In 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention was formed to get the gospel to the ends of the earth. Our primary purpose is to get the gospel out and see people saved.

During the 20^th century the SBC grew to be the largest denomination. Here are the methods they used to make us the largest protestant denomination in the world.

1. Decisional Preaching of the gospel and calling for a response each Sunday during worship.
2. Sunday School for All Ages was seen as a way to get lost people to come to church to study without having to join the church.
3. Personal Evangelism training for every member to know how to share the gospel and use their personal testimony to share the story of salvation. Every member evangelized.
4. Fall and Spring Meetings where a person could invite their friends to come hear the gospel and be saved.

In other words, SBC churches became hot beds of evangelism where the church systematically sought the salvation of the lost in their community.

This system of evangelism was supported by a church-wide discipleship program. From the cradle to the grave members were taught how to be like Christ! How to lead! Understand Church Polity: Stewardship etc. Discipleship was intentional and an entire church program.

Maybe if we did these things we would see more people saved!

I recently was given a few moments on the program of Build X 2025 luncheon. I prepared a presentation on the role of the association of churches and why you should be a part of the association, but I stopped in the middle of my talk & changed my presentation to a call to mission from Acts 1:8. I believe this is of the Lord.

According to Acts 1:8 there is a clear responsibility for the salvation of the people in your Jerusalem, the local church field. This is your church’s primary responsibility. God will hold you responsible to reach your assigned field. 

But I challenge you to raise your eyes & see your Judea or your local association field. We need to see the lostness around us & call out members of our church to reach the 23 zip codes with no SBC witness representing 731,318 people. God told us to go to our Judea. I challenge you to have a mission team working to reach these 23 zip codes. Your first responsibility is your church field first but raise your eyes to see the lostness of Southern Nevada & respond.

Next, God called us to reach our Samaria. This is cross-cultural evangelism. There are 140 countries represented in the CCSD. There are 111 different languages spoken in homes by students of the CCSD. One third of Clark County residents speak a language other than English in their home. 

There are 20 language groups of over 3,100 people in Clark County, we only minister to six of these groups. I challenge you, look for a person of peace in your church that speaks a language other than English and start a fellowship for that language. We are responsible for cross-cultured evangelism. Ask me how I can help you. 

Finally, we are responsible for the world. Some in your church may be called to go. The Biblical model is some stay home & support missionaries, others are commissioned and go like Paul in Acts 13. Preach a challenge to those who are called to surrender to God’s control and go to the mission field. 

Four avenues of missions, Our home field (Jerusalem) Our associational field (Judea), Cross-cultured (Samaria) & Foreign missions (world). 

This is a long article, but I believe it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. If you would like to serve on an Associational Mission Development Team let me know.

As I was praying, I had a Baptist Hymnal in my hand, and I was looking for a word from God. That word came from the song, “Revive Us Again.” You know the chorus, Hallelujah Thine the Glory, Hallelujah Amen, Hallelujah Thine the Glory, Revive Us Again.”

Well, that got me thinking about revival, another song struck a chord. It was called “Send a Great Revival.” It triggered a series of thoughts. First, you can’t be revived until you are saved. You must be born again for a personal revival to occur. This seems obvious. Only we are always praying for a national revival when the nation needs to be saved first, before a revival comes.

Next for a personal revival to occur, we must repent of our personal sins. Everyone is a sinner. If we say we do not sing, then we are a liar. Sin doesn’t stop enticing us when we get saved. We still fall into a trap. So, for a personal revival we must repent of our sin and come to God for cleansing. (I John 1:9:) “If we confess our sins God will forgive our sins and restores our righteousness.” So first we must a be a Christian. Then we need to repent of our sins. Now we are restored in fellowship with God and man, our guilt is removed and our joy restored. This is a personal revival, relationship to God restored, no more guilt and a sense of joy.

When we experience a personal revival, our joy is restored. We are as we were when we first were saved. Full of joy, happiness, love and excitement. We are unable to hold it all in. We want everybody to know the joy we have.

So here is the formula for a national revival. First, we must have a personal revival in our soul. This happens when we repent of our sins, and we get all excited about Jesus again. When that happens, then we will go tell everybody about Jesus. Just like the song says, “Get all excited, go tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King, Jesus

Christ is still the King of Kings.”

When this happens to Christians, be prepared a national revival is coming.

Philippians 1:3-5 says, “I thank God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my prayers, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

Partnership, working together toward a common goal—the proclamation of the gospel—each partner bringing their unique gift to add value to the team. Partnership in the proclamation of the gospel is what the Southern Baptist Convention is all about. We have amassed the largest army of volunteers in spreading the gospel. Some 14 or 15 million members are all part of a team.

Being a part of the SBC is being a part of the over 4,000 missionaries on the field proclaiming the gospel. Being a part of the SBC is being a part of educating multiple thousands of seminary students preparing to proclaim to a lost world. Being a SB means you are concerned about lostness, hunger, refugees, education and so much more.

Each year in June the SBC meets as a convention to discuss and approve the strategy guiding our efforts as a team in “spreading the gospel”. It is an important meeting; where each church sends representatives, called messengers to vote their conscious under God’s leadership on the direction of the SBC team. It is important that each church, if possible, and messengers attend the team meeting, this year in Dallas, Texas.

I am going as a messenger from my church. Please, if possible, send messengers from your church. It is important. Here is the LINK to information of the SBC Convention

SBC CONVENTION
Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center
Dallas, Texas
June 8 – 12

1 – Commission – The Great Commission: (A) Make disciples, bring individuals to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; (B) Baptizing them into church membership; and (C) Teaching them to live a Christian life. (Matthew 28:18-20)

5 – Functions of the church:  Evangelize the lost: Teach godly living; Ministry to the needs of the people; when you do the first three things you will develop a close bond of love for each other called fellowship; and finally when you are experiencing God’s action in saving souls, teaching the saints, and ministry needs are being met, you will Worship the living God.  (Matthew 9:34; Acts 2:41-27)

4 – Outcomes of a church practicing the five functions are:  Numeric growth (Acts 2:21, 27); Spiritual transformation, we will become new creatures (Colossians 3: 1-17); ministry expansion, we will be doing more for the Kingdom; and Kingdom expansion, new missions will be started.

The 1 – 5 – 4 formula is a tool to measure are effectiveness again.  Ask yourself these questions:
     Is my church remembering the main thing, the Great Commission?
     Is my church maintaining a balanced approach to churchmanship by doing all five functions of the church?
    Are we seeing the desired outcome?
         New Believers?                               Spiritual Transformation?
         Ministry Expansion?                     Kingdom Advance?

Just Saying - Harry

First decide on your goals, reaching people for Jesus. Second, decide on a leader (Pastor). Third, harness yourselves together (everybody working on the same task). Finally wear blinders so you are not tempted to do the many good things along the way that are not the best thing which God has previously told you to do. 

Second, Finish One Thing at a Time. Did you ever go into someone’s garage and see one half-finished project after another sitting there? You know the type; a broken table, a half-finished chair, a lamp needing a cord, etc., all relatively simple but undone. Many churches are a series of unfinished projects. Remodeling half done. New classes were promised but not established. Visits intended but not made. Good intentions but no follow through. Well, this principle applies here. Discipline yourself to choose your projects well and finish them before you begin another. What do you do with the other important projects that come up while you are finishing? Delegate! Finish one thing at a time. 

Third, this brings us to my final suggestions for this time. Put the Monkey Where it Belongs. How often does a member of your staff or congregation come in and say, “Preacher we got a problem, we need to fix this situation, or we need to get this done. The church needs to do something.” If it is a valid need and the church should help, so you say, “I’ll take care of it.” WRONG. Why should you take care of it? The correct response should be something like this. “Tell me more about it… I believe you have the right idea. Try that and let me know how it turns out.” The more ministry performed by the congregation, the more ministry accomplished. We already are doing all we can.

If we take on something else, we must drop something. However, if we enlist someone else, we have expanded our church’s ministry. Put the monkey where it belongs on the back of the person God gave the burden to!