By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) — A diverse lineup of ECON 2022 speakers, ranging from an atheist-turned-best selling author to state leaders to national personalities, exhorted Louisiana Baptists gathered in the First Baptist Church, Covington, January 24-25, to join the fight to share the Gospel.
KEITH MANUEL
Louisiana Baptist Evangelism and Church Growth Team Director Keith Manuel encouraged the crowd to share the Gospel with their families, co-workers and community.
“Let’s go do it because people need Jesus,” Manuel said. “Do it because we can and we get to and because we really got to because we’ve got a Lord that loved us.”
“Let’s pray that God will help us to see those varied people in our neighborhood,” he continued. “Let’s tell them about Jesus.”
STEVE BECKHAM
Steve Beckham opened ECON by proclaiming Christ followers not only need to confess their sins but also find restoration of joy.
Drawing his message from Psalm 51:1-12, Beckham, pastor of First Community Antioch Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, said David was confronted by Nathan the prophet about his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband.
Much like David, Louisiana Baptists must examine their hearts and have a sense of brokenness, Beckham said. By doing so, they will come to a place where they can ask God for restoration of joy.
“How often do we find ourselves in a place, in a space, where something is missing and we don’t know exactly what it is,” said Beckham, who also is a missions strategist for the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge. “There is a void in us and we come here with a void, something only God can fill. So often when we find ourselves in a place and space of emptiness. We need to be renewed all over again, something that only God can give and only God can do it because He is the master creator.”
SHANE PRUITT
Shane Pruitt said in his message, based on Acts 1:3-11, that now is the time of the Gospel, to be the church and to go share Jesus with others.
Pruitt, national Next Gen Director for the North American Mission Board, said the world needs for the church to make Jesus known, including what he considers the largest unreached people group in the United States – Generation Z (those born from 1997-2012). Therefore, he said, they must be reached and discipled.
“I believe in the sovereignty of God, but if we don’t reach people with the Gospel by the time they are 18 or 30, we lose a whole generation,” he said. “Now is the time. Young people are not looking for cool leaders. They are looking for real, authentic ones.
“Now is the time to be the Church and we have the greatest power that is inside of us,” he continued. “You don’t have to dumb the Gospel down for this generation. Disciple them up.”
WILLIE MCLAURIN
Willie McLaurin, vice president for Great Commission Relations and Mobilization for the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, reminded the crowd they are called to be a witness for Jesus and must be intentional about sharing Him.
Sharing from Acts 1:8, McLaurin said believers must be committed, concerned, consistent and confident in sharing their faith.
“We must speak to sinners about the Savior,” he said. “Once we speak to sinners about the savior, we will see sinners come to the Savior.”
He encouraged the crowd to embrace a Great Commission mindset and look for ways to share their testimony of how Jesus changed their lives.
“Jesus is calling for laborers and He is calling for laborers to be consistent,” he said. “Every believer has a testimony of what God has done in their lives. And we ought to be able to share our story everywhere we go.”
RICHARD ROSS
Richard Ross, professor of student ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and co-founder of True Love Waits ministry that promotes sexual abstinence, said today’s youth are reachable for Christ but churches must make changes for that to come to fruition.
Referencing Joshua 23, Ross said the church today faces a critical time in student ministry. Some decisions must be made, including having Gospel conversations outside the church building, tasking parents with the role of discipleship in their home, involving other adults with the role of discipling teens and involving youth in the life of the church.
Ross said embracing the changes could very well result in the next great Jesus Movement, a spirit of revival that spread throughout the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Do you believe that almost exactly 50 years after the Jesus Movement we could have a King Jesus movement in our day?” Ross said. “What if our people really began to see him not as a doctrine but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I honestly believe I could see another revival among the young that would affect the entire church. And I want to be right in the middle of it.”
MICHAEL WOOD
Understanding God’s grace towards His children produces Christ-centered boasting, said Michael Wood, pastor of First Baptist Church, West Monroe.
Citing 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Wood said Christ-followers must remember God is a much bigger deal than them.
Paul, in the passage, said His followers must remember they have brought nothing to the table but rather it is God allows them to be used for His glory, in spite of their downfalls.
“It’s not about what we’ve done,” Wood said. “It’s about what He’s done.”
DAVID EVANS
Not enough Christ followers share the Gospel, but David Evans has a simple solution to alleviate the problem.
Evans, pastor of Springfield Baptist Church, Springfield, Tennessee, said the account of Zacchaeus’s conversion to Christianity (Luke 19), provides a blueprint for evangelism: be passionate about telling others of Jesus, seek every opportunity to practice sharing the Gospel and make disciples.
Evans reiterated the need to share Christ with those in search of the hope that only Jesus can give.
“This whole world is shackled to hopelessness,” he said. “He needs us, He wants us, He has commanded us to reach out to those kind of people.”
LEE STROBEL
Lee Strobel, a best-selling author and former atheist and investigative journalist, urged the crowd to show Christ’s love with those who have doubts about the faith.
Strobel originally went on a search to disprove Christianity but instead found a relationship with Jesus on Nov. 8, 1981. Just as others never stopped praying for Him to accept Jesus during that time, Strobel encouraged Christ followers never to give up on those who they want to see come to a relationship with the Lord. He later wrote about his journey in the best-selling book “The Case of Christ.”
“Jesus’ prayer for spiritually lost people continued right up until His final gasps on the cross,” Strobel said. “Jesus didn’t just say it once, He kept praying all through the torture of cross. In light of that, how do we not justify praying fervently for lost friends in our life? I’m naïve to believe the prayers of righteous people make a difference. Against all odds, I have seen it.”
Strobel encouraged the crowd to invite questions, but be respectful when fielding questions from those who may doubt Christianity.
“We can love them into the Kingdom of God,” Strobel said. “If we are committed to doing that, God will take us on a series of unexpected adventures that will be one of the joys of our lives.”
Strobel closed ECON by sharing four proofs of the resurrection that brought him to faith in Jesus: proof of His execution, early accounts of His resurrection, evidence of an empty tomb and testimony from eyewitnesses. He said apologetics is an important evangelism approach Christ followers can use.
“Evangelism in the 21st century is spelled apologetics,” Strobel said. “They want answers. They want truth. And the good news is we have truth on our side.”
All messages from ECON 2022 are available on the Louisiana Baptists website by clicking here.
