One of the many testimonies this month from CV Outreach (formerly Searchable.Church) came from the pastor of a church in Maryland who called into our office to share all of the responses he had been getting from the program. He was blown away, but was also confused as to how all of this was possible.
It turns out that as the Lead Pastor of the church, he had approved the rest of his staff’s request to join CV Outreach, but hadn’t been personally involved with learning exactly how the program works during the onboarding process. So, even though his church had been a part of the program for almost a month, and the rest of his staff were already aware of the CV Outreach strategy, he wanted to learn directly from us exactly how it was possible that we were able to connect so many people seeking God, from all over the country to his church. Of course, we were more than happy to explain to him how the program works, about how we target “seekers” based on what they are googling, and how we send them to their church website so that they can connect directly with him.
As CV Outreach continues to grow, and we serve more and more churches, conversations like this one are a great reminder to us to not grow numb to the novelty of the connections we are able to facilitate between churches and seekers. Pastor Jim’s amazement as to how something so valuable to him is possible motivates us to equip even more pastors who have a heart for connecting with those seeking to know God more.
Pastor Jim then proceeded to share story after story with us about the conversations he had been having with people who came in through his CV Outreach landing page. Stories that started with questions being submitted to him like this one:
“Hello, Pastor Jim. I need to confess about my life to Christ. It seems as though when the holy spirit fills me in a moment and I make promises to myself that I would take more time to get to know Jesus and never commit to it later. I feel so guilty and I feel like a bad Christian. I like to watch horror movies, get tattoos, listen to music about sex, overeat, hold grudges, I curse and swear, and I can talk in a mean manner sometimes. I go to church sometimes and whenever I go to a kind of group I back out of them because I quite honestly don’t like being around people. I just don’t know how to understand why God loves us so much even after all the sins I made. I am looking forward to your reply back.”
He also told us about a conversation that he had been having with a Seeker from Florida that had lasted for several weeks. This young man needed counselling and Spirit-driven direction in his life, and Pastor Jim had taken the time to get to know him through consistent email correspondence. The next step to Pastor Jim was clear. He called a pastor friend of his who had a church near this young man, and introduce them to each other. Pastor Jim was happy to report that this young man had successfully visited a local church through that introduction.
As Pastor Jim explained, he is encouraged by how straightforward the CV Outreach program is for him as a Pastor. It simply brings people to him who need Jesus, and allows him to do what he does best, which is be a Pastor. We are all so encouraged by how God has used this program and pastors nationwide to connect those that want to know Him more with the body of Christ and encounter God in a real way.