This Op speaks towards the original article giving a bit of a background perspective concerning "[a]n unconventional strategy of giving away guns to unchurched men is part of a larger “affinity” evangelism approach adopted by the Kentucky Baptist Convention."
A new Kentucky Baptist Convention initiative to lure unchurched men to worship gained national attention after the Louisville Courier-Journal featured an upcoming gun giveaway at a Paducah church located 10 miles from the site of a 1997 school shooting.
This year Lone Oak First Baptist Church adapted its regular wild-game dinner to a “Second Amendment Celebration and Dinner” scheduled Thursday, March 6. The church led by Pastor Dan Summerlin, who recently completed service as Kentucky Baptist Convention president, is one of a number of congregations employing the state convention’s new emphasis on “affinity” evangelism.
“When we talk about affinity evangelism, basically we’re talking about the identification of needs, interests or affinities in a community that you can utilize as a platform for winning people to Christ,” Chuck McAlister, who began Sept. 1, 2012, as leader of the newly formed evangelism and church planting team, said in a training video linked to the KBC website.
“It can include things like hobbies or if there is a predominant employer in a community,” said McAlister, former host of “Adventure Bound Outdoors,” a hunting program that airs on cable TV.
The centerpiece of the affinity evangelism program, however, are the Second Amendment rallies featuring door prizes of shotguns, rifles and handguns donated by local businesses.
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“Our nation’s founders provided for our freedom to worship as we choose and our freedom to protect and provide for ourselves and our families,” says a flier promoting the event. “The Second Amendment Celebration (formerly Beast Feast) recognizes the rights and responsibilities of those freedoms while celebrating both through appreciation of the outdoors and God’s provisions with the purpose to point people to Christ.”
Baptists target gun enthusiasts for outreach
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