UC church invites IMPACT to county
By BETH MOLAND
News-Gazette reporter
IMPACT World Tour (IWT) will arrive in the Miami Valley this fall with the help of some dedicated and generous people in the Union City community. Through the work of Pastors Paul Murdock of First Baptist Church and Mark Whitsler of Evangelical United Methodist Church, a reception was held recently to host James Baldwin and representatives IWT, the second largest mission agency in the world.
Enthusiastic with his message of hope, British Baldwin has seen the positive effects IMPACT can have on a community, its churches and its people. His words that the Christian world has lost two generations from the church were hard facts for the crowd to face. Murdock agreed with him.
“I think Union City needs this so tremendously,” Murdock said. “I believe my generation is the greatest in America. I was born right after the Depression and the spiritual revolution. But, today, church attendance is declining and moral influences are declining.”
What Baldwin and his IMPACT team hope to bring to the area is a new approach in sharing the word of God. High-profile and long-time evangelist Billy Graham has endorsed the works of IWT, which uses 21st Century cultural elements to present the Gospel. With extreme athletes, skaters, boarders, dancers and musical performers, Baldwin said he has witnessed how bringing an old message in a new way can make a more effective difference. The key he said is what happens after a commitment is made.
“The goal is not to see the one night of evangelism,” Baldwin said, “but the follow-up, the transformation.”
His intent in meeting with the roomful of community-minded citizens at the recent meeting was to express their importance in that follow-up and the work to be done in pre-planning. He wanted to ask three things of them - to pray, to give, and to serve.
For the IWT to be as successful as it has been in other cities around the world, he said it takes many volunteers and Christian leaders willing to “be there” for new believers in Christ in the days, months and years following.
“We need everybody's help,” IWT Richmond Coordinator Emily Richardson said. “It takes all - to reach all. Anybody who has a passion to reach Union City's youth is needed.”
Those present responded with generosity, as $2661 was pledged that night to support the upcoming events. Richardson said over a million dollars has already been pledged for the mission in the Miami Valley area. To learn about IWT, log on to http://www.ywamcampaigns.org, further updates will be published in the News-Gazette.
