May 19, 2024
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) — Derby weekend presented a prime opportunity for evangelizing thousands of people — and the combination of distributing gospel tracts, having gospel conversations, street preaching and displaying evangelistic signs resulted in many being made aware of the gospel.
Clay Hall, pastor of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Paducah, along with church member Ty Gilliland, were among the 30 involved in the effort organized by Sports Fan Outreach International. This was the third year for Hall to be involved. Cornerstone Baptist Church in Louisville, pastored by Paul Mathenia, hosted the evangelists for the fourth year in a row.
With the Oaks on Friday drawing a crowd of 107,236 and the Derby on Saturday having an attendance of 156,710, the opportunities to evangelize were abundant. Sporadic rain on Friday did not deter the group spending 12 hours outside Churchill Downs. “We were ready — we spent an hour together in prayer Thursday night and another hour in prayer Friday morning,” Hall noted.
Over the two days, “the vast majority tried to ignore us, but we had various degrees of success on how many tracts were handed out,” Hall said. He distributed about 100 for the two days and said multiplying that by 30 shows that many tracts were placed into the hands of racegoers.
There were challenges. On Friday, security personnel told the group to leave the spot where they set up. “We were confident that we had the legal right to be there,” Hall said, noting the group stood its ground and didn’t have any further difficulty. “We did have some folks who were angry we were there, but we know that a gentle answer turns away wrath. We asked the Lord for help to respond graciously or not respond at all.”
Hall said signs the group displayed were beneficial. “Most of the gospel conversations I had were with people wanting to talk about a sign that was being held — I feel the signs were great conversation starters.”
While Hall said he was not able to debrief with everyone involved in the effort, but that one of the members of Gilliland’s team led a man to profession in Christ.
“We were able to minister to some folks who were having trouble physically. It was a blessing to be there for them. Pedestrians had to walk so far, and it was physically grueling for some of the attendees — some were not up to it, and we were able to help some people.”
Hall said that several people “said things just to rile us up.” He mentioned a group of about five women who approached four young men working with the evangelistic effort. “One of the women was boasting about her abortion. The young men engaged with the woman and graciously responded to her. So you have a group of five women talking to four young men and there was a gospel conversation, just because a woman wanted to get a rise from us.”
There were Christians who walked by the group and “thanked us and were encouraged that we were there,” Hall noted. “Once we were in a conversation with them, then their unsaved friends were drawn into the conversation, and the people were able to have a friend talking to them about the gospel rather than a stranger on the street.”
