At last year’s Pastors Conference in Jacksonville, Fla., David Platt said that 6 billion people are lost and on their way to hell. I went home with those 6 billion souls on my heart. I looked through a copy of our church budget, knowing we could cut some corners to send more money to keep at least one missionary on the mission field. The finance committee looked at every line item with two thoughts in mind: “Is this item reaching the lost, or is it producing fruit for the kingdom of God?” If that item was not producing visible fruit, it was either severely cut or done away with completely.
Should we not be willing to ask – if not even demand – that every institution that calls itself Southern Baptist do the same?
As I sat in my office in the days after that finance committee meeting, I realized that this is where the “Great Commission Resurgence” must start: in the local church. The church has to be the catalyst for the GCR, and the church and other Southern Baptist institutions must change, or resurgence will never take place. Every pastor must look at his own church budget and cut that which is not needed and stop supporting that which is not producing fruit for the kingdom of God. That means that every SBC institution must make essential cuts to give more, also. That means that our Baptist institutions that are self-sustaining should be applauded for their efforts of good stewardship, but should be asked to relinquish the funding they continue to ask for each year in order to move forward to reach those 6 billion lost people. It means that those who serve in offices in our convention should evaluate every position – including their own – and ask, “Is this position I am serving in as important, or producing as much fruit for God’s kingdom, as that of the position of the missionary being forced to return from the mission field due to lack of funds?”
As I consider LifeWay, White Oak Conference Center, Ridgecrest, the local church and others that might fall into the category of being self-supporting, I cannot help but wonder if our founding SBC fathers were not in great hopes that one day our institutions could stand on their own two feet and give back much more than the monies they had ever received to reach these 6 billion lost souls.
I once walked onto our SBC campuses, properties and buildings, looking with pride and great admiration at what we as Southern Baptists had done. The time has now come that we stand up as a convention and stop building monuments to ourselves while the world around us is going to hell. We must consider those 6 billion lost souls in all that we say and do, and never again forget that there are so many looking for what we have received – the gospel of Christ.
What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editor addressing this or another subject.