Christian Boot Camps Equip Believers for Biblical Witnessing
by Allie Martin
January 13, 2005
(AgapePress) - Two ministries have joined forces to train Christians to evangelize biblically. The Texas-based Great News Network recently teamed up with Way of the Master Ministries to hold intensive witnessing seminars called "Evangelism Boot Camps."For several years now, evangelist Ray Comfort of the ministry Living Waters and actor Kirk Cameron have hosted "The Way of the Master" television show, a weekly half-hour program that teaches Christians how to witness using the Ten Commandments. And now Darrell Runduss, president of the Great News Network (GNN), has banded together with The Way of the Master Ministries to equip Christians for biblically sound soul winning.
Runduss says in previous years, as a successful businessman, he never knew why he needed Jesus, until someone finally witnessed to him using God's law to explain the basis of the gospel. Now, working in the area of evangelism, he says, "All too often we run into people much like myself."
Before he came to Christ, the ministry leader notes, "I'd have people run up to me and say, 'Oh, God loves you. He has a wonderful plan. You really need Jesus for peace and happiness and joy.' But as far as I was concerned, I was already happy, had a lot of peace, a lot of joy, and a lot of success."
It was not until someone helped him "look into the mirror of God's ten laws," Runduss says, that he was able to see how far short he fell from God's holy and righteous standard. "It was then," he adds, "that I saw the need for my forgiveness."
The goal behind the joint effort between Way of the Master and GNN is to give Christians a biblical model for evangelism and teach them how to use it to lay a strong foundation for an informed Christian faith. According to the head of GNN, most people -- even many church members -- have no idea that sin is breaking God's standard as set forth in the Ten Commandments. As a result of that lack of understanding, he asserts, many believers use evangelistic methods that make becoming a believer in Jesus "too easy."
Runduss contends that those who are led to Christ without being given a thorough grounding in scriptural truth are likely to be unstable in their faith. "When trials, tribulation, or persecution comes, they quickly fall away; but true Christians welcome the persecution because it causes them to cling closer to the cross," he says.
"In fact," the GNN spokesman says, "if there's any one thing we've seen come out of this Boot Camp, it's that when Christians -- true, soundly saved, true-blue, Bible-believing Christians -- run up against persecution, they get more prayerful ... more tenacious. They get more committed to the cause of Christ."
The Great News Network conducts several "Evangelism Boot Camps" each year. An upcoming boot camp session in Orlando, Florida, is scheduled for April 13-17, and promises four days of intensive, hands-on training in the very same biblical evangelism techniques taught by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort in the "Way of the Master" TV program.
