Crossover beckons marathoner

HIGHLAND, Calif. (BP)–“I want to be one of those 10,000.”

The words bounded forth in Ron Bingaman’s spirit when he heard Bobby Welch envision an influx of volunteers for evangelism prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

Bingaman, a California church staff member, heard Welch, the new SBC president, set the goal soon after his election in Indianapolis at the 2004 SBC annual meeting.

Then Bingaman, 60, set a goal: He would run in the Big Sur Marathon.

Chief among his goals: to raise funds for anyone from his church who would join him June 18 among the thousands who will fan out across Nashville and the surrounding area to share the Gospel.

Bingaman raised nearly $5,000 for 17 people who will travel with him from Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., for the Crossover Nashville evangelistic outreach preceding the June 21-22 SBC sessions in the Tennessee capital. The annual Crossover, now with more than 12,000 volunteers registered, has additional significance this year as part of the “Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge,” the initiative Welch has launched to call Southern Baptist churches to baptize 1 million people in a year.

“I can only imagine, just imagine, what God is going to do because of the fact that we’ve been challenged to do something that only God is going to get the credit for,” Bingaman said of the Crossover effort by both local volunteers and others from across the country that will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 18, in Nashville’s Gaylord Entertainment Center.

Bingaman’s run in the Big Sur Marathon netted more than money for a good cause.

He wanted to beat the time he recorded when he ran the marathon at age 51. He succeeded, with this year’s 4 hours and 23 seconds topping his earlier 4 hours and 13 minutes.

And he wanted to run the marathon’s full 26.2 miles. The last time, he walked part of the way. This year: He ran the full course.

Another achievement – one that Bingaman didn’t learn about until two days after the April 24 race: His time qualified him for the Boston Marathon in his age bracket next April. And he intends to be there.

Joining Bingaman in the Big Sur run were his son, Tim, 40, and Immanuel member Bill Schaeffer, 28. They both recorded respectable finishes but fell behind the 60-year-old Bingaman, who has been a staff member at the church since 1982 in various evangelism-related roles. His current title at Immanuel is minister of FAITH, the Sunday School-based evangelism strategy widely used in Southern Baptist churches, which Welch initially launched at First Baptist in Daytona Beach.

Bingaman began training for the Big Sur in January. He enrolled in Weight Watchers and, over 17 weeks, he lost 34 pounds.

The weight-loss program is a bit like FAITH, Bingaman said, noting that they both generate a group dynamic.

“FAITH gives you a dynamic that keeps you actively involved in sharing your faith,” he said of the teams of Sunday School members who regularly venture out to share their faith in home visits and other settings.

“It’s not the same when you’re just by yourself,” Bingaman said. “There are few strong Christian witnesses who aren’t a part of something that’s ongoing, but it’s very few.

“I’ve been at this 22-plus years, and I’ve just found that a lot of times I would train people but I was not able to keep them involved in ... sharing their faith as a way of life.

“The group dynamic keeps you using it.... We do it together,” Bingaman said of FAITH.

“It keeps you in that battle, consciously thinking about souls all the time. When you’re not, you just get caught up with a lot of good things ... but they’re not the great thing that God calls us to do in the Great Commission.”

The team from Immanuel who will be traveling to Nashville – all trained in FAITH – includes Bingaman’s wife, Jeniene; his son Tim, a mechanical engineer, and daughter-in-law Laura, a librarian; a deacon, Floyd Austin, who has been involved in FAITH since it was first utilized at Immanuel in 1998; several retirees and several single adults; and a woman who makes her living selling items via eBay.

For further information about the “Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge” and Crossover Nashville, go to www.everyonecan.net.