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NAMB asks ‘Who’s Your One?’ at NRB convention


ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP) — “Who’s your one?” is the question visitors were asked when they stopped by the North American Mission Board’s Who’s Your One exhibit at the National Religious Broadcaster’s 76th convention.

“God may use you to touch one, but the one you touch may touch thousands,” Johnny Hunt told Christian media who attended NRB’s pre-conference event for NRB’s “Proclaim 19” sessions in Anaheim, Calif.

Hunt, senior vice president of NAMB’s evangelism and leadership group, drew from evangelical history in saying, “If I’d have lived that [Who’s Your One outlook] many years ago, wouldn’t it have been great to have had the testimony that I’m the one that invited Billy Graham to go hear Mordecai Ham?”

During the NRB convention, NAMB representatives shared details about the new personal evangelism initiative of SBC President J.D. Greear, which is accompanied by a kit to train, encourage and equip people to focus on one person God has brought into their lives. Participants are asked to pray for “their one” and seek opportunities to share the Gospel.

Several of those who visited NAMB’s exhibit said they saw ways they could incorporate Who’s Your One into existing ministries.

Larry Pillow lost his son Matthew, who was 28, to an overdose in 2003. When Pillow visited the Who’s Your One booth, he explained his one is every person who is or knows an addict.

“My dream is for children to have sober parents and for parents to have sober children,” said Pillow, who founded We Can Ministries, an addiction treatment facility on a 105-acre farm. “I pastored for many years, but in 50 years of ministry, starting this was the best and most fruitful opportunity. I don’t like addiction, but I love addicts, and they will each be my one.”

Bruce Bruinsma, author of The Retirement Reformation, stopped by NAMB’s Who’s Your One exhibit and described how the 15 percent of the American population who are retired can use their time and talents to find their one and pray for him or her.

“When people share their retirement plans, they often say, ‘I can’t wait to do nothing!’ but that is not biblical,” Bruinsma said. “We need to use that time to honor God with rest and with prayer and with opportunities He’s laid before us. Who’s Your One is a great concept for all generations.”

The Who’s Your One resource kit is designed for pastors and church leaders to shepherd their congregations in sharing their faith with their one person God has called each of them to.

“It’s also important for the individual to know how to share their faith,” Andrea Smith, executive director of Simply the Story — a method for sharing the faith simply and with precision — said as she visited NAMB’s Who’s Your One exhibit.

“We teach evangelism through specific methods of storytelling, but Who’s Your One is an ask to focus on praying for opportunities to evangelize,” Smith said. “It’s personal. It’s simple. It’s biblical and exciting! If we are sharing the gospel, we definitely should be praying about how and who. Who’s Your One gets that.”

Learn more at whosyourone.com. See more stories from the Who’s Your One booth at NRB’s March 26-29 convention in Anaheim on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/whosyour1.

Hunt, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, encouraged Christian media leaders in his NRB comments about Who’s Your One not to let the idea that family is the hardest to reach stand in the way.

“Who would possibly know them better than you, and who could possibly love them more than you and would share the Gospel with them?” he asked.

Hunt said the late Billy Graham once remarked that the church once was a great force for evangelism but today has become a great field for evangelism.

The average Christian doesn’t witness, he said, because “we look at people in the context of actuality. Jesus sees people in the context of possibilities.”

Believers too often consider how someone looks or behaves and surmise that the person wouldn’t be interested in hearing about Jesus, Hunt said.

“I managed a pool room for four years. If you’d have seen me when I was 19 years old, I was a hustler. I’d have a pool stick in one hand, a cigarette in that same hand, a glass of whiskey in the other hand and God’s name in vain on my lips,” Hunt said, referring to the days before he was saved. “And I doubt anybody thought, ‘You know, Johnny would make a great president of the Southern Baptist Convention.'”

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  • Josie Rabbitt Bingham