Tri-Grace Ministries

chip-jamie CHIP AND JAMIE THOMPSON

Reaching Mormons for Christ

bullets Click HERE for Chip’s Article Corner

Our call to Utah began 21 years ago following a week of teen camp in central Utah. We were packing our van, preparing to depart, when a missionary pastor named Jonathan Edwards said, “As you travel down highway 89, from Ephraim, Utah, to Page, Arizona, see how many Christian churches you can find.” We took the challenge and that day as we travelled 275 miles through 23 rural Utah communities we could not find even one Christian church and we were SHOCKED! When we arrived back in Phoenix it seemed as though Christian churches were on every corner and the Spirit of God whispered to us, “If you leave here, someone else will take your place but who will go to Utah for Me?” And we answered, “LORD, we will go.” Approximately one year later our amazing Utah adventure began.

By God’s grace and direction, just prior to our call to Utah, we moved into a house in Phoenix next door to a nice Mormon family. In the Mormon way, they began a year long attempt to convert us. They invited us to ‘Family Home Evening’, sent LDS missionary boys to our door, and challenged us to read the Book of Mormon (which we did). We politely listened, studied, and in turn began to witness to them. We sat through weeks of missionary lessons and in the end Elder Nicholson and Elder King nearly converted to Christianity. The night before the LDS Church shipped both boys to new locations, their Mission Stake President joined the pair in a last ditch effort to save face – yet even this LDS leader could answer none of our questions which only caused more distress for the two young missionaries. Unbeknown to us God was preparing us for ministry in Utah and wetting our appetites for Mormon evangelism.

Since May of 1992 my family and I have been reaching Mormons for Christ in the rural town of Ephraim, Utah. Ephraim is located in the heart of the Mormon kingdom in the very center of the state of Utah. Sanpete County, where we live, is a true mission field with less than 1% of the population being Christian – easily 95% are Mormon by birth with about 78% claiming active membership in the LDS Church.

I (Chip) received Christ as my own personal Savior at the age of 21, in my 5th year in Bible College (yea, I know, not the brightest bulb on the rack) and my wife Jamie received Christ at the age of 9 in her home in Pennsylvania. We met in college and while we were dating began serving the Lord together as youth leaders at the First Baptist in Guthrie Center, Iowa. Following our time in Iowa, we spent 5 years as youth leaders at Immanuel Bible Church in Scottsdale, AZ, before our move to Utah. Our first 13 years in Utah were spent planting and pastoring the Ephraim Church of the Bible (www.EphraimBible.org). Then about 7 years ago, we shifted our focus to Mormonism evangelism and have been building Tri-Grace Ministries ever since.tri-grace

There are many facets to TGM: First and foremost, we are an evangelistic outreach ministry to Mormons; Secondly, we teach and train others to evangelize Mormons; Thirdly, TGM hosts and provides leadership to the Solid Rock Christian Club on the Snow College campus in Ephraim (the only Christian club at this predominantly LDS state college); And finally, TGM offers a variety of internships for individuals interested in: evangelism; college campus ministry; church planting; rural church ministries; Christian coffee house ministry; and service internships.

shane-kim

TGM now has four full-time staff, (Directors, Chip and Jamie Thompson; Associate Directors Shane and Kim Jones) and offers a variety of ministry opportunities and witnessing resources such as:

  1. One-Day Mormonism Witnessing Training Seminars for Christian Colleges and local Christian churches around the US – (cost for this is a love offering and travel expenses).
  2. Short-Term Mission opportunities for College age mission teams to Utah.
  3. The Manti Pageant Outreach – Mormonism training and outreach at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, UT (7 miles south of Ephraim).
  4. “The Mormon Scrapbook”, our witnessing training manual – an interactive workbook that will teach you the vital information needed to witness to LDS people – (purchase “The Mormon Scrapbook” at www.Amazon.com for $11.99 – if you purchase from seller ‘GospelTruth4U’ you will also receive a free Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVD.)
  5. We also offer a variety of interactive LDS witnessing tracts that were created to help Christians share their faith with LDS acquaintances, friends, and family. An electronic version of these visual aids may be obtained by contacting us (see below).

We often liken our ministry in Utah to the Biblical story of David and Goliath. Just as the shepherd boy David, in his human frailty was no match for the giant Goliath, even so we have no human strength to stand against the Mormon machine – but like David, we have a great GOD! We are struck by the fact that David did not walk onto the battlefield with the intention of irritating Goliath, his goal was to slay the giant. Even so, we are not in Utah to irritate Mormonism, we are intent upon the downfall of this false religious system. Some may say that our goal is ‘pie in the sky’ but we believe, with God, all things are possible. And, honestly, we see cracks in the foundation of Mormonism and they are growing ever larger. No one person and no one organization is going to be responsible for the downfall of Mormonism, when it happens it will be the joint efforts of many ministries and thousands of Christians. The body of Christ actively at work in our world will accomplish this great task. This is where YOU become important. Will you be a part of this effort? We believe all who join in the battle will one day enjoy the satisfaction associated with this victory in and through Jesus.

DO NOT GET THE WRONG IDEA… Our battle is not with the Mormon people – we love Mormons. The people are mere sheep who have been led away from the True Shepherd by a false religious system. Our battle is with the ‘Wolf’ and His false religious system that has been devouring sheep for the past 175 years. Our ministry to the LDS people is as gentle and non-contentious as we know how to make it. We pattern our efforts after the Apostle Paul’s admonitions found in 2 Timothy 2:23-26, “Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

If reaching Mormons through compassion and love is of interest to you, please contact us and read this article to see a simple approach we use in reaching Mormons:

bullets A New Witnessing Approach to Reaching Mormons for Christ

TRI-GRACE MINISTRIES
96 E Center Street
Ephraim, UT  84627
www.TriGrace.org

 

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