By Keith Taylor,
NAMB Evangelism Response Center Intern,
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

“What is the ERC?” That is the question I have the opportunity to answer every time I mention the Evangelism Response Center (ERC) to pastors and students. Despite being in existence for several years, many Southern Baptists have not heard of the ERC. They are not familiar with how regular Southern Baptists are using technology to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The ERC ministry is the twenty-first-century evangelism tool.

What is the ERC?

The Evangelism Response Center is a ministry of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) funded through Cooperative Program giving and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering of Southern Baptists. Dr. N.S.R.K. Ravi is the ERC Coordinator. According to him, the idea had been around for some time. “In 2006 the ERC developed new strategies to help Southern Baptist churches, associations, state conventions and agencies by providing a 24/7/365 evangelism tool to lead callers to Jesus Christ by the SBC volunteers from their own homes. Callers use toll free numbers for spiritual help and prayer needs.”

How does the ERC work?

People seeking spiritual help call 1-888-JESUS-2011 and other associated numbers. They may get this number from a variety of sources. It is used by SBC related ministries on TV, radio, print ads and articles, billboards, subway signs, tracts, t-shirts, handouts, church bulletins, and many other places that groups and churches have come up with to advertise the number. Many of the callers I have talked with do not even remember exactly how or where they got the number.

When respondents call the toll free number, they are connected to a trained volunteer Telephone Encourager (TE). This is where the technology comes into play. TEs log into the system from home or anywhere they want to receive calls and incoming calls are automatically forwarded to them on a rotating basis. The technology even allows callers to select to speak to someone in either English or Spanish. These TEs share the gospel with callers and pray with them.

The process does not stop with the end of the conversation. If a caller makes a decision to receive Jesus, their contact information is recorded and forwarded to the ERC, who then connects the new believer to a local congregation called a Covenant Church. These Covenant Churches across the nation agree to make contact with new believers within 72 hours and report back to the ERC. If no Covenant Churches exist in the vicinity of the caller, the information is forwarded to either the local Baptist Association or the state Baptist Convention. The ERCs goal is not simply to share the gospel, but to connect new believers to local congregations that can encourage and support them in their new faith.

According to Dr. Ravi, the ERC received almost 17,000 calls in 2010, resulting in approximately 1,900 decisions for Christ and 1,400 referrals to Covenant Churches. The potential exists to reach many more through this ministry and the ERC has established and maintained several relationships in an effort to do so. One such relationship is with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. This partnership provides the ability to meet high call volume demands during certain events. Another partnership is with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts. Long after relief workers have returned home, the ERC remains ready to pray and answer questions for many people who are trying to rebuild their lives. Finally, the ERC maintains a faculty contact and student intern at each of the Southern Baptist seminaries to promote this useful evangelism tool among current and future church leaders.

Is ERC available online?

At its annual meeting in September, the ERC unveiled an exciting new means of sharing the gospel – internet chat. The premise is still the same, only instead of talking over the phone, respondents and encouragers communicate via an online chat room. Churches, associations, organizations, and even individuals can place the link to this chat on their websites. The link can even be shared over social media such as Facebook. Smart-phone technology further allows Internet Encouragers to share with others via chat from anywhere they can receive a cell phone signal.

How does ERC bring lost people and churches together?

The ERC is another example of how Southern Baptists can accomplish much more when we cooperate. The ERC provides churches, associations, and convention entities with a resource for personal follow-up that is available 24-hours a day, something that would severely strain a local church’s resources.

The anonymous nature of the service is also a tremendous advantage. Many people who seek help over the phone or internet do so because they either do not know where else to find help, or are nervous about even speaking to someone about Jesus. This is especially true of those from other religious backgrounds. I have had the incredible privilege personally of answering questions about the Bible and Jesus to a Jew over the phone, and listening as he prayed to the “God of Abraham and Isaac” to profess his need for Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Many other volunteers have testified to similar experiences from other religious affiliations as well.

“We need to use technology to reach people for Christ. The tragedy of the church today is that evangelicals are biblical but not contemporary in technology. The world uses contemporary technology more than us. We need both faithfulness to the Word and sensitivity to the modern world,” Dr. Ravi said.

How can the ERC help your church?

There are a number of ways the ERC can help local congregations. Southern Baptist churches that desire to do so can make the commitment and become Covenant Churches. They will then be able to receive the contact information of those that make professions of faith in their local area. These new believers are potential new members that need discipleship and fellowship.

