FORT WORTH, Texas — More than 1,600 people have indicated online that they prayed to receive Christ for salvation after watching a three-minute video of evangelist Ronnie Hill’s testimony, which starts by recounting his birth to a 17-year-old rape victim who decided against abortion.
Since January, Hill and others have been directing people to www.threeminutestory.com where they can watch his three-minute testimony and then register to win a new car or truck in a Dec. 12 drawing. The winner will choose between a Dodge Ram, a Jeep Wrangler or a Chrysler 300.
At the end of October, nearly 28,000 visits to the web site had been logged and more than 6,300 people had registered to win the vehicle, Hill told Baptist Press.
BP photo
Evangelist Ronnie Hill voices his testimony at www.threeminutetestimony.com. Those who listen can enter a drawing for a new car or truck.
In addition to those numbers, countless other individuals have prayed to receive Christ after watching a DVD of Hill’s three-minute testimony at county fairs, festivals, parks, ball games, block parties and other places where churches have sought to spread the gospel in partnership with Hill’s ministry.
“The Baptist Convention of New Mexico used it at the New Mexico State Fair,” Hill said. “They set up two DVD players with just my testimony playing, and people could come and sign up if they just listened to my story for a couple of minutes. They had 433 saved just at the state fair in New Mexico.”
During the testimony, Hill emphasizes that God changed his life and gave him peace and purpose, and he offers hope to others who need to realize their sin, turn from it and ask Jesus into their lives.
“You give people a reason to listen to you,” Hill said of the drawing. “They see all these preachers on TV all the time, always asking them for money. So when we come at it where I’m giving them an opportunity to win something, then the tables are turned and they’re kind of caught off guard by that.
“We’re not charging them any money for the sign-up, it’s free,” he said. “Their guard is let down then, and they’re not thinking we’re just some con artist trying to get something from them.”
Hill said he has received a considerable amount of criticism from people who don’t think his approach is exactly biblical, but he has an answer.
“My whole point is that I don’t care why they come, why they listen, just so they hear the gospel,” he told BP. “People came to Jesus in the New Testament for the wrong reasons all the time. They came to be healed. They came for free food. They came to be entertained. They wanted to see Jesus perform miracles. Even though they came for all the wrong reasons, He still loved them and still told them the truth.”
In Hawaii, Hill said an ice cream truck driver distributed cards to people along his route as he sold treats. The evangelist received news that a man had come to Christ just by purchasing ice cream and then following the offer on the card to watch the video to register to win an automobile.
If people who receive Christ online also request a contact, an e-mail is sent to the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board for follow-up. And if Hill knows of a pastor in close proximity to a person who has committed his life to Christ, he forwards that information to the pastor such as Wiles so that a local church can make contact.