FORT WORTH—Jason was panhandling for beer money outside a gas station one Wednesday night where Damon Halliday stopped to buy a Pepsi.

Hungry, homeless and half-drunk, Jason (not his real name) approached Halliday, pastor of Keystone Community Outreach Church, located in the middle of a Fort Worth housing project. “Jason asked to borrow a dollar, but I told him I couldn’t do that if he’d buy beer with it,” recalled Halliday, who continued talking with Jason and soon mentioned Jesus.

“God doesn’t love me,” Jason barked. “God has abandoned me. God has forsaken me. I have no reason to live. I’ve lost my job and my family.”

“Any time I mentioned God, Jason got irate,” Halliday said. “But I could tell he was an intelligent man, and the Lord showed me how to reach him.”

Halliday said he recalled what Alan Streett, professor of evangelism at Criswell College, taught about two kinds of evangelists: one proclaims the truths of God, which some people debate. The other is a witness: a person who tells others about their personal and undebatable experience with God.

“You can’t tell me that I don’t love you,” Halliday told Jason.

“Well, I guess I can’t,” Jason replied.

“I do, so give me a hug,” Halliday insisted.

The black preacher and white alcoholic hugged.

“Mark, you can’t tell me that I don’t know that God loves you,” Halliday continued.

“You’re getting a little tricky now,” Jason said.

“God told me to tell you he loves you and he wants me to give you another hug,” Halliday replied.

Reticent to elicit a response to the gospel from a drunk man, Halliday gave Jason his business card and said, “I’m committed to help you, and I will as much as I can. But you need to have sober judgment. Call me tomorrow.”

To Halliday’s surprise, Jason called. The men met for two hours, but Jason was still hostile toward God and the church.

“You keep trying to rationalize this thing,” Halliday told Jason. “If you’ll surrender your life to God, I guarantee he will change it.”

Jason prayed penitently and also committed his life to Christ that day.

“The day before, this guy was suicidal and homeless,” Halliday said. “But the next
day, he comes to church to find God, and I find out he’s a computer genius with a four-page resume and a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Jason is the greatest example of how a commitment to practice and teach evangelism blesses an individual and the body of Christ, Halliday said.

“He has impacted the church with his amazing giftedness, and he is committed to build the body of Christ too,” he added, saying that Jason, within a week of his own salvation experience, brought a friend to church who also became a Christian. The two were baptized on the same day.

Halliday said Jason was just the guy God had in mind to format and operate Keystone’s new audio/visual system.

“God sent Jason to handle that ministry,” Halliday said. “And in 10 weeks’ time, God restored almost every good thing in his life,” including a reunion with his children and a job in the computer field.

“That’s a picture of what God has called us to do. And when we do what we’re supposed to do, God is glorified, people are saved and the church grows,” Halliday said, adding that he wonders what would’ve happened if he just gave Jason a dollar and kept on walking.

Church in the ’hood

Founded more than 20 years ago, Keystone’s attendance had dwindled to about a dozen. The pastor was in ill health and looking for a successor. Two years ago, Halliday—who had left his mechanic job with American Airlines to attend college and prepare for ministry—met with the retiring pastor. That was Halliday’s introduction to his first pastorate.

Halliday couldn’t think of a better location for a church—in a notorious Fort Worth neighborhood known as Stop 6. Named after a rail-line station, Stop 6 is rife with prostitution, drugs and gang activity.
Additionally, the church sits inside a government housing project. To Halliday’s thinking, the church is strategically positioned for proclaiming Jesus Christ.

“The reason God sent me here is because I’m a product of the same kind of environment,” Halliday said. “I grew up in the inner city of West Philadelphia. It was a lot like Stop 6. I look back and see God was preparing me for this neighborhood. I saw the light the same way these people see the light.”

Once entirely African-American, Keystone now is multi-racial with a heart for evangelism. Halliday said he teaches and preaches evangelism and tries to live it.

“What’s happening here is impacting members’ lives, and the whole vision is for them to adopt evangelism as a lifestyle,” Halliday said. “The people are getting it. Of course they see me doing it, and then once they do it, they’re hooked.”

Halliday said evangelism “brings joy and a sense of fire to our worship services because it’s blessing the members and growing the congregation. The people are excited and have joy for being used by God, and we’re impacting the community. All of that reflects the benefits of obedience to the Lord’s evangelism commission.”

Now averaging around 130, Keystone had about 200 people in church on Easter Sunday. “That’s because we knocked on lots of doors,” he said.

Halliday has led the church in several evangelistic events. Keystone’s third annual block party at a city park drew 450 people and garnered 79 professions of faith in Christ.

“I think our block party scared other pastors. They saw that ours worked, and now they’re all doing their own,” Halliday said.

The church also sponsors a “Women’s Pamper Party.” Keystone engages cosmetologists and other specialists to turn the church into a day spa. Local women are offered makeovers, facials, massages and manicures at no charge.

“Last year we had 40 women attend, and eight of them accepted Christ,” said Halliday, who prays God will use Keystone as the hub of an evangelistic association of churches that “will ultimately be the nucleus God uses to produce a revival.”

Keystone’s basketball team gathers monthly to play “all the neighborhood superstars,” said Halliday, adding that despite the shady reputation of some participants, the monthly game builds relationships and opens the door to what he calls “friendgelism”—an evangelistic process that starts with befriending those without Christ. “Every relationship I enter, I do so for the purpose of leading that person to the Lord,” he said.

“Our community is really hard to reach” Halliday said. “People are skeptical, dysfunctional and hopeless. In fact, we have three or four generations of dysfunction and hopelessness. But I feel we’re going to see revival this year.”

Lifestyle evangelism

Halliday worked for American Airlines for eight years and even faced warnings for sharing his faith too enthusiastically after a co-worker complained to management.

“When I left American Airlines and walked out those gates, it was a sad day because it was a great place to witness.”

“I had a pretty good idea who the co-worker was, so I told the supervisor to go back and tell that person that I love them more than I love my job; and if I have to lose my job in order for them to have eternal life, then I will,” he recalled.

Years later, Halliday is still witnessing at the airline—and without breaking any rules. An employee relations program allows employees every month to invite someone of their choice to speak to variously identified groups. For Halliday, that means every month he returns to the AA maintenance facility and leads a voluntary Bible study without harassment.

Noting that evangelizing is every believer’s task, he said: “The church has gotten away from evangelism and just started having church. Most Christians are not taught the responsibility of evangelism. They see it as another ministry opportunity like singing in the choir or being an usher. But God commanded us to tell the world about him.”