A vision to bring the Gospel to every door in Augusta County, Virginia, and the encompassing cities was the compelling mission of Saturate Augusta — a unified effort of almost 40 churches. Dave Anthony, a layman, and champion for evangelism from Calvary Baptist in Staunton, Virginia, led the way after praying for such an opportunity. Recently Dave said, “Let’s set the captives free and break down the walls between churches.” This was spoken at one of a series of prayer rallies designed to call local churches to pray and strategize for a large-scale Gospel distribution.
Anthony learned of the evangelism tool, Bless Every Home, at the 2018 SBC of Virginia Annual Homecoming. He saw it as a platform to saturate the area with the Gospel. He, in conjunction with the SBCV and its churches in the area, partnered with Saturate USA (saturateusa.org) to provide more than 50,000 homes with Gospel materials. On Saturday, September 7, 2019, evangelical churches from all around Augusta County (Staunton and Waynesboro, Virginia) area completed a combined outreach to place a Jesus Film, Three Circles tract, and Gospel of John at every home in the county. Four-hundred teams from all these churches deployed that day for what they called “D-Day” (Distribution Day).
Pastors from evangelical churches enlisted additional churches and pastors in this powerful effort, which included many facets. A leadership group called the Saturate Augusta Coalition was selected. It has a broad base of leadership and vision, with four out of the six council members being leaders of SBCV churches. Their strategy included 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting, concluding on D-Day. The county churches met for three prayer rallies throughout the summer — seeking the Lord to bring renewal and revival, to prepare hearts to be His witnesses, to prepare the hearts of unbelievers to receive the Good News and to bind the enemy forces in the community. Their plan included engaging all churches to become part of Bless of Every Home as a strategy, enrolling members to be “lights” in the community. With mission maps in hand, church groups deployed on “D-Day” to “saturate” the county with Gospel witnesses. A follow-up celebration is planned as well as further unified efforts among the churches in the future.
Could your church do something like this? Absolutely! Bless Every Home provides a platform to launch such an effort. An organizational plan and a core of visionary leadership are needed, and your community could have a “Saturation of the Area” event. Contact your local SBCV staff to see how your church can be involved in such an effort.
As Dave Anthony put it, “Our vision is to have every household in our county saturated with prayer by the ‘lights’, who are followers of Jesus in local churches. I look forward to seeing the map covered with faithful witnesses. Let’s Bless Every Home! Let’s light up the county!”
