Texas’ Shane Pruitt named NAMB next gen evangelism director

Texas’ Shane Pruitt named NAMB next gen evangelism director

Shane Pruitt, an evangelist, Bible teacher and director of evangelism for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, has been named director of next gen (generation) evangelism for the North American Mission Board.

Pruitt begins his role in November. He will continue speaking at evangelism and outreach events and also focus on serving and resourcing Southern Baptist churches as they seek to more effectively reach students.

“My prayer is to see a movement of God and a revival among students,” Pruitt said. “I want to continue to preach to the next generation and help churches think through how to reach them.”

Pruitt said the drop in student baptisms should set off alarms. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that among Americans age 18–38 only 30% listed religion or belief in God as “very important” compared with 50% of respondents overall and two-thirds of those age 55 and older.

“Similar polls show that 80% of young people place a high value on self-fulfillment,” Pruitt said. “The only way toward that is setting aside self and living for something bigger. To me that is a door wide open for the gospel.”

Pruitt and his wife, Kasi, have five children — two biological and three who were adopted. He says his life and faith have been greatly affected by the decision he and Kasi made to adopt.

“I tell people that besides salvation itself there have been three major life shifts for me that have shown me different impacts of the gospel: becoming a husband, becoming a father and becoming an adoptive father.”

Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.