Lowrie calls on Texas Baptists to pray and go to reach the state for Christ

McALLEN—In the face of poverty and hunger, as well as changing state demographics, Texas Baptists might be inclined to shrink in fear from the task at hand. But Baptist General Convention of Texas President David Lowrie urged messengers to Texas Baptists’ annual meeting to remain strong and courageous as they follow Jesus’ strategy to reach a hurting state.

Using the passage in Luke 10 in which Jesus sends out workers into the fields, Lowrie encouraged Baptists not to miss the key elements of the work in the harvest, specifically that while Jesus asked the workers to pray for additional help, he also urged them to go.

David Lowrie, BGCT president

“Jesus gives us a practical expression of the strategy he might use to change our state and the world. The Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go,” said Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in El Paso.

“People question the whole concept of cooperation, but from the very earliest days of the movement of Jesus, he taught cooperation. If anyone could have done it by himself, it would have been Jesus. But he intentionally appointed them and gave them a task.”

The key element was being sent, Lowrie said, a concept many churches have lost as they follow the “If you build it, they will come” concept from the baseball film Field of Dreams.

“I would dare you to find in the strategy of Jesus one that says ‘sit and wait.’ We have to take the hope to them, so Jesus sent them out,” he noted. “Are we sitting there waiting for the world to come to us, or are we going to take Jesus at his word and be sent?”

Those Jesus sent were not the saviors but the advance team, those sent to share the message that the kingdom of God was at hand, Lowrie said.

Christians serve the same purpose. But when Jesus shows up in a community, lives are changed. Jesus also shared a clear vision in the Luke 10 passage, Lowrie said.

“When the harvest comes in, it’s a time of action. There’s an urgency about it,” he said. “Some would see Texas through dark eyes, saying this is difficult time and place to be. But it could be that Texas is as ripe as it’s ever been for spiritual awakening.”

Those difficult times include a high childhood hunger rate—Texas is the top state in the U.S. in that category—and a No. 1 ranking in adults working at minimum wage. Contrasted with the No. 1 state in which to run a business and the No. 1 state in wind power, Texas also has the lowest rate of high school graduation.

But Moses’ admonition to Joshua to “be strong and courageous for the Lord God is with you wherever you go” can be good advice for Texans as they face the daunting task of reaching one of the nation’s most populous states, Lowrie said. The key, he said, is for churches to cooperate, trust God fully and overcome obvious threats to both issues.

“We cannot let kingdom cooperation die on our watch. I don’t care what we call it; we have to keep doing it. We have to keep working together and stretching ourselves,” Lowrie said, noting that relational and financial issues threaten that cooperation often. “We have to lead with trust in the Lord and with each other. We have to lay aside preconceived notions about people and realize we have the same passions. It’s the enemy who draws these lines.

“The economy has been bad, and it’s often hard (for churches) to make ends meet. When money gets tight, (we are tempted to ask) do we keep the money at home to keep the lights on or continue to give to the convention to ministries. But what we do as a church teaches our people what we believe about God.”

Churches are tempted to forego support for convention entities and mission-sending agencies to fund their own hands-on ministry work, but he encouraged them to consider those two as not mutually exclusive.  Instead, churches should be involved in both efforts and trust God to provide and bless as they obey his commands to go.

Jesus “asks them to ask for more workers, but then go. Don’t wait for the reinforcements to come, just go and trust me,” he said. “Are we going to try and strategize or come to the place where we say, ‘We’re gonna go’ and say, ‘We believe you’re going to meet our needs.’ Let’s put our faith in Jesus and trust him. Could it be that Jesus is saying to all of us to be strong and courageous, because the Lord your God goes before you into the land?”