TV star Kirk Cameron urges personal transformation

FORT MYERS (FBW)—McGregor Baptist Church in Fort Myers hosted “Transformed,” a conference geared towards rekindling a fire for God through evangelism. The free event featured hosts and co-host of the radio/television program, “Way of the Master,” including actor Kirk Cameron and Australian evangelist-author Ray Comfort.

In an interview with Florida Baptist Witness, senior Pastor Richard Powell said the March 15 seminar was an effort to build a body of believers who are committed to sharing their faith.

“As churches we need to just be sure that we offer to our friends and to our local churches and people Bible-based conferences … ,” Powell said. “We need to build a body up,” he said, adding that inviting the churches across southwest Florida to participate was a “privilege.”

Powell emphasized that the conference was in no way an effort to increase McGregor’s membership, but to edify his church and others in the community. Scores of persons from other churches in the community joined McGregor members, packing the church sanctuary and an overflow room where the conference was shown on closed-circuit television.

McGregor had been using the FAITH evangelism strategy developed by Bobby Welch, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, but recently started looking for something with a “fresh touch,” Powell said.

The Way of the Master evangelistic philosophy seemed to be the answer, said Powell, whose goal is to exhort believers to be personal soul winners.

Statistics show about ten percent of church members have been trained in sharing the Gospel, said Shawn Bergen, minister of evangelism and married adults. Bergen and Powell said they are trying to increase that percentage at McGregor.

“[The Way of the Master] is just one element of a broader strategy that we’ve taken on as a church to equip our full membership with what it takes to be an every day, all-the-time evangelist for Christ,” Bergen told the Witness. “And to know that by being born again, they’re capable of being a faithful witness for Christ.”

While McGregor’s evangelistic training also consists of DVDs, workbooks, and practical exercises, Powell and Bergen kicked off the new curriculum with the one-day “Transformed” conference.

Kirk Cameron, perhaps most known for his starring role in the television sitcom “Growing Pains,” and Ray Comfort, author of many books, brought big-name identification to the event, but radio host Todd Friel set the tone of the event with spontaneous laughter.

“We have got something radical prepared for you,” Friel shouted, telling conferees there was a catch to a “free” conference.

“You can’t just listen to it and go, ‘Ooooh that Kirk Cameron’s so dreamy,’” Friel said with a laugh. “You got to apply this stuff. You actually have to do it.”

Evangelism, Friel confessed, is “horrifying.” Sharing the Gospel, however, is how Christians can draw closer to God because they must rely on Him to guide them through their fear.

Drawing from 1 Cor. 2:1-3, Comfort said fear is actually a requirement of witnessing.

“The key is to realize that when your knees go weak, drop to them and that’s your place of strength,” Comfort said.

Other qualifications for sharing the Gospel also come from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, Comfort said. Your speech must not be eloquent, but you must be weak and you must have much trembling, he said.

To overcome a fear of sharing the Gospel, Christians must focus on Christ and His death, Comfort said, quoting John Wesley, who urged: “Get on fire for God and the people will come to watch you burn.

“If yo­u’re in God and God lives in you … there should be a burning within your heart,” Comfort continued. “You cannot but speak that which you’ve seen and heard.”

There are three keys to getting on fire for God, Comfort said.

COMFORT TALKS ABOUT FAITH, LOVE & COMPASSION

Reading Romans 15:13, Comfort told how he was part of a team trying to produce an expensive documentary. After six months of waiting, he found out the financing had been approved. He hung up the phone, jumped up and raced through the halls of the church, running into the sanctuary.

“But what did I have?” Comfort asked. “Nothing really. Except I had a promise from a man hundreds of miles away. I had believed his promise and my faith had produced a joy and the joy had produced a physical energy.”

God’s promises are much greater, Comfort said.

Asking the audience if they believed in God’s promises, Comfort said that if they did, then they should have “joy unspeakable” and that the joy of the Lord would be their strength.

Referring to Acts 20:19-24, Comfort said the Apostle Paul witnessed with joy in spite of his tribulations because he understood that in God’s justice He could have damned him to hell, but that in His mercy and love He gave him everlasting life in Heaven.

Love for God is a motivating factor for Christians to witness, Comfort said.

Reading the description of Judgment Day in Revelations 20:11-15, Comfort said compassion should cause Christians to share the way of salvation with those who are going to hell.

Comfort said Scripture tracts and asking people’s opinions can be two ways to transition from a normal conversation to one about a person’s need for Christ.

Comfort said asking questions such as, “Do you believe in Heaven?” and “Do you think you will go there when you die?” give people a chance to open themselves to a witnessing opportunity. In that opportunity, Christians can use the Ten Commandments to show them how under the law they are guilty of sin; but that through Christ their sin is forgiven.

The worst a Christian in America can usually expect from witnessing is a pounding heart, nervousness, and excessive sweatiness, Comfort said, while an unbeliever will experience eternity in hell.

“We have no choice,” Comfort said. “If the love of God dwells in our hearts we cannot but speak that which we’ve seen and heard.”

CAMERON ON REGENERATE CHRISTIANS

Echoing Comfort, Cameron said God’s Spirit regenerates the heart, offering proof of His work in a Christian’s life.

Quoting author A.W. Tozer, Cameron asserted: “It is my opinion that tens of thousands, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ and they have not been saved.”

Instead, Cameron said many professing Christians are in the same condition as the Pharisees referred to in Matthew 23 whom Jesus likened to “white-washed tombs.”

“We can impress those around us with the outside but God looks at the heart,” Cameron said. “Do you think God’s going to accept something like that? No. He’ll be insulted by such an offer. He’s going to spit it out [of] His mouth.”

Cameron said the Bible commands Christians to present themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pure, not as filthy rags of this world.

“True conversion is the miracle that comes when you’re born again,” Cameron said. “When God cleanses the inside of the cup, He puts within the cup a spring of living water that expels the sin, cleansing the inside, washing over the outside and leaving that clean as well.”

Spiritual fruit accompanies such true conversion, Cameron said, speaking of various fruits found in a believer’s life.

Telling about his experiences playing the character Mike Seaver on “Growing Pains,” Cameron said that after he became a Christian he was uncomfortable acting in certain scenes and talked to the show’s writers about it.

“Suddenly I became known as the religious fanatic on Growing Pains and a troublemaker and was the cause of the end of the series,” Cameron said. “Before I was a Christian these things weren’t a big deal… But now I serve a God of righteousness. My life is no longer my own. I was bought at a price. I’m called to put God’s will above my own. Jesus said, ‘not My will, but Thine be done.’ And I couldn’t compromise anymore.”

More recently, Cameron said he had an opportunity to act in a Hallmark movie that had a good, moral, love story. He would have earned $100,000 for the film, but he turned it down because the movie ended in a kiss.

“Before I was a Christian I would have kissed that girl for free,” Cameron said. “But when I became a Christian I was given a new heart with new desires and I couldn’t do that anymore. I love my wife. I love my God.”

Cameron stars in the upcoming movie “Fireproof,” the third feature from Sherwood Pictures, the creators of Facing the Giants. In “Fireproof” there is also a kissing scene, but this one was shot in silhouette—with his wife who was wearing the same dress as the actress in the film.

“God comes through if you take a stand for righteousness,” Cameron said. “Overflow with the fruit of the spirit—of repentance, good works, thanksgiving, and righteousness. You don’t need to fake it. Just finally get on your knees and surrender to God. He will make you real when you fully surrender to Him and to His will.”