Stories

Daniel recently shared with us how Advance has been having an impact in the poor neighbourhood where he pastors a church. ‘Through the Advance material, we’ve seen the church not only be recentred on the importance of evangelism, but also many are beginning to help respond to some of the extreme social challenges being faced in this community.’

Angela is our new Advance Ambassador in Chile. She recently shared the story with us of how Advance had an impact on her and her churches.

‘The traditional churches across Chile are starting to face a decline, and one of the reasons for that is a reliance upon their tradition rather than on the gospel. In my church I was doing a faith course on the fundamentals of Christianity. I split the course into 3 modules and whilst I knew what I wanted the first module to be on, I struggled to know what the final 2 modules should contain – so as a church leadership team we started to pray into what it could be.

It was at this time that I was introduced to the Advance materials, and we really felt the Lord encourage us to use the Advance mentoring guide material for both of the remaining modules; we framed it around ‘going back to basics in evangelism’. Soon the whole church started to view evangelism in a different light, going back to the bible, and going out to share the good news with their community. Advance was the tool that got us back into the basics of evangelism.

Even new believers are starting to evangelise others and understand that church is not just about the people inside the building, but the people who are outside the building too.
This was so successful that we started using the Advance materials in another church that I lead, I’ve now started having other churches asking us to share what we are doing and how they could also use Advance to help their churches to get back to the fundamentals of evangelism.’

We caught up with Message Academy student Jacob to hear how he got on speaking at a youth event in Walsall, ‘We were praying before the event started and I felt prompted to lay down my plans and just share about what it means to surrender to Jesus and be a disciple making disciples. That’s what I did! I felt so unconfident in what I shared that night, thinking it could have been more practised and rehearsed, but then after I finished speaking over 20 youth responded to the gospel that night! And that’s the point, it’s not about trying to say the right thing, the gospel is already so powerful we don’t need to add anything to it!’

Aaron, who is an Advance group member, and his wife, were asked to give some evangelism training at a church, by their friend John. During the training, as Aaron’s wife was chatting about ways to share the gospel, she was empowered, in that moment, to lead a person in the church to Jesus. Not only that, but as John was using this training with some members of his youth group, it opened up a conversation about the gospel which saw John lead one of them to Jesus too!

Pedro from Piura (Peru) shared how, after one Advance session, he felt encouraged to go and share the gospel. He went and knocked on the door of his neighbour’s house and shared the good news with him. Following on from that conversation, the neighbour has given his life to Jesus and has now joined a church.

Jeff* was at the Advance conference in New Jersey. After one session, Jeff felt inspired to tell his family about Jesus, and so, went home and shared the gospel with them. God is now restoring his family and since then they have prayed together every day.
*Name changed

As part of our Message Academy year of training and equipping young people in their evangelism, student Regan and some of his team took part in some evangelistic mission in Sheffield, UK.

‘When we got there, the first thing we did was spend three days just in prayer and worship, and it was amazing. We spent hours just praising Jesus, praying to him, listening to him and hanging out in his presence. A lot of the time people think mission and sharing the gospel is always going out and doing the ‘stuff’, but it’s not just that, it’s also spending time with him. After those three days we then went out on the street to share the gospel with people, really listened to Jesus and what he wanted to say.

‘One time, we felt Jesus telling some of us to go to Costa and share some words of wisdom – where you write stuff out that you think the Holy Spirit is saying and give it to people you think God is telling you to give it to. We felt like we had a load of words for the workers in Costa, so we wrote them down and handed them out, and left, feeling a little awkward. Later that day some friends of ours went to back to the Costa before it closed and the workers recognised them and came up asking how it was we knew so much about their lives? This opened up some amazing discussions about how Jesus speaks to us and who Jesus is.’ How amazing! Why not try something like this for yourself today?

‘I recently travelled to Colombia. Whilst we were there I was surprised to find out that a series of virtual lessons – done almost like a TV Programme – had been put together using the Advance material in the hope to reach as many people as possible!’ – Jona, Advance Ambassador in Argentina.

