1972: April 25, Ray Comfort was converted to Jesus Christ. 1974: He began open air preaching and continued to do so, almost daily, for the next 12 years. During that time he started a free evangelistic newspaper called "Living Waters," and to write and publish gospel tracts. 1977: Ray published a book called, My Friends are Dying (now called, Out of the Comfort Zone). It received national publicity, and this opened an itinerant ministry. 1980: He began to suffer from a disease he called "evangelical frustration." The symptoms were that few listened to the gospel, and few genuinely came to Christ. He also found statistics that showed that up to 90% of those making decisions, fell away from the Church. 1982: Ray discovered "Hell's Best Kept Secret" (then called "Evangelical Frustration")-an eye-opening teaching about an almost forgotten biblical principle to reach the lost-one that was not only rooted in Scripture, but that was the essence of the gospel proclamation of men like John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon and George Whitefield. 1989: He and his family were invited to leave their native home of New Zealand and to relocate in the United States, particularly to bring their ministry to the American Church. 1990: The teaching was published in a book called, Hell's Best Kept Secret. 1992: Thanks to Bill Gothard, over 30,000 pastors saw this teaching via video, and the ministry began to grow. 2001: The School of Biblical Evangelism began. Today it has more than 11,000 (online) students worldwide. Actor Kirk Cameron was given "Hell's Best Kept Secret" on CD, and he then read Ray's book God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life (now called, The Way of the Master). The teaching so changed him, he met with Ray and and eventually joined the ministry, specifically to bring the message to the contemporary Church. 2003: Kirk taught "Hell's Best Kept Secret" on TBN, and the next day the Living Waters website received over a million hits. 2004: Production of "The Way of the Master" television program began. It has since won seven awards, is now in its third season, and airs on 31 networks in 70 countries. 2006: The cream of the TV program was released as "The Basic Training Course"-an eight-week DVD course that was especially formatted for local churches and individuals. Within two years more than 14,000 of these courses were being used to train churches to reach out to the lost. 2008: The "Ambassadors' Academy" was launched, and in the first year 350 evangelists were trained and networked through the Ambassadors' Alliance. |
