A few weeks ago, more than 330 people crammed into a room in Atlanta, Georgia. It was standing room only. Registration had to be shut down in advance because of limited room, and 150-200 more people likely would have attended if there was space. What event were these people packed in for?
An e3 Partners Gospel Conversations Training at First Baptist Atlanta (FBA). For context, one of these trainings typically has 20-40 attendees.
“They packed the place out,” said Josh Spinks, e3’s Vice President of North American Initiatives. “It was encouraging, because that many people were thirsty to know how to participate in the Kingdom work. It’s not that they didn’t want to or were scared to; they just didn’t know how to. There is a real hunger out there that was evidenced by this church.”
Josh got connected with FBA through the church’s administrative pastor, who previously worked at a church Josh led trainings at in Louisiana.
“When he started at FBA, he told them, ‘The first thing we need to do is get Josh and his e3 team to come train us in how to share the Gospel, make disciples, and start groups in a simple way,’” Josh said.
FBA asked Josh to come do a condensed version of a Gospel Conversations Training, which typically lasts six-seven hours, to act as a “preview” for the longer training and possible rollout of the whole year-long program.
“We covered vision to give them an understanding of what’s going on around them, and what God wants in the reality they sit in,” Josh said. “Then, we trained them how to share their 15-Second Testimony and the 3 Circles, and then we gave them four responses to the Gospel so they could be prepared for people’s responses. Those are the five tools we taught in two-and-a-half hours to give them a preview of what a longer training would look like. It would have all these elements plus four more hours dedicated to what it is to be a disciple maker and a disciple multiplier.”
When the training concluded, several attendees told Josh the impact the training had on them and expressed their excitement to learn more.
“Everyone I spoke to was extremely grateful,” Josh said. “They said things like, ‘I didn’t realize it was this easy to share the Gospel,’ or ‘I didn’t realize that we all needed to share the Gospel,’ and ‘we need more of this,’ so it seemed like it was enlightening to a lot of people.”
FBA’s administrative pastor and outreach leader also approached Josh after the training and both confirmed that the church wanted to start the full-length training in January. The year-long program will include more trainings about how to share the Gospel, start small groups, plant churches, and train other churches to do the same.
“At the end of that, we can take our hands off and say, ‘Hey, you have everything you need to multiply, and not only that – you can help us train churches in proximity to you,’” Josh said. “With a church that has the influence FBA has, they could really be monumental in helping other churches grab hold of this paradigm. Hopefully, coupled with some of the other work taking place in Atlanta, we can see some pretty incredible Kingdom work happen over the next few years.”