LINCOLN TIMES-NEWS
Lincoln County’s Home Newspaper
Lincoln, NC
Go Tell Crusade a ringing success
by: Sarah Grano
(5/11/2005)
Bad weather didn’t keep people away from the Go Tell Crusade. Instead, it filled First Baptist Church in Lincolnton to the rafters, where attendees clapped along to songs led by Chuck Sullivan and his band, and heard an inspirational sermon by guest speaker Rick Gage. Chris Dean / LTN Photo
The Western Piedmont Go Tell Crusade, which has drawn thousands to Lincolnton High School’s football stadium, has a simple goal.
“There’s not but one purpose,” said Clyde Smith, chairman for the event, “and that’s winning people to Jesus.”
The crusade began Sunday night and concludes tonight. It features evangelist Rick Gage, who makes a habit of coming to small towns.
“God has just given me a heart for rural America,” he said. “Our goal is to come to towns like Lincolnton, North Carolina and join hands with the churches of this region to reach the unsaved and unchurched of this area.”
Crusade officials hope to one day have every Lincolnton citizen attending church.
“Any given Sunday with the population figures we have for Lincoln County, we really have probably way less than 30 percent (of the population) in church,” said Smith.
The focus of tonight’s crusade will be on young people. Organizers hope to draw a crowd with a “Pizza Blast” at 6 p.m., the youth-oriented band “7 miles” at 6:30 p.m., and the main event featuring Gage at 7:30 p.m. at the Lincolnton High School stadium.
“There’s never been a move of God, a real revival, that did not begin with the young people,” said Gage.
He believes the event’s location and time will draw in crowds who would otherwise stay home.
“We’ll reach people this week that won’t come to the church’s 11 o’ clock Sunday services,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to get them to come to the stadium for the gospel.”
Gage has already discussed values and morality with a number of Lincoln County middle school and high school students.
For 10 days he toured Lincoln County with his “On Track” program, which discourages students from drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.
“It starts with making the right choices and right decisions,” he said.
This evening, he hopes many students decide to dedicate their life to Jesus Christ.
For those who do, there will be 300 counselors on site to walk them through the process.
“We want to communicate to the young people of this community that God has a plan for your life,” he said.
This will be the last event of the crusade, which officials estimate has had 5,000 people attend.
It took nearly eight months to organize the event. Nearly 50 churches of a variety of Christian denominations were involved.
“It goes across demographic lines – races and cultures and creeds and anything else,” said Smith.
