HOPE
FOR THE DYING

Topics: Aging; Assurance; Eternal Life; Evangelism; Future; Ministry; Mortality; Seekers; Witnessing

References: Ecclesiastes 8:8; Matthew 20:1–16; Ephesians 5:15–16; Hebrews 9:27; James 4:14; 1 Peter 1:24; 2 Peter 3:11–12

“Last Minute Ministry” began when a friend of Pastor Chuck Kent asked him to visit his dying ninety-two-year-old great-grandfather in the hospital. The elderly man, Elwyn, was an agnostic.

Pastor Chuck met with Elwyn and asked if he could share one of Jesus’ stories. He told the story of the vineyard owner who hired people to work in the last hour. Elwyn, who was also in the “eleventh hour,” prayed to accept Christ. A week later, Pastor Chuck conducted Elwyn’s funeral. About a hundred people heard the gospel at the service.

When Kent’s daughters said there were others in the hospital who needed to hear the gospel, the pastor got permission from the hospital to visit. He went room to room, asking each person if he could pray and then share the story of the eleventh hour. In one month he visited fifteen people, eight of whom accepted Christ.

During one of those visits, Chuck talked to a comatose man who had only a few hours to live. The man was unable to speak or open his eyes. So Chuck led him through the prayer of salvation by having him squeeze Chuck’s hand one phrase at a time. Two hours later, the patient died.

“We started this ministry, not intending for it to be ongoing,” Chuck says. “But the church got excited; it took off amazingly. It’s an easy ministry to see progress, because these people are getting ready to die.” He added, “People on the terminal floor are a lot more realistic about eternity.”

—Elizabeth Diffin, “Eleventh-Hour Ministry,” Leadership (Spring 2006)