A Short Tribute

Had a couple really busy days on Tuesday and Wednesday and just couldn't find time for a post. So, although this post is probably a couple days too late in coming, it's on my mind.

The Church lost a good man in the passing of D. James Kennedy.

About 20 years ago, I was a brand new youth pastor in a church that was implementing Evangelism Explosion, a door-to-door follow up program created by D. James Kennedy. The basic idea of the program was that church members would visit people who had visited their church and, by asking two very simple questions, determine the direction the conversation would go. The focus of 'E.E.' was to train lay people in how to share the gospel and lead somebody to relationship with Christ. As a staff member, I was required to go through the program.

It was a canned, 20-minute presentation that covered 5 key areas: Grace, Man, God, Christ and Faith. I'll be the first to admit that the program had more than it's fair share of problems and the idea of sharing a canned presentation makes my skin crawl. However, to this day any time I share my faith or my journey with Christ I almost always use parts of the E.E. presentation.

I'm not a fan of television church ministries, and I'm not a fan of canned evangelistic programs. D. James Kennedy was a master of both. But I was a fan of his and I'm sad we've lost him.