Frank Palos describes Congreso 2010 as God moving in our midst. More than 7,000 Hispanic youth gathered on Baylor University’s campus, with hundreds making new commitments to Christ. Congreso was one of the final Texas Baptist events before the official ending of Texas Hope 2010.
Jeff Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Del Rio, wrote, “To the best of our ability—all in Val Verde County had an opportunity to receive God’s word and hear about Jesus Christ.” Bruce Webb, pastor of First Baptist Church in The Woodlands, said they had more than 3,100 in worship Easter Sunday, twice the attendance last Easter, with dozens indicating an interest in becoming Christ followers. Churches in Amarillo soon will launch a media blitz and CD distribution to all the families in their community.
These are just a few examples of Texas Baptists who have prayed and explored ways to share the hope of Christ with every person in their community. Churches have held prayer vigils and prayer walks interceding for the 11 million unchurched Texans. Individuals have prayed for the lost and the hungry every day at noon.
A plan for every person in the state to have a nutritious meal every day has expanded into a hunger initiative embraced by religious, community and government partners with a goal of food security in Texas by 2015. More than $900,000 was given to the Texas Baptist World Hunger Offering last year.
The BGCT entered a partnership with Faith Comes By Hearing to create a multimedia CD that includes many witnessing tools, such as the ability to download the New Testament in more than 500 languages. More than 850,000 of these CDs have been distributed throughout the state. Ten thousand Witness to the World booklets were given to pastors to equip churches to share the hope of Christ with friends and family members.
City Reach recorded 1,900 professions of faith in Christ at the BGCT annual meeting in Houston, as volunteers from our churches worked with the Bill Glass team to share Christ’s hope with prisoners and inner-city youth.
The Billie Hanks International Evangelism Association committed its own resources to begin enlisting 300 lead churches for training in the follow up of new Christians.
The goal of Texas Hope 2010 was to share the hope of Christ with every person in Texas within their own language and context by Resurrection Sunday 2010. Did we reach our goal? I’m quite certain we did not. Yet I can say with certainty that the BGCT staff, institutions, and many of our churches and associations have renewed evangelism as a priority.
Now it is time to evaluate Texas Hope 2010 to learn what has happened over these past two years. Are there communities or people groups that have been neglected? How effective are the strategies and tools we are using to share the hope of Christ? How do we maintain the emphasis on prayer, care and share, not only in Texas, but throughout the nations?
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Texas Hope 2010 is a great start to an Acts 1:8 strategy. Where do we go from here?
Randel Everett is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.
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