Recap: 2024 Pella Tulip Time Outreach

This year’s Pella Tulip Time Outreach held May 2-4, was a huge success all around, not only for those we ministered to, but especially those who came to be recharged to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

The Speakers

As always, the speakers were amazing and really emboldened us to stay strong and strive to share Jesus to a dying world.

Jon Neifert

The first speaker, the Host, Founder, and President of Tulip Gospel Outreach, Jon Neifert, spoke on the introduction to Pella. He welcomed all that came out to attend this year’s outreach, but also reviewed the history of Pella and how to use that to start gospel conversations with visitors. It is an exciting lesson for those who have never heard about Pella’s history, but also a good refresher for those who have.

Tony Ramsek

On Thursday, Tony Ramsek of Gospel Equip and What Does the Scripture Say, taught on how to use creation apologetics to effectively evangelize. This lesson was separated into three parts: the importance of apologetics, the risk of apologetics, and powerful evidences in creation apologetics.

On Friday morning he spoke on his teaching called — The Gospel Roadmap, which consisted of five points:

1. Casually bring up a COMMON topic
2. Transition to the CELESTIAL
3. Humbly engage their CONSCIENCE through the COMMANDMENTS
4. Boldly proclaim the CROSS of CHRIST
5. Challenge them to CALL on them to repent and believe the gospel

This teaching can be found on his website using this link.

Both of these teachings are invaluable to help us share our faith. All three of these lessons were fantastic and useful to start evangelistic conversations with strangers.

Mark Spence

Senior Vice President of Living Waters, Mark Spence, gave two talks on Saturday finishing up the conference portion of the outreach.

His first session was based on his recent movie: What is It? which tackles one of the most hotly debated and complex topics in the world — abortion. Here, Mark equips the Christian to challenge pro-choice unbelievers to share the gospel and show that abortion is morally wrong. You can watch this hour-long movie in its entirety below.

Mark’s first session then transitioned into something a bit different, and not what anyone expected, which probably included himself. That is the amazing power and sovereignty of the Holy Spirit leading our conversations on the street, and in the pulpit. He challenged us Christians in the room to surrender to God every morning, to give our hearts solely and exclusively to Jesus, and be filled up and poured out with the Holy Spirit to finish well in the race that is set before us. I was absolutely speechless (in a good way) and after I picked up my jaw from the floor I was moved with compassion and boldness to finish the race well. It was a powerful transition into what the gospel really is: being a slave of Christ because we were bought with the price of His precious blood.

Mark’s second lecture: The Bankruptcy of Atheism, he discussed the ‘heart of the atheist’ and counters their self-refuting claims such as, “There’s no such thing as truth,” “Nobody is right,” and If God is loving why is there evil and suffering in the world?” Mark answered the most common questions a skeptic will bring up and explained not only how to answer them, but to show their greatest need which is to be born again. These were invaluable in reaching those who by thier own will, refuse to accept an eternal being created all there is in existance.

The Training

Training went well, and even with rain on the first day, we were able to pivot and use the time wisely by adding extra training sessions from some of the leaders and speakers of the event.

Steve and Connie Johnson did an amazing job sharing what they do on the streets of the Quad Cities, using his painting skills by creating images to enhance his open-air preaching to the lost. The group he serves with, Open Air Campaigners, is an evangelistic ministry of preaching the gospel to the lost people amd mobilizing the body of Christ, primarily through effective open-air outreach. This really emboldened my wife and said this was the open-air preaching she could do. Where she thought it was all about yelling at people people about Jesus, here she can engage them in a way that is understandable and relateable.

Please watch the following video below presented by Mark Sohmer, which is the board that Steve Johnson taught on.

During the same rain delay, Tony Ramsek taught a session in the caffeteria on the Angles of the Cross and how to bring them up in evangelistic conversations. These are twelve aspects of what the cross did for humanity. They include:

1. Justification
2. Imputation
3. Substitution
4. Reconciliation
5. Propitiation
6. Regeneration
7. Redemption
8. Atonement
9. Righteousness of God
10. Love
11. Adoption
12. Forgiveness

Salvation is complex, but simple; and Tony did a great job explaining each of them in the short amount of time that he had.

On Friday, our featured speaker last year, Dr. Anthony Silvestro, along with Brad Tower taught an open-air workshop. They both did a fantastic job demonstrating how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the open air to convict sinners to repentance and faith in the Lord. Many were in attendance that day, which started in the parking lot of the church and transitioned to the northeast part of the square to practice and live it out. Several men “broke the sound barrier” and open-air preached for the first time which included my friends Kasin and Kaden. I wish I could have been there, but instead had to put all my focus on the team I was leading.

The Conversations

Throughout our time in Pella, our street ministry led to many conversations with those who are seeking, searching, and indifferent to the gospel of Christ. The prayer station was an interesting change for all of us. At first, we noticed people walking across the street to avoid it after erecting it. You couldn’t miss it if you tried. But afterwards, several people stopped for prayer including a garbage collector working the event. Many people stopped within the three days, including several whole families, a young girl going back to high school after pregnancy, and a gentleman who had no idea what the gospel was and heard it for the first time by Brandon.

Many of my team was focused on picture taking evangelism and tried it out for the first time. Even others from Tony Ramsek’s group took the opportunity to learn and try something new. They couldn’t believe how easy it was to share the gospel at an event like this; offering help and hope to those in attendance.

Conclusion

In the end, Jon Neifert sent a message to the Team Leaders saying we gave out approximately 25,000 tracts throughout the three days of Pella Tulip Time. This was a huge success in advancing the kingdom of God. But what this event really did was impact budding evangelists to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to conquer fear, and try new ways of reaching the lost. This year, even despite the weather, we had more Christians attend the Tulip Gospel Outreach on the first day than we had all three days of previous years! May the Lord increase His church to work His harvest fields (Luke 10:2). To God be the glory!