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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Great Commission Resurgence)

By Dr. Chuck Kelley In 2009, SBC President Johnny Hunt appointed a task force, chaired by Ronnie Floyd, to consider how to generate a Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) in the Southern Baptist Convention. As noted last week, the term “Great Commission Resurgence” was first used at the SBC by NAMB President Geoffrey Hammond in his report to the 2008 Convention as he announced the launch of the National Evangelism Initiative that became God’s Plan for Sharing. There was no connection between that usage of the term and what Dr. Hunt proposed. The GCR name was intended to evoke images of the movement known as the Conservative Resurgence, which produced the most profound changes in SBC history, transforming the theological direction of the SBC and its entities. The Great Commission Resurgence, dealing with SBC decline, bears no resemblance to the Conservative Resurgence in either method or outcome. The Great Commission Resurgence (2010) The Great Commission Resurgence proposal received far more time and attention in Southern Baptist life, both before and during the 2010 Convention meetings, than any of the other approaches to the evangelism crisis, more than all the others combined. There is one simple reason for the dramatic … [Read more...]

Because Christ lives, Ravi Zacharias also lives

By Ron F. Hale It was on Ravi’s seeming death bed in Delhi, India, that a man walked into his hospital room with a little red Gideon New Testament. At the age of seventeen, young Ravi had downed a concoction of poison mixed with water and chemicals. Growing up in a culture of honor and shame, Ravi’s undisciplined life led him to a very dark place. His mother asked the man to leave the room. Holding up the New Testament, the man said, “Your son needs this more than anything else.” She allowed him to turn to the 14th chapter of John. Through the smog of his skepticism, shame, and pain, Ravi tried to listen as the Scriptures were read aloud. Then something happened. “It was like a bolt of lightning in a moment of pitch blackness,” Ravi Zacharias would later say of the moment the Holy Spirit pierced his heart and mind with the pregnant promise of the inspired Word of God. “‘Because I live, you also shall live,’ were the seven words that cracked open my encrusted heart.” He realized that what “live” refers to in John 14:19 was not what his life was about. In an instant, he wanted this new life more than anything in the world. Ravi humbly and honestly prayed, “Jesus, if you are who you claim to be here, I want that life … [Read more...]

State Fire Marshal issues Phase Two rules for churches

By Message Staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) - After the Monday announcement about loosening COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings by Gov. John Bel Edwards, Chief H. “Butch” Browning, the state fire marshal, issued specific guidance today for churches regarding how to conduct in-person worship services during Phase Two of the reopening of the state’s economy. In general, places of worship must continue to adhere to strict mitigation standards for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, but may make greater use of seating capacity -- up to 50 percent -- while spacing individuals and groups to limit concentrations of people. The complete set of "Open Safely" instructions can be found by clicking here. Changes from Phase One guidance are highlighted in yellow.   … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Evangelism)

By Dr. Chuck Kelley In 1906, the SBC voted to create a Department of Evangelism to be placed under the umbrella of the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board). Its purpose was to provide encouragement, strategies, and resources for evangelism to Southern Baptist pastors and churches. From that day until this, the Convention has expected the North American Mission Board to take the point in promoting evangelism in Southern Baptist life. In the face of growing decline and perhaps in part as a result of the enormous attention to evangelism created by SBC President Bobby Welch, NAMB prepared what was intended to be a massive evangelism initiative involving every level of the SBC. In the words of NAMB president Geoffrey Hammond to the 2008 SBC meeting: “This National Evangelism Initiative is a huge task, and we are praying that this will be a part of a Great Commission resurgence” (Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 2008, p.184). God’s Plan for Sharing (2008) Through the years, the Board perfected ways to mobilize SBC churches for national evangelism campaigns with significant success. All those lessons learned were incorporated into an effort to create the largest and most comprehensive evangelism initiative … [Read more...]

Louisiana College issues statement on Floyd death, racism

By Louisiana College Office of Communications PINEVILLE, La. (LCNews) — We stand with our fellow Christ followers in grieving the senseless death of George Floyd. Racism is sin! I have and will continue to teach and stand against it with all my heart! We are all made "in the image of God!" (Genesis 1:27) Fellow Christians and Americans, we need to see others as Christ does, as we are all created in His image and for His service. Louisiana College is a Christ-centered institution, and we not only pray for those directly affected by his death, but for citizens who have been wrongfully persecuted, judged, or harmed----because of their race. The Bible calls upon the righteous to speak. Christians can no longer be silent in the face of racial injustice. Christians have been given "the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18) Therefore, we can no longer simply give lip service to or simply offer piecemeal solutions to the racial issues that continue to plague our nation. Americans must stand together across racial, political, and cultural lines and recognize our common humanity. Reconciliation will happen when the true church of Jesus unites and loves one another and the world the way Jesus showed us. -Rick … [Read more...]

Fred Luter: ‘Another deadly virus’

By Fred Luter It’s hard to believe that this is the twelfth week since we have been able to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ to worship the Lord, and it’s all because of the COVID-19 virus affecting our nation.  It is contagious, lethal and deadly. But as contagious, as lethal, and as deadly as COVID-19 has been, last week another virus was exposed in our nation, just as contagious and lethal.  The virus of racism is alive and well in black communities all across America, leading to the senseless, sad, and shocking deaths of African-Americans all across our nation. We saw it in Minneapolis last week when a white police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd in front of three other police officers as he suffered, facedown in the street in full view of a gathering crowd, shouting, “I can’t breathe!  I can’t breathe!” Will Smith said it best when he said this week, “Racism isn’t getting worse in America.  It has always been bad; however, the only thing different now is that it’s being filmed.”  Jim Lewis, one of our members and a prolific author, said it this way when I talked to him: “Being a black man in America is dangerous and deadly.” He’s right.  Because of racism, black lives are being taken … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Bully Pulpit)

By Dr. Chuck Kelley With the dawning awareness of the decline creeping into Southern Baptist churches came a slowly growing determination to turn things around. Over the next two decades, five distinctive approaches to ending the decline were undertaken. Each approach was unrelated to the others, a factor which may have affected their effectiveness. These approaches were: the SBC president’s use of his position as a bully pulpit to emphasize evangelism (2004-06); a National Evangelism Initiative (2008); the Great Commission Resurgence (2010); the Pastor’s Task Force on Evangelistic Impact and Declining Baptisms (2014); and the Evangelism Task Force (2018). What follows in this and future blogs is a brief description and assessment of each approach in an effort to discover what we can learn about how to help the diverse and loosely organized churches of the SBC find ways to reach their communities for Christ and begin to grow again. The Bully Pulpit (2004-2006) The instinctive response of Southern Baptists to major issues and challenges has always been to address them through preaching. The President of the Southern Baptist Convention traditionally preaches more widely and more often to a greater number of Southern Baptists each … [Read more...]