April 29 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The Christian men's movement has taken off in recent months as thousands of men from around the country gather in stadiums for fellowship. But Fred L. Bishop, director of the nondenominational No Greater Love Ministries in Du Quoin, Illinois, has discovered another means for men to bond, which he has been putting into practice since 1975.

No Greater Love recruits men as volunteer evangelists at some of the nation's largest sporting and cultural activities. Bishop wants to take advantage of the huge crowds that gather for these seasonal events, including the Indianapolis 500 auto race, the Kentucky Derby horse race, and New Orleans's Mardi Gras. "Why spend money and time to attract a crowd at some crusade?" asks Roger Lipe, No Greater Love's administrative assistant. The emphasis is on small-scale or personal evangelism techniques. "You don't have to be the greatest guy in the world to put on a clown suit at the county fair."

HEALING THE SICK? The group makes an annual trek to New Orleans in February for Mardi Gras, which, in spite of its religious origins, has become one of America's biggest annual exercises of public drinking and personal excess.

This year, a group of 171 men from 69 churches in 15 states traveled to the French Quarter hoping to spread the gospel and interact with revelers.

"Jesus said, 'I came to heal the sick,' and this is the sickest place I know," Bishop says of Mardi Gras. "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."

Most participants drive between 12 and 24 hours and take several vacation days from work to share their faith in the streets of the French Quarter during the wildest two days of the carnival.

Yet most people in the French Quarter are not interested in hearing about Christ. No Greater ...