Secondly, any Southern Baptist entity may use the number 1-888 JESUS 2000. This means your church can publish it on materials you hand out such as Bibles or tracts, for outreach or evangelistic events, even on your church website. At times of the day when someone calling your church may get only a voice mailbox, they will actually be able to talk to a volunteer at the ERC.

The ERC is a fantastic tool to use alongside an evangelism emphasis in your church. It provides the opportunity to promote an evangelistic lifestyle. It also provides an opportunity to train your people in evangelism. Finally, it helps encourage people to become more comfortable sharing their faith with others through real experiences doing so.

How can you get involved?

Get the word out. The methods of doing so are limited only by your imagination. The technology, volunteers, and covenant churches are of no use if the lost do not have access to them. As already mentioned, the toll free number and chat link are available for you to use. They are not intended to take the place of sharing Jesus with others personally, but rather are tools available to help support and supplement your efforts.

Become a Telephone/Internet Encourager. Although about 6,000 volunteers have been trained, only 2,000 of those are active and of those, only about 500 volunteers are regulars. This may sound like a lot, but consider that volunteers are needed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year. The ERC needs volunteers like you to make sure that every caller talks to a real person who can pray and share the gospel with them. Of particular need are Spanish-speaking volunteers.

Become a Covenant Church. If all we do is share the gospel with others, then we are not fulfilling the great commission. Disciple-making involves much more. The ERC needs committed churches to come along side and help nurture new believers at a time when they are most vulnerable. The ERC presents Covenant Churches with the incredible potential to receive new members and perhaps even connect to areas of their community previously unreached.

While there is nothing new about sharing Jesus over the phone or internet, the ERC uses technology in a unique way to allow people to connect from their own home, their office, or even their car. While I live in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to pray with a young lady that called from Oklahoma. The ERC provides another tool as we seek to share the gospel with this generation, one that increasingly communicates and exchanges ideas using mobile devices and the internet. Now that you know what the ERC is, what is preventing you from getting involved?

Contact:

Keith Taylor, ERC Intern, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
kwt.glider@gmail.com

or

Linda Trambley, Ministry Assistant, Evangelism Response Center
770-410-6383 – Voice
678-624-3389 – Fax
www.erconline.net

With new technology seeming to burst on the scene almost on a daily basis, I felt the need to get our church to change from taping sermons to digitally recording the sermon on CD. After looking at the price of conventionally setting ourselves up for doing this ($1000+, and that is for the bare essentials) I had given up hope.

Recently, my friend, Wes Kenney had just purchased a Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) from Wal-Mart for under $35. We used it to record the interviews we conducted at last year’s BGCO State Convention with Drs. Mohler and Akin. I noticed the DVR had a “mic” input, but didn’t think much of it until we posted the interviews and I started to add things together. After talking with Wes, I realized that I could hook an output from our soundboard at the church to the mic input on the DVR. The issue after that was transferring the file from the DVR to the computer so I could make copies of the sermon on CD.

In comes Wes to the rescue again and tells me of a free program that is downloadable from the internet called Audacity. After exporting the audio recording with the software provided from the DVR, I use Audacity to convert it to a “wav” file that can be played on Windows Media Player that also burns the file to a CD. This CD can now be used to play in someone’s car or home CD player. Audacity will also convert the file to a mp3 format for internet use. After reading this, one might think to convert files is a big hassle, but I am able to do all the converting in less than five minutes. To burn the file to a CD takes another two to five minutes depending on your system.

The cost: less than $35 including batteries. Maybe more if cables are needed. Of course, one will have to purchase CD’s if they want to hand the sermon out for others to listen, but that cost should be cheaper than buying the old tapes which would go bad after some use. It is also lighter to mail and should cut some expense in getting it to the listener. You also have the option converting the file to a mp3 format that can be put on your web sight so people around the world can listen to the sermon the congregation heard. Again, making it more cheaper than mailing it.

One application I will use this for is making a CD that can be handed out to prospects. The CD will explain who we are and the mission we are pursuing at Immanuel. This can be listened to as they are driving to work or doing house chores. It will give people a better picture of who we are so that on visits, questions can be answered effectively.

I plan on giving point by point directions in doing this, but until then, if the Lord leads you as he has led me, buy one and play with it some. If I can figure this out, I am positive you can.

:-)