During this year’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., former SBC President Johnny Hunt shared a statistic that caught my attention.

Hunt said that if just 10 percent of SBC church attenders would pray for and lead one person to Christ in the next year, Southern Baptists would see the highest number of baptisms in the history of our convention.

Hunt, who currently serves as senior vice president of evangelism and leadership with the North American Mission Board (NAMB), shared the statistic during NAMB’s presentation and report to messengers in Birmingham to highlight the importance of the current “Who’s Your One?” evangelism initiative across the SBC.

In Birmingham, Hunt also announced plans for a nationwide “Who’s Your One?” tour, where he and other SBC leaders will hold events in local churches across the country to encourage and equip them in evangelism. These events will include an inspirational rally on Sunday evening featuring a message from Hunt, followed by a time of training and equipping in sharing the gospel on Monday morning.

The tour will include stops in at least 20 cities starting next month and running until May of 2020. I’m excited that the tour will start right here in North Carolina at Temple Baptist Church in Fayetteville on Aug. 11-12. Sunday’s rally is free and open to the public and begins at 6 p.m. Monday’s training begins at 8 a.m., and it is also free, but registration is required. You may register online by visiting whosyourone.com and clicking on the tour link at the top of the page.

I hope you will make plans to attend this first stop on the “Who’s Your One?” tour. Temple Baptist’s pastor, Kelly Bullard, not only emphasizes personal evangelism, he also models it before his congregation. Earlier this year, shortly after the “Who’s Your One?” initiative was announced, Bullard preached an evangelistic sermon series built around “Who’s Your One?”

In the midst of preaching through that series, Bullard saw a man who had been attending his church since Easter of last year come to faith in Christ. Although Bullard had been praying for and meeting with this man since they first met, he says he prayed more earnestly for him during the evangelistic sermon series. On Easter Sunday of this year, Bullard had the privilege of baptizing the man and his wife as followers of Jesus Christ. To God be the glory!

Bullard’s story epitomizes what “Who’s Your One?” is all about. It’s about followers of Christ loving one other person enough to be intentional about praying for them, spending time with them, engaging in gospel conversations with them and inviting them to trust Christ as Savior.

Many stories like Pastor Bullard’s can be repeated if you will take the challenge to select that particular individual God wants you to invest in and engage them with the gospel. Immediately following their new spiritual birth in Christ, begin to disciple them by helping them understand the importance of following Christ in believer’s baptism.

“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” — Luke 15:7 (NKJV)