State fair evangelism outreach records professions of faith

By Tony Martin
Associate Editor

Mississippi Baptists took on an important ministry opportunity at the 2021 Mississippi State Fair in Jackson. For the first time, the Evangelism Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board sponsored an evangelism tent ministry to share the Gospel, in much the same way as has been traditional during the annual Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo earlier in the year.

During the state fair effort, 93 people prayed to receive Christ, according to Don Lum, evangelism director at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. There were 1,477 information cards collected from visitors as indicators of Gospel conversations, “not counting those who just stopped by from which we didn’t get information,” he said.

There was a total of 101 volunteers, including participants from Wyoming and Tennessee Baptist entities who had been invited by Lum.

“We’ve been doing ministry at the Dixie National for six years, beginning in 2016. We’ve had good success,” said Lum. “Because of that, [Mississippi Agriculture and Commerce] Commissioner Andy Gipson invited us to have the same ministry at this year’s state fair.

“We used the same techniques at the fair that we did during the rodeo. Different crowd, but we shared Christ the same way,” Lum observed.

Jeff Walker, pastor of Grace Church in Brandon, was the “point man” for this year’s inaugural state fair effort. “We went on a mission trip [to a rodeo in] Wyoming a few years ago, and that was the first time I’d ever been a part of something like that. We started talking about that, and started the same thing in Jackson during the rodeo. It just grew from there.

“We try to be very up front about the ministry,” Walker said. “We have the big sign that reads ‘Mississippi Baptist Convention’ so folks will know who we are. They know what we’re doing. We tell folks up front that we’ll be sharing what Christ has done for us in our lives. Most folks will come in, some won’t.”

Lum said there are three special results that stood out from their time at the fair. “One was the fact that we had 93 salvations. Those were some special moments. We asked for three minutes from them, and God is at work already in many of them. They walk out with a changed life.

“Second thing was knowing how many men, women, and students shared Christ, some of them for the first time,” he continued. “This was an opportunity for them to use their giftedness and talents. All ages — we had a 14-year-old girl — shared Christ.

“Thirdly, we encountered many positive responses from people who came by. So many people — many from Mississippi Baptist churches — would stop and say, ‘We’re so thankful y’all are doing what you’re doing.’

“People from the tents around us would visit and say the same thing. It gave people from our churches an opportunity to see their Cooperative Program dollars at work.”

Both Lum and Walker stressed the need for more volunteers as the ministries at Dixie National and the state fair are on a steady growth path. “We’d love to see our Baptist Student Unions get more involved, for example,” Lum said. “We had students from some of our campuses and they had a great time.”

Walker said that in training for the state fair ministry, “We’d try to pair folks who’d never shared before with someone who had. We encouraged people to use a tract. The volunteers understand, though, that they just need to share what God has done for them. It’s astounding just how powerful the Gospel is.”

Walker said, “I’ve thought a lot about this. We see what it does for people when they realize that the God of the universe saves and can use their personal testimony for that to happen. I just think folks need to try it and when they do, it changes things.”

Walker echoed Lum’s call for volunteers. “We need more volunteers. I couldn’t help but notice that we had about a hundred volunteers and about a hundred salvations. There were so many times that there were so many people walking by and we just didn’t have anybody to share.

“There were people streaming by and no one was available to talk with them. I just think that if we’d had 200 volunteers, we would’ve had 200 salvations.”

“Think about this,” Walker stressed. “We had our tent, and the state of Mississippi was passing right in front of us. I pastor a church, and the people I talked to at the fair don’t go to church. The only way we’ll ever reach them is to go where they are.”

Editor’s note: The evangelism ministries at the Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Mississippi State Fair are supported by gifts to the Mississippi Cooperative Program. For more information on the ministries, contact Lum at dlum@mbcb.org. Telephone: (601) 292-3278.