercials.

McWhorter said that historically only a small number of Southern Baptists have been active in sharing their faith. He quoted Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, as saying, "Southern Baptists are a harvest-oriented denomination living in the midst of an unseeded generation."

The CSBC evangelism director said his greatest challenge is to "inspire church leaders to place a high priority on equipping believers to be active in evangelism."

"California Southern Baptists need to be Philemon 6 Christians who actively share their faith so they will have a full understanding of every good thing they have in Christ."

Across California, according to McWhorter, is "bigger than what any one church can do. It will take CSBC churches working together to accomplish the task. That is what cooperation is all about, and that is a principle, a hallmark, of Southern Baptists - working together to reach all people everywhere with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

"This effort is both exciting and synergistic in accomplishing our mission of reaching every man, woman, boy and girl in California for Jesus," McWhorter said.

Click here to for more information or to order materials.