C. Shawn Tyson, Youngstown, OH
The circumstances of this global pandemic have helped us to do a better job of impacting America with the Apostolic Oneness message, primarily because it has FORCED many Apostolic Churches to utilize social media to get the message out, whereas prior to the pandemic, many churches were still relying primarily upon in-person worship only as their primary means of communicating the gospel. There is still much room for improvement and expansion.
We are letting people in our town know we are here in many ways. These include the social programs of our church, such as our hot meal program, our food and clothing giveaway, and partnering with other religious and social organizations that are designed to help people. Also, our outdoor services, which began during the pandemic, have exposed many people in our community to our ministry who would have never walked through the doors.
We absolutely could and would benefit from a more aggressive PR campaign across the media spectrum. But not with preaching as the primary presentation. In my opinion, the primary presentation should be the presentation of information regarding the Apostolic Oneness doctrine in creative ways that are not so religious in presentation but more relational. There should be more discussions, more comparative analysis, and – something greatly underrated in my opinion – more testimonies of the reality of the power of the Holy Ghost and the many miracles God is still working that people need to hear about.
So, the best-case scenario is a combination of both conventional advertisement and social media, but the best advertisement is still word of mouth.
The most effective way for us to reach our cities more effectively with the truth is for the saints to open their mouths and share what God has done for them with others. We have too many silent saints and undercover Christians.