EVANGELISM TO THE FRONT BURNER

by Daniel L. Akin                                                                                   Vol. XIX, No. 7, September 2007

    President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Southern Baptists are steadily losing ground in the battle for the souls of men and women, boys and girls. Thom Rainer, one of my closest friends and the new president at LifeWay, recently informed us that this past year our baptism total dropped 4.15%, hitting our lowest number since 1993.

Dr. Rainer said, "Southern Baptists should view this as a wake-up call." Dr. Rainer is correct. We need reviving. We need a renewed love for our Lord. We need a rebirth of passion for those who are lost without Christ.

We have talked enough. The time for action has passed. Where do we go from here if we are to truly be Great Commission Christians?

First, we must repent, acknowledging we have left our first love. Those who love Jesus fervently will tell others about Him continually. We talk about what we love, what is on our hearts and in our thoughts. Debating theology and methods has its place, but it cannot take the place of love for a Savior who came "to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

Second, we must repent of not loving the lost as we ought. Southern Baptists run the risk of legalism and Pharisaicism if their theological conviction is not balanced by evan- gelistic compassion for others.

We must be known by what we do every bit as much as what we believe. We must seek out the lost, love them, spend time with them, and earn the right to share Jesus with them. In the last 6 months, Southeastern Seminary sent almost 400 students, faculty and staff to Mississippi and Louisiana through Operation G.R.A.C.E.

We did not go to give them a lecture. We went to serve them in the name of Jesus and, in the process, share with them the love of our Master. People were saved, as will always be the case, when we complement our words with acts of love.

Third, we must be "omni-active" in sharing Christ, being sensitive to our context and the persons we would pray will come to Christ.

About 60,000 Mormon missionaries go door to door each year. It is reported that 6.3 million Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door on an annual basis. We have been shamed in discarding this method so that few of us go door to door at all. This should never have happened, and we need to return once again to a true and tried method that worked.

However, let me also make a crucial observation at this point. A one-size-fits-all strategy of evangelism is not adequate. Neither is it true to the pattern of the New Testament. Debates between being missional or missionary, incarnational or confronta- tional, big or small, are misguided and misplaced.

There is a place for each of these perspectives and approaches and many more. Paul became all things to all men that by all means he might win some. He was a wise and creative "bridge builder".

Only one gospel saves and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, God uses different means and methods to reach different kinds of people. Let's be rigorously faith- ful to our message, and at the same time let's be wisely creative.

But by all means, let's all of us be doing something. I have always appreciated the way some do it better than those who criticize while doing nothing. Don't be a critic. Be a witness.

Brothers and sisters, life is short, time is limited, and heaven and hell are real. The time to act is now! God, give us the nations! God, give us our neighbors. God use me, to reach them both.

[Reprinted from Outlook, The Magazine of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Spring 2006.]