A group of churches in Gondar, Ethiopia, were recently given some training in evangelism using the Advance materials.
‘We want to thank you for the evangelism training we recently received through The Advance Group Mentoring Guide. It’s had a big role in filling the gaps of how we share the gospel to those who don’t yet know Jesus and we’ve have been blessed and benefited from this teaching which will enable us to preach the gospel in a new way.’

Even though Pip wasn’t a Christian, she wanted to help volunteer at Festival Manchester, a large Christian Festival happening in Wythenshawe. She got put on a team with Aaron, an Advance group member, and ended up being in his team for all three days of the festival. He said, ‘I got chatting with her and Pip shared she grew up a Christian but at 16, she was kicked out and got involved in gang culture. Throughout the festival, Pip was so helpful and afterwards she wrote me a letter saying she had rediscovered her faith! I’m connecting her with a friend of mine who leads a church near her and hope she gets encouraged in her faith!’

‘One of the things I’ve enjoyed doing is chatting with people in the gym about Jesus and what I believe. I’ve had some great conversations with people, sharing the gospel with them, and one guy even came along to church and brought his family! It’s so good to see how God can use us in everyday evangelism.’

‘In my Advance Group, I’ve built new relationships and learnt so much from those in my group. I have loved having the opportunity to be with people who talk passionately about the gospel and Advance is a great resource for any person and church wanting to sharpen and develop the gift of the evangelist.’ – Advance group leader in South Africa.

‘In February this year, we got the chance to travel around some parts of Guatemala. We were so surprised to see how God had taken and used Advance across the country! We visited the city of Huehuetenango and found out that Advance was being shared about and used in the Mam language. We hadn’t realised the potential for Advance to have impact in such places where they’re difficult to reach due to the cultural and language barriers!’ – Jona, Advance Ambassador in Argentina

Advance group member Aaron was helping out at Festival Manchester expectant for gospel opporunties, when he had someone join his team, helping pick litter;
‘When Jamie joined my team we got chatting and I could see he was feeling a bit grouchy and low. I decided to pair him with someone else in my team who I knew would be able to chat with him and share a bit about Jesus whilst they went around the site picking up some rubbish. I don’t know what happened, but within an hour I found Jamie and there had been a transformation and he’d given his life to Jesus.’

‘From Advance we learned so much about evangelism. One of the key areas where it impacted us was around the importance of fellowship – not just in our spiritual growth, but in our evangelism as well. We’ve also found that the Advance Group Mentoring Guide is such a helpful tool and the teaching in it greatly supports our evangelistic work.’ – Advance group member in Ethiopia

One Advance group member got the chance to share his testimony in a last minute ‘God Slot’ at a weekly gathering of some of the elderly in their local community. As he shared about what God had done in his life and about good news of Jesus, and three of them ended up accepting Jesus!

‘Advance is not just great content, but it helps to cultivate community, discipleship, and collaboration through meaningful conversations focused on biblical truths.’ – Bryce, Advance Ambassador in South Africa.

‘After two years of promoting Advance in Latin America, we can summarise its impact in this simple line: Advance is an answer to the prayer of many to encourage and equip evangelists in relevant and engaging ways in each country.’ – Jona, Advance Ambassador in Argentina

Mark is an Advance group member in the UK and lead guitarist in pop-rock band Amongst Wolves. After performing at a gig in Bolton, Mark preached the gospel and then went to be part of the follow up response team.
‘There was a kid sat on the sofa playing Mario Kart with his leg raised. I got chatting to him and he told me that he hurt his leg in a football tackle and was struggling to walk and put weight on it. I asked if he was happy for me to pray for him and he said he was fine with it. While praying some other kids who had also responded to the gospel came up to me and initially just wanted to talk to me about the gig and the band. I told them I was praying for this kid’s leg and invited them to join me. It ended up with me and 4 first-time responders praying for this other first-time responder for healing – and God healed his leg!
He was walking and jumping around, and I got to explain the gospel in more detail, telling them about the very real power of Jesus.’

‘I have been so encouraged being part of an Advance group. The teaching and the support the group gives inspires us to go forward and live purposefully, sharing the gospel.’ – Advance group leader in Zambia