In a meeting usually short on business items, Louisiana Baptist
Convention leaders focused last week on getting about the real “business”
of reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In a meeting usually short on business items, Louisiana Baptist
Convention leaders focused last week on getting about the real “business”
of reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“I want to challenge each of you to join me in committing
to personally witness to win someone to Christ between now and our next board
meeting in May, …” LBC Executive Director Dean Doster urged members of
the state Executive Board during their scheduled meeting last week.
“I want you to join me in … refocusing our motives and
redirecting our energies as a convention of churches to win the lost of our
state to Christ.”
Dosters was not the only appeal during the meeting for
a refocusing on the task.
Such a call was the overriding theme of a meeting in which
board members learned that state Cooperative Program gifts closed $1.3 million
(6 percent) behind the 2001 budget and statewide baptisms dropped 11.9 percent
to their lowest level since 1989.
The news clearly alarmed leaders, who insisted a renewed emphasis
on sharing the gospel was the only answer to the declines.
“We can solve our financial problems by reaching people – and thats
how were going to do it,” stressed Randy Tompkins, director of stewardship
and the Cooperative Program for the state convention.
At the same time, Tompkins said state leaders will focus on
helping to educate persons about the Cooperative Program. Too many churches
simply put it in their budgets, vote on it once and fail to promote it as a
missions and ministry lifeline, he said.
Tompkins noted that 211 of the 1,636 Louisiana Baptist churches
gave nothing through the Cooperative Program in 2000.
In 2001, 212 churches gave nothing. For 158 of those, it marked
the second consecutive year to give nothing.
In November, state convention messengers approved a resolution
that a church must give monetarily in order to be in good standing with the
state convention.
Tompkins said state leaders have decided on a three-year test
for churches. Any church that does not give through the state Cooperative Program
for three years will be notified that they are being removed from state convention
rolls.
Leading up to that point, leaders will communicate with the
church and seek to bring it into cooperation, Tompkins said.
In addition, state leaders will emphasize the need for all
Louisiana Baptists to pray and to promote the Cooperative Program, Tompkins
said. “We do not need to sit back … and just hope (change) comes to pass.”
Indeed, action is required, Doster said.
“Baptisms and Cooperative Program giving are the lifelines
to fulfilling the evangelism mandate for the church and the missions mandate
to the world,” he told board members. “Perhaps these may be the most
crucial areas of our cooperative work.”
Finding the cause for the declines is difficult, Doster acknowledged.
“(But) Perhaps we should not seek to find fault or blame
but rather each of us take personally our own responsibility as Christian leaders
to do some soul-searching and refocus on reaching the lost, making disciples
and building our fellowship. …
“I refuse to be defeated, defensive or negative when I
serve the Lord Jesus Christ who controls it all. Louisiana Baptists must face
reality without giving in to this hopefully short-term setback in our work.”
Earlier in the meeting, Executive Board President Robertson
had sounded a similar note, reminding board members that the motivation to witness
“cannot hang on the thin thread of emotion and circumstance.”
Each person must be motivated by the love and command of God
to fulfill their responsibility as ministers of reconciliation, said Robertson,
pastor at Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville.
Following the meeting, various participants echoed similar
thoughts.
“Churches must place greater emphasis on outreach and
evangelism, because thats where the work is done week after week,”
said Tommy French, immediate past president of the state convention and pastor
at Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.
“This is a wakeup call to all Louisiana Baptists to …
not let the world distract us,” he said. “The battlefield is the local
church. … We have to do it in the local church.”
Indeed, pastors and leaders must keep the emphasis before people,
helping them catch the witnessing vision, said Joe Baugh, director of missions
for Two Rivers, Washington and William Wallace associations.
“Its not a program but a process and a lifestyle.
Its like exercise. Its not any good if you just do it for three
months, then stop.”
Intentionality is the key, added Reggie Ogea, director of missions
for Eastern Louisiana, LaTangi and St. Tammany associations. “Yes, we have
to refocus. But its one thing to say that. Its another thing to
do it.
“We have to be intentional about it.”
There are distractions, even good ones, Ogea acknowledged.
The key for not getting sidetracked is for leaders and church members alike
to ask, “What are we intentionally going to do to share the gospel?”
Evangelism is a choice, starting with the leadership, Ogea
stressed. “Regardless of what we got sidetracked doing, the key is
can we refocus and get back on track?”
That is a question each church must ask – and answer, said Steve James, state
convention president and pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles.
“We have to put priority emphasis back on the Cooperative
Program and on evangelism,” James said. “But ultimately, it falls
back on the individual churches, for pastors to look at where they are on missions
and where they are on evangelism.
“We all have to do that. … sometimes we forget, this is really why were
here.”