Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

by  Bill Morgan                                                                                                                Vol. VI, No. 7, September 1993

[Bill Morgan is SBC Foreign Mission Board Assistant Vice President for Mission Personnel and Director of Creative Access Projects. This article first appeared in The Commission magazine.]

More and more these days we are hearing the old quotation: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." It is rightly used in a missions context to say that the main task Jesus gave His church is to take the gospel to the whole world, beginning "at Jerusalem" (where we are).

Some disturbing research recently was carried out by the Sunday School Board among Southern Baptist pastors, staff, and church leadership. When the importance of ministries was ranked, home and foreign missions ranked at the bottom of the list.

It would certainly appear that the main thing is no longer the main thing in many of our churches.

Southern Baptists were born in the heat of missions almost a century and a half ago. We really believed then that everything else we did would be secondary and supportive of the central task: making Jesus known to the world.

Now the question is: Is the main thing still the main thing?

For some individuals and churches, it is! There are great churches of every size that give priority attention to the global task. But we sadly must conclude that for many of us the main thing is no longer the main thing. The literal fulfillment of the Great Commission has become a sideline or secondary activity for many of us.

Voices telling us that we ought to take care of local matters before we support missions have been around a long time. They often represent a selfish parochialism that causes us to want to spend more and more on ourselves while millions die every year without the good news.

God has opened so many doors in recent months and years that it would be tragic if Southern Baptists, along with others who love the Lord and obey the Great Commission, did not go through these doors. They could close again and leave us with the tragic conclusion that we did not work while it was day. With all the resources God has given us, wouldn't it be sad if we were not faithful and obedient? If we do not do it, it will not be because we can't; it will be because we won't. It will not be due to disability, but due to disobedience.

God's work will be done! He will make Himself known throughout the world – with us or without us, for if we will not do it, He will find a people who will. Many of God's people called Southern Baptists are not ready to be put on the shelf.

Only true repentance and a missions revival among us can save us and put us back on track to being God's people, malting Him known across the street and around the world. It must catch fire in every pastor's heart and spread to every child of God in every congregation across the land. The old priority – God's priority – will need to be reborn, church by church, until we as a denomination become deadly serious about doing what the Lord said we were to do.

As God is our helper, let's make the main thing the main thing.

[If you feel led to explore the possibility of serving as a foreign missionary or if you would like more information, please call Herman Russell at 1-800-999-2889, ext. 488.]