Posted: 3/8/05
Texas Baptists need to pursue a 'Jesus agenda,' Reyes says
By Ferrell Foster
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—Texas Baptists should make sure they are pursuing “a Jesus agenda” as they move forward, said Baptist General Convention of Texas President Albert Reyes.
“A Jesus agenda will be Spirit-led,” Reyes told the BGCT Executive Board. “We may have lots of plans, lots of hopes, lots of dreams, lots of sophistication, but if we do not have the Spirit of the Lord on us, we are just busy Baptists not Spirit-led Baptists.”
A Jesus agenda “will always lead us to focus outward rather than inward,” said Reyes, who also is president of the Baptist University of the Américas, a BGCT-affiliated theological university. Jesus’ focus was outward on the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed.
Texas Baptists’ missions and ministry heritage “gives proof of our track record of maintaining an outward focus,” he said. Reyes cited as examples the convention’s passion for church planting; ministries to abused, abandoned and neglected children; and college ministries that have affected thousands of students—including himself when he attended Angelo State University.
Such an outward focus “changes us,” he said. “Our communities need that. Our cities, our families deserve a body of Christian people called Baptists who are motivated, activated and energized by the Spirit of God.”
Many Texans face eternity without Christ and without hope, and they wonder if anybody cares, Reyes said. Children, senior citizens and college students “need someone to point the way.” An outward focus “will drive us there, to those people, to those who are waiting for a word of hope,” he added.
BGCT organizational changes “represent an effort to position the BGCT to become more effective, more accountable and more sensitive to a Jesus agenda that we can jointly pursue in our state and in our world,” he said.
“Let’s be the transformational people God has called us to be. Those in need are counting on us.”
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