I am so thankful that the Lord allowed me to have the main part of my ministry during the years of the seventies, eighties and nineties because that is the span of time in which He led our Southern Baptist Convention to be extremely evangelistic. It was the day when our attention was tuned toward winning people to Jesus and developing them into viable, functioning Christians. I want to note several things about this outstanding period of time.
It was a day of great preachers who had something to say and knew how to say it. I remember driving many, many miles just to hear a great preacher or maybe several of them in a preaching conference. It was uplifting and soul-stirring. These men were the product of eras of strong evangelism and conservative instruction but in addition to that, they had a strong sense of God’s call upon their lives to the extent that everything they did was pointed at fulfilling that call to preach the Word. I remember men like W.A. Criswell, Stephen Olford, John Phillips, Vance Havner, Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines, Charles Stanley and many others. Who will replace these men because the current environment does not lend itself to the production of such men. Like the old Country song says: “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes?” There are good men being produced today but where are the ones who are of the caliber of the men mentioned above? Where is the bevy of great preachers we once had? Where can one go to hear sermons like those produced by those men I just listed? There are some others who come from that era of preachers but who and where are the ones being produced by the environment of today? I am not saying that there are no good preachers around today but the great men who stood out because God’s Spirit was obviously upon them are quickly passing from the scene.
Every year at the annual meeting of the SBC there was an evening devoted to Evangelism and the men who had the gift of evangelism. There would be hundreds of people in attendance desiring to hear a good sermon from an inspired evangelistic preacher plus some of the best Christian music on earth. It was a great time of inspiration that people looked forward to every year. In the present day, that conference isn’t even held. I think that that fact is a mirror image of how our focus has slowly been taken off Evangelism and turned inward to what leaders term as “success.”
It was a day of vibrant Evangelism. Everywhere one looked in our convention, the focus was on evangelism and winning people to the Lord. A number of our churches, became filled with people who responded to great preaching and to our thrust on evangelism and evangelistic music. Great Choirs containing hundreds of people and wonderful orchestras rang out with the most inspiring music one could imagine. And, it was all pointed toward evangelism and getting people saved and baptized plus it was all God honoring and glorious.
It was also a day when Churches had large, vibrant Pastor’s Conferences which helped energize men to win people to Jesus and lead their church to greater heights. The great Pastor’s Conference at FBC Jacksonville, Florida under the leadership of Dr. Jerry Vines and Dr. Homer Lindsey ministered to thousands of men each year. They were inspired and equipped to go back to their own church and equip them to do a better job at evangelism and winning people to Jesus. That great conference is no longer held and the magnificent church building which would seat 9,200 is being torn down to make way for an apartment building. A major thrust of evangelism is no longer with us.
I recall attending many evangelism conferences where pastors and church leaders were inspired to go home and do likewise. They were inspired to see people saved and churches growing with new converts. Where are those conferences today? People are hungry for great preaching which is inspired by the Lord Himself. And it is so very easy to recognize that kind of preaching. Two of the main themes of those sermons are evangelism and holiness. Hear much of those themes today? Hard to find. I am concerned that we have become so focused on ourselves that the larger themes of evangelism, holiness, obedience and witnessing are getting lost in the shuffle. I recently heard a radio advertisement for a church which offered “something new, exciting and different” every week. Would one think that their attention is on the Lord or on their own perception of what worship is all about?
What will the Church do now? Will it take the cue and get committed to what I think is a new Great Awakening. We have been asleep at the wheel and too self- centered for too long and will get left in the dust of if we don’t pick up the ball again and join this great new movement. The ball is in the Church’s court. Now lets see what the response will be. God wants to use the Church (the Body of Christ) but we must not limit our usefulness to Him by failing to get involved with what He is doing as evidenced by what is happening in these past few weeks. Anyone who witnessed the memorial service for Charlie Kirk had to be impressed with the fact that it looked more like an old-time revival than anything I have seen in years. The Lord was lifted high by everyone who spoke. There was no doubt that the Lord was in that service. It was something wonderful to witness. The Holy Spirit was in charge and I believe a new movement in Christianity was birthed.
I remember many times telling the people of Abilene Baptist that if the Southern Baptist Convention did not accomplish what the Lord wanted us to do and if we continued to let our opportunity to pass us by, that God would hand off the ball to someone else to get the job done. He is not relegated to using any particular group of people. He will use whoever will dedicate themselves to accomplishing God’s task given that they are dedicated Christians who are saved by the blood of Jesus. The Church of today must not settle back into complacency focusing on what will make us popular and “successful.” If we do that God just might hand off the ball to someone else and give someone else the privilege of serving Him in a particular way. We must make sure we stay faithful to the Great Commission. The Church must explore ways in which we can accomplish that command from Jesus which we call “The great Commission.”
If we (the church of today) continue focusing on ourselves, the Lord will pass us by. He won’t abandon His Church but he will put us in the corner and accomplish His purpose from another angle. My prayer is that the churches will refocus and redirect their energies and purposes. I am in prayer that God’s People in our churches will be a vital part of what I think the Lord is about to do. This will take an honest assessment of what we have been doing and the motivations behind what we have been focusing on plus it will take a sense of repentance and a recommitment to what the Lord told us to do is Matthew 28:19-20 when He told us what He considered our main calling: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Take the Ball and Run!
