DISCIPLE MAKER

How many Southern Baptists should be going to the nations?

2010-06-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

What would be a proper proportion for God to call and lead to proclaim the gospel to those who have not heard? How many would He desire to be available to impact 6 billion people around the world compared to those needed to witness to 300 million in our own country?

Currently .03 percent of Southern Baptists go overseas to serve with the IMB—that’s less than one out of every three thousand. What if one-tenth of 1 percent went as missionaries; we would have not 5,000 but 160,000 missionaries. Could not 99 percent of our members provide the support for 1 percent to go as missionaries? That would be 1.6 million missionaries—a number sufficient to fulfill the Great Commission.

Why have we fallen into a pattern of disproportionate use of resources and so few willing to take the gospel to the nations? Is this the way God desires it to be, or have we succumbed to a myth regarding the call to missions and allowed Satan to distort our understanding of God’s will?

Spiritual Warfare & Missions, #4 Jerry Rankin

6/4/2010

$148.9 million Lottie Moon offering shows missions commitment

2010-06-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

6/4/2010

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Southern Baptists stayed true to their passion for telling the world about Jesus in spite of a weakened economy and sluggish recovery, giving $148.9 million to support international missionaries through the 2009 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. It is the third-largest Lottie Moon offering in history.

“We are not disappointed as God proves His faithfulness through Southern Baptists, and giving through Lottie Moon reflects the heart of our churches and their Great Commission commitment,” said Jerry Rankin, International Mission Board (IMB) president. “Constituting more than half of the IMB’s annual budget, the Lottie Moon offering dramatically impacts our ability to take the Gospel to the lost world.

“I am deeply grateful for the increase in giving, some $7.6 million above the 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and for the sacrifice made by Southern Baptists during these difficult economic times.”

More than $4 million of the $7.6 million increase came from a special “over and above” offering challenge issued last summer by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Daniel Akin and others. The extra funds allowed the IMB to send missionaries placed on hold by financial shortfalls earlier than planned and prevented even deeper reductions in the IMB’s global missionary force.

Because of Southern Baptist support, missionaries and their national partners were responsible for baptizing more than 506,000 believers and starting 24,650 new churches across the globe in 2008.

“For this year’s total to be the third highest in the history of the offering is remarkable given the economic challenges that continue to impact many across the U.S.,” said Wanda Lee, Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) executive director/treasurer. “It is truly a testimony to the faithfulness of God and the deep-rooted commitment among Southern Baptists to share Jesus with those around the world who have yet to hear of His love. We are grateful for WMU leaders and members who champion the missions cause in their churches through personal involvement and by urging Southern Baptists to give sacrificially and pray fervently for missions.”

While the $148.9 million offering meets the requirements for the IMB’s 2010 operating budget, it doesn’t allow room for growth or reversal of budget cuts.

“This generous offering will allow us to meet our operational needs but most of our capital needs will be postponed for another year,” said IMB financial chief David Steverson. “With our other major sources of income holding steady or only slightly declining, we are grateful that, for now, we don’t anticipate further reductions in our missionary force below 5,000.”

Last year IMB trustees were forced to curb appointments of new missionaries and suspend two short-term missionary programs entirely, initiating a gradual reduction in the IMB’s global missionary force. The reduction will lower missionary numbers from approximately 5,600, reached in 2009, to 5,000 but will not involve recalling any personnel because it will be accomplished through natural attrition — completions of service, retirements and resignations.

“We are grieved that budget limitations will force us to continue to restrict new missionaries being appointed,” Rankin said. “This is not just a disappointment to individuals and families called of God to serve overseas, but it means many unreached people groups will be deprived of hearing the Gospel yet another year. We are rethinking our strategy and adjusting our organizational structure for greater efficiency in order to stretch our budget as far as possible.”

Seventy-one percent of the IMB’s budget is spent on missionary support, including housing, salaries, medical care and children’s education. It averages $43,800 annually per missionary.

Though the $148.9 million offering is