SBC challenged by ‘Everyone Can’ theme_62705

Posted: 6/26/05

SBC challenged by 'Everyone Can' theme

By Lonnie Wilkey

Tennessee Baptist & Reflector

NASHVILLE–As the final gavel sounded on the 148th annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention and balloons were released from the top of the Gaylord Entertainment Center, messengers chanted “Everyone Can” in response to a challenge from SBC President Bobby Welch to witness, win, and baptize one million people in the coming year.

Building upon momentum from his bus tour of the Southern Baptist Convention this past year and in sessions of the annual meeting, Welch exhorted messengers to leave the convention united in one purpose.

“It’s going to take everybody doing everything with all they can and it has to happen now,” Welch told messengers.

“We’re going out there and we’re going to attack the gates of hell for the sake of souls.”

Prior to Welch’s closing comments, messengers were challenged by Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, to stop “hiding in the stuff” and to respond to the challenge Welch placed before them.

Basing his message on the story of Saul, found in 1 Samuel, Draper noted that he was an “incredible talent” presented with an “incredible opportunity” by God. Yet when it came time to anoint Saul as the king of Israel, he could not be found. Scripture says Saul was found hiding among the supplies “or as the King James puts it, hiding away in the stuff,” Draper said.

“Saul, the son of Kish, presents a timeless picture of greatness that was diminished by petty pursuits, detours, vendettas, and sidetracks. He squandered great opportunity at the fee of unworthy triviality,” Draper told messengers and visitors at the final session.

“Saul’s tragic story has been repeated in the life of many a minister, church, and even denomination,” Draper observed.

Draper recounted how God has blessed the Southern Baptist Convention. “God passed by the great magisterial denominations of this land and He put His hand upon a group of people considered by the elitist of society to be under classed, backward, ignorant, and prejudiced.

“God took a group of people huddled around little churches in the south and on the frontier and elevated them into the greatest denomination in the strongest country in the world.”

Yet, Draper noted that after 160 years “of his singular blessing” Southern Baptists may be “hiding among the stuff.”

The LifeWay leader cited stagnated baptism figures over the past 50 years. “In spite of the struggle for 25 years to recover biblical faithfulness we are still witnessing a stagnation in evangelism,” Draper said. “Our passion for souls has cooled. It has slipped away from us.”

He challenged Southern Baptists to stop hiding “in the stuff of personal, church, and convention power struggles and of bitterness, resentment, and cynicism.” He noted some churches today are filled with chaos and division.

“While the world around us slides toward hell, our churches are often battlegrounds instead of lighthouses, refusing to abide by clear, biblical principles of reconciliation and restoration,” Draper said.

“Many churches are torn to shreds by carnal members and arrogant leaders. We can’t hide in that stuff anymore,” Draper exhorted those in attendance.

“Southern Baptists have been called by God to be the leader in evangelism and missions in confronting our culture with the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ.

“Let’s rise up and follow him and his story to its glorious conclusion,” Draper said.

During the annual meeting three other “Everyone Can!” challenges were presented throughout the sessions.

Singer, songwriter and author Dawn Smith Jordan reminded messengers and visitors that everyone can forgive those who have caused them even the most grievous hurt.

The former Miss South Carolina 1986 and second runner-up for Miss U.S.A. described how God has convicted her through the years of her need to forgive others, beginning with the man who kidnapped and brutally murdered her 17-year-old sister, Shari, in 1985.

Jordan, who is a member of First Baptist Church, Columbia, S.C, recounted the letter Shari’s murderer allowed her to write before he murdered her, which her family received after her death. In it, Shari told her family not to worry about her—she knew she would be safe with God—and to not let her abduction and fate ruin their lives. She further assured them that some good would come out of the terrible wrong.

Years later, Jordan said, she and her mother had the opportunity to visit with the man who had been convicted of the brutal act and to assure him of their forgiveness.

God’s Word calls Christians to forgive others like Jesus has forgiven them, Jordan reminded her brothers and sisters in Christ, pointing them to the exhortations to forgive in Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:12-13.

Forgiving the man who had murdered her sister was an act of obedience to God in response to the mercy she had received from him, Jordan explained.

Jordan would later have to repeat that act of forgiveness after her husband of seven years left her with two small children.

While she has learned that life is going from one storm to the next, she concluded, “His grace has made me strong,” calling attention to her mother’s favorite Scripture passage, 2 Corinthians 12:9.

A bivocational pastor from Oklahoma exhorted messengers to “have a lifestyle of evangelism.”

“Everyone can witness. Everyone can reach people for Christ,” said Anthony Williams, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Durant, Okla.

“Folks, we need to be telling people the message that Jesus saves. It is our obligation. It is our job.”

Williams encouraged pastors to equip their congregations. “It is the folks in the pews who will get the job done. Train them, pray for them, encourage them.

“We’ve got the greatest news in the word – the good news of salvation. Let’s share it,” Williams said.

Using 2 Kings 7, Michael Lewis emphasized that “everyone can go and tell” others about the Good News.

The senior pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church of Austin, pointed out people today are miserable, just as the lepers in 2 Kings were. When asked to name the church’s purpose in the world today, only 11 percent of respondents said the church exists to reach people for Christ.

With baptisms plateaued since 1962, churches should be asking themselves: “Should we sit here until we die?”

Southern Baptist churches cannot sit still, Lewis said, because God has given them the goal to baptize 1 million people this year.

The Samaritan lepers in 2 Kings had three options. So does the church today – to go back, to sit still and hold the fort or to go forward by faith, Lewis said.

The average church today only baptizes nine people each year, he said. “We’ve got to go

forward by faith…. Reaching people we never thought we’d reach – that’s faith.”

Just as the lepers experienced a miracle, so has the church. Today’s church is the “victorious church,” Lewis said. “We are fighting from victory.”

Overcome with guilt after discovering the feast and riches the Arameans had left, the lepers decided they needed to report the find to their king.

Today, Christians sometimes keep the Good News to themselves. “As long as we are here…it is a glorious opportunity for people to be saved,” Lewis said.

Sharing the Good News also promises results. “People will get saved if we will go out,” Lewis said.

John Loudat of the Baptist New Mexican and Vicki Brown of the Word and Way (Missouri) contributed to this report.