Yesterday I attended the funeral of Leo Lavinka. The Lavinka family were members of CBC for several years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Corinth has never had a man that loved seeing people saved any more than Leo. He loved visitation like others love ice cream. He loved sharing the gospel of Christ like others love the beach or the mountains. It was a passion for him. He served in several capacities such as deacon and building committee member, but none of these compared with his main desire. The pastor at Zion Hill Baptist shared something with us about this great man. He told us about what Leo did in the church. He would open the church early and then lock up the church when the last person left. He was there during the week to help with maintenance and any other needs the church had. All of that was a blessing to hear. But then he made a statement that convicted my soul and blessed my soul at the same time. I will paraphrase what the pastor said. “White County (Cleveland, Georgia) had 30,000 homes in it approximately ten years ago. Leo Lavinka personally knocked on every door in the county over a several year period.” Wow! One man, along with his visitation partners, knocked on every door in an entire county, left them a gospel tract and/or shared the gospel of Christ with them. I think you can see why I was convicted and blessed. As we drove home from the funeral, during lulls in the conversation, my mind would flashback, “30,000 homes, 30,000 homes.” You can also see why I was blessed. Tens of thousands of people were given the plan of salvation. The only path to heaven, the gospel of Christ.
The second Sunday in October is the 20th Anniversary of Corinth at our present location. We moved to Loganville in 2001. One of the first things we did as a church was set a goal of reaching our community. I went to a business in Loganville that printed huge blueprints and had the business expand a copy of a map of Gwinnett and Walton County with the location of the church in the middle. Each week we would visit, and in the following days I would take a yellow highlighter and color in the subdivision or road that we had covered. It was a beautiful sight to see yellow all over that map. God blessed us and we saw people come to the Lord.
A couple of years ago everything in church work changed. The Covid virus was unleashed on the world and most businesses and churches stopped operating in their normal fashions. In some ways things have returned but in other ways not so much. There are businesses that will never open, and churches had to change the way they operated. I want to challenge our church and the Christians that receive this blog to think about sharing the gospel with those within your circle of influence. Most people do not want complete strangers knocking on their doors at 7:30 on a Monday or Thursday night. These days almost all my visitation efforts are by appointments and the prompting of the Holy Spirit when I meet someone in the community. You and I have influence with others and with those close to us. You love people in your family. You probably have friends that you love dearly. They could be your neighbors or co-workers. Do you care about their eternity? While entire neighborhoods most likely do not want you to bother them, your family and friends will not mind as much. Imagine this scene. You are standing as an observer at the Great White Throne Judgment. This is found in Revelation 20. One by one the unsaved are brought before this Throne. This is the awful day in which the unsaved are literally hurled into the Lake of Fire for all eternity. Then as you stand there observing, your son’s or daughter’s name is called. The angels of God take them by the arm and heading to their eternal punishment, they turn and make eye contact with you. You read their lips or hear them scream, “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me? You said you loved me.” What about your friend or co-worker? I cannot think of anything more awful than to have a son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter look at me saying those words. We do not do visitation in the old way but if each of us takes the gospel, sharing the responsibility that was given to us when we became Christians, we can still reach into the community and see people come to Christ. The gospel is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Romans 1:16). 30,000 homes. That is a feat few will ever meet but as a church body with all participating in being witnesses it can be done many times over in a short period of time. Let’s take the example of Bro. Leo and love the souls of those we know and meet.