I continue to grow in my love for Dr. Jerry Rankin. His blog posts, in my opinion, are always on target and right on the mark.
Today he posted an article (part 1) entitled "America and the Rest of the World."
Read the whole thing here.
What he says captures MUCH of what I believe is exactly right regarding our thinking on how and what to do here (in North America) evangelistically and the task left for the remaining 1.3 billion who have yet to even have any access to the Gospel.
Consider these two quotes that, I believe, are bottom line for Rankin and I pray become more and more bottom line for all SBCers:
"While there are a lot of lost people in America, how many have no access to a church? Our own denomination has 45,000 churches, plus there are tens of thousands of other evangelical churches and millions of Christian believers positioned to witness to the lost where we live.
"Southern Baptists, it has been 165 years! How long is it going to take before we are ready to assume our Great Commission task? That foundation is not getting stronger; it is actually crumbling! And it is not going to get stronger until we give appropriate priority to the mission to which God has called us as His people."
(emphasis mine)
And again,
"However, we could document the churches that are adopting unreached people groups, providing opportunities for volunteer mission trips, nurturing a climate for calling out missionaries and giving generously and sacrificially to missions. Invariably they are effective in local outreach and growth.
"A church or individual doesn’t try to grow with the intention of eventually being obedient to God’s mission. When we as a denomination, and as local churches, are committed to the Great Commission, God will bless us in what we need to do locally. The reason there is such spiritual lethargy, negligible growth and dying churches is because we are neglecting the reason God has called us as His people."
(emphasis mine)
YES! YES! YES! Thank you, Dr. Rankin.
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