INDIANAPOLIS — Georgia Baptists turned out in force for nearly 75 Crossover Indianapolis evangelistic events which brought Christ to the city hosting this year’s SBC annual meeting.

The volunteers dodged thunderstorms throughout most of the morning on June 12 to host block parties, offer free oil changes and car washes, and in some instances baptize new believers on the spot in a portable baptistry.

Nearly 40 evangelistic block parties were held June 11-12 throughout metropolitan Indianapolis as part of Crossover Indiana. Crossover is an annual evangelistic effort held the weekend prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in the host city.

Statewide, 100-plus churches were part of 75 Crossover events scheduled June 7-19, including block parties, street evangelism, neighborhood prayerwalking, door-to-door spiritual opinion surveys and more than 40 revival crusades.

More than 1,500 professions of faith had been recorded as a result of the Crossover efforts through June 12, according to reports submitted to the Metropolitan Baptist Association office in Indianapolis.

Nearly 1,000 volunteers – about half of whom are from out of state – participated in the outreach, reported Doug Simpson, director of missions for the Metropolitan Baptist Association and block party coordinator for Crossover Indiana.

And more than 900 phone calls had been received nationwide through the North American Mission Board’s Evangelism Response Center requesting copies of the “The Hope” evangelistic video in response to a Southern Baptist television ad campaign underway throughout Indiana. More than 25 professions of faith also have been recorded through the media campaign.

Baptist men’s groups from churches in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia participated in NAMB’s “BMEN on Mission Pit Stop” by providing minor vehicle maintenance on about 30 vehicles in the Cloverleaf apartment complex. Some men shared the Gospel while the others serviced the vehicles.

Ministry evangelism projects like the Pit Stop are part of a new adult mission education emphasis by the NAMB’s Baptist Men on Mission organization “Men @ Work.”

Near downtown Garfield Park, about 700 people attended the day-long “Jesus Family Picnic,” an annual evangelistic extravaganza coordinated by Dusty Selig, pastor of an inner-city mission called The Spirit of The Lord Church. The event included live music, free food, a 40-foot inflatable slide for children and prize drawings for bicycles, T-shirts, and barbeque grills. Georgia evangelist Keith Fordham preached.

More than 20 people, including 15 adults, were baptized at the event in a portable four-foot-high rectangular baptismal pool. Selig said the 300-plus registration cards he collected for the prize drawings will keep him busy for the rest of the year doing follow-up visits.