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Posted April 1/08
Baptists Must Get Back to Church Planting
Fact #1-Baptists in America have lost their way!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must report that as I travel from church to church I am witnessing a coldness and lethargy that I have not seen before! It seems that we are content to exist as opposed to attacking the gates of hell. We are comfy, fat, and sassy; and now we are ready for our nappy. I have never seen such compromise in my 21 years of being saved. The following is just a sampling of the many compromises that I have witnessed recently in BAPTIST churches:
*One pastor I know cancelled his soul winning indefinitely as it "didn't work well." That was over two years ago.
*A church in Iowa once pastored by an old man of God now has a "Church of God" Southern gospel group on their platform and charges admission to see them.
*An evangelist was counseled by two preachers to leave his wife if she wouldn't submit and to find another. He left his family on the curb and is now back in the saddle in another part of the country.
*A Baptist pastor advertised "communion" on the web with an open invitation. I wonder how many have eaten and drank damnation to themselves on his watch.
I question how we could be so cold and blind as Baptists and yet blame Hillary, Barrack, Kennedy, and the A.C.L. U. for the ills of our country. We truly have lost our way.
Fact #2-Baptists are to blame for their problems!
Has any one else ever wondered why we worship successful men and pick apart Godly men? It amazes me how somebody will be blessed by the Lord, see a little growth in his church, and pow, he's off across the country telling everybody how he built a church and they can too.
Has any one else ever wondered why there are scores of Baptist colleges nowadays soliciting our young people to come to their school, when any three of them twisted together doesn't teach the equivelent of a solid four year education including Bible preservation, Baptist doctrine, Baptist History, Baptist distinctives, classic dispensationalism, local church polity, and church planting?
Has anyone else ever wondered why less than 5% of independent Baptist churches ever plant one church, while claiming to be modeling their ministries after the Bible?
Has anyone else ever wondered why some churches are pleased to get bigger and fatter, while at the same time they are luring others to move across the country and join a great church.
* My question is simple: why should our churches keep getting bigger while a large part of America is in need of new churches to replace the ones that have closed the doors, or to fill a void in an area that has never had a church? Why do we stock pile money in accounts while young men need buildings and support to plant new works in our dying land? Why do the men with the most resources keep their people ignorant of the biblical model of church planting? Are we afraid to lose a tither? Do we really want to keep preachers in our pews instead of sending them out to America?
*WHY ARE WE LETTING OUR NATION GO TO HELL WHILE WE ARE BUSY PATTING EACH OTHER ON THE BACK, SHOUTING IN ANOTHER SHALLOW CAMPMEETING, AND TRYING TO GUARD OUR NATIONAL MINISTRIES?
Fact #3-Baptists can turn America back to God!
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can do what God has commanded us to do. Paul and the other early evangelists turned the world upside down through CHURCH PLANTING! They did not interpret the great commission as simply soulwinning. They were not trying to fatten up their golden calf church dynasty on the home front alone. They worked diligently at birthing new churches everywhere. They didn't have a fellow jump 20 busses one week, then have a bench press competition the next, and finish their campaign with a cash give away. The apostles flipped the world on its head by birthing churches!
In the 1700s it happened again, only this time church planting would shape America into being the greatest nation on the face of the earth for over 200 years. Shubal Stearns and the Separate Baptists never built one bus route or swallowed one gold fish. They interpreted the great commision not just as soul winning, but church planting. By 1825 over 5000 churches could trace their roots through this one church, Sandy Creek. This was the formation of the Bible belt and was the greatest, and most scriptural, and most long lasting revival in America's history, and possibly the world's!
Fact #4-Baptists planting churches in obedience to the Scriptures, and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit could become the greatest revival ever!
If 25% of existing independent Baptist churches would birth one church in the next 3 years, we would have an additional 3,600 churches building bus routes, knocking doors, passing tracts, and birthing churches in America! We must get our focus off of us and refocus on the plan, power, and purpose of God. If you are a pastor who reads this article and you want advice or encouragement to do your part please contact us.
WILL WE BE THE GENERATION THAT LET'S AMERICA FALL INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE?
THINK!