Herb, an evangelism leader, recalls revival in small Utah town

SALT LAKE CITY (BP)--Vernal was like many small towns in Utah in the early 1980s. About 85 percent of the population - roughly 10,000 people -- claimed membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while the First Baptist Church had a Sunday morning attendance of only about 70.

But beginning in 1984, something happened in that town of about 12,000 unlike anything Southern Baptists in the region have seen before or since. A new pastor with a fresh vision for the community came to town. A prominent couple left the LDS church and began telling others about Christ. It became routine and expected in the church to build on friendships with Mormon neighbors and share Christ.

By the end of five years, 450 Mormons had paid the enormous price of leaving the LDS church and acknowledging the Christ of Scripture through the ministry of First Baptist Church. Other Christian churches in the community also shared in the harvest.

"To be honest, I don't think we were aware of the enormity of what was going on," said Herb Stoneman, pastor of First Baptist at the time and now evangelism director for the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. "God was just moving, and we were simply letting him move through us. There was deep commitment on the part of everyone in the body to that altering of life that was going on.

"It was a situation where every Sunday someone new was coming to know Christ. ... . I think some Sundays I could have said, 'Olly Olly Oxen Free,' and people would have come down the aisles. The word of ministry was going out in the homes, and we were simply the gathering ground in the church."

Stoneman came to the church in January 1984, and it was in February that former Mormons Dennis and Rauni Higley - once among the leaders in the local LDS organization - joined First Baptist and began teaching a course on witnessing to Mormons.

Meanwhile, Stoneman placed a bold challenge before the small congregation. In order to better reach into the community, he asked members to invite as many friends and neighbors as possible for an event called "Roundup Sunday."

"We set an absolutely unreachable goal of 250 people for worship ... but on that Sunday morning we had 278. We blew the doors off the place, and suddenly the body of believers gained a vision that the work at Vernal could really impact the community."

Much of the early effort was aimed at "inreach," or reaching inactive members. But the results went far beyond their expectations.

"Something strange happened in the course of the inreach," Stoneman said. "The church became united ... in doing something to touch its community. By the time the event arrived, our numbers had already increased, and people were asking their friends and their neighbors about coming to church."

At one point when there had not been a baptism for just two weeks, Stoneman heard concerns about whether something was wrong in the church.

"We became so certain of God's hand on people's lives. It seems almost arrogant now, but we would almost anticipate that they were going to be saved," he said.

In one case, he remembers a church member coming to him with a seemingly impossible dilemma. Her son was going to be baptized into the LDS church on his upcoming 8th birthday, and her LDS husband had said he would divorce her if she didn't allow the baptism. Stoneman said her husband would give his life to Christ before then. "That's a pretty bold statement to make ... but I just really believed God was going to break (the man's) heart and change his life."

One Sunday morning, the man came to the church, angry and planning a disruption because of his wife's renewed interest in Christianity. But before the invitation even was issued, the man came down to the front, weeping. "I don't know what I'm doing here," he said, minutes before he accepted Christ.

In another case, an LDS couple that had accepted Christ wanted to be baptized, but their daughter had told them they would never again see their granddaughter again if they did. It took a while, but one day they made the decision. They did not even want to wait until the next Sunday out of fear of changing their minds, and about 60 people came out on a weekday afternoon to witness the baptism, Stoneman said. Today, their daughter and several family members have accepted Christ.

Others were not so fortunate. The Higleys, who Stoneman said were a catalyst for the revival, were forced to leave town after two years because their businesses were boycotted. Several men were divorced by their wives at the urging of the LDS church, Stoneman said. LDS doctrine teaches that the wife's eternal destiny is dependent on her husband, he said, which served to encourage divorce and remarriage. But the persecuted individuals counted the prize of salvation worth the cost, and as a result they became some of the most faithful Christians Stoneman has encountered.

The revival even resulted in a change in the way individuals withdrew from the LDS church in the area. In the beginning, the only way of leaving was to go before a "bishop's court" of top church leaders and be excommunicated, Stoneman said. New Christians began to use this as an opportunity for sharing their testimony, however, and church leaders eventually changed the process to eliminate the need for a hearing.

About two years into the revival, the Vernal church organized a bold campaign to distribute to every home a paperback book presenting the case for the historic Christian gospel. The title, "God's Word: Final, Infallible and Forever," actually addressed only the first section of the book, which sought to counter Mormon claims that the Bible is flawed. Other sections were titled, "The Mormon Illusion" and "From Mormon Illusion to God's Love."

"We prayed about whether it was too confrontive, but we already had a reputation in the community. ... After you've been labeled as the Whore of Babylon, how much worse can you get?" Stoneman said.

Within 24 hours after the 6,000 books were distributed, LDS leaders had issued a directive that the books were to be burned. But many were read, and people responded. Stoneman said some Mormon residents even came by asking for extra copies.

What did Stoneman learn from the experience? It wasn't a sure-fire evangelistic method for Mormons, as many have sought from him. But it is a principle of evangelism that applies to Mormons or anyone else that needs the gospel.

"The first characteristic is one of being totally in love with the lost. You have to love lost people enough to expose yourself as far as your own weaknesses.

"There's no such thing as being effective in evangelism and at the same time being a silent witness," he added. "You must say what you believe and you must make certain people know there's a difference ... . People come to Christ when people come to them and tell them of their need for Christ."

He uses Jesus Christ's approach with the woman at the well as a model; Jesus first established a point of contact, then he took the opportunity to share the good news.

"I had an opportunity to win a lot of men to Christ while at the gymnasium playing basketball," he said.

While casual confrontation is essential, he said, it should be done in a spirit of love. "I find a lot of people try to encounter cultists with angry words, and I haven't seen many of them being successful in leading people to Christ."