Organizers of the Hope for West Kentucky evangelistic crusade are quick to point out the credit for the success of the Sunday night event goes to God as He moved to bring a number of salvations among the estimated crowd of 3,500.
But it took months of planning, cooperation, coordination and hundreds of volunteers for the crusade to come to fruition.
Scott Thomas, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church and co-chair of the crusade, said the crusade event “is close to my heart. I have worked with (evangelist) Ken Freeman and was saved 20 years ago at a meeting like this under Ken Freeman’s preaching.”
Thomas said he has previously hosted large events with Freeman. “I felt God was giving me the opportunity to know the vision and experience firsthand of what it took. I felt uniquely equipped me for this event.”
Thomas said “Lone Oak First Baptist is a fantastic missional church. We recognize the potential to be part of something we could not do on our own. We partnered with more than 60 congregations in west Kentucky to reach far more people than we could on our own.
“The churches in this part of the state have always had friendly relationships, but we are seeing those relationships expand as we cooperate in reaching our communities with the gospel. And the brotherhood among the pastors is strengthened as we learn one another and serve together.”
Rob Patterson, Evangelism team leader for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said the KBC served as an advisory support team for partners in the western part of the state to host the crusade.
“We went to the local association for a vision of a partnership to move the gospel forward — local leaders know their communities and cities better than us. We wanted to meet with local leaders to determine what is most effective.
He said determining the vision, involving time in prayer, resulted in a local leadership team led by Howard Atkinson, associational mission strategist for the West Union Association, along with the association’s moderator and evangelism director. Jason Hay, pastor of First Baptist Church in LaCenter, was chosen as a co-chair with Thomas.
“Together we built a regional directional team, made up of associational mission strategists from the region, and a number of sub-teams — dozens of them — from prayer to publicity to youth ministries and security,” Patterson said.
“We didn’t say we were going to do a crusade. They decided they wanted to do this large gathering, and as it developed, they also wanted to do a youth event on Wednesday night, which was an incredible success. We served as an advisory support team, and the local partners in west Kentucky have been absolutely amazing.”
Going into Sunday night’s event at the Paducah Expo and Convention Center, there had been 188 professions of faith, starting with the youth rally four days earlier and continuing through various events. Patterson noted that spiritual surveys were conducted on campuses at Murray State University and West Kentucky Community and Technical College, and some students professed faith during that process.
The gospel was shared on Saturday at Esperanza, a community festival for the Hispanic population that attracted a crowd of 225. In addition, Freeman spoke in 16 school assemblies during the week.
“Our goal has been to come alongside the local churches in their ongoing efforts to reach their communities and counties for Christ,” said Patterson.
He said the effort culminated with 800 volunteers serving during the week. “They (churches in the region) owned it and worked it hard.”
Evangelist Ken Freeman gives a word of encouragement to decision counselors who volunteered to help guide new believers at Hope for West KY held at the Paducah-McCracken County Convention & Expo Center. (Kentucky Today/Robin Cornetet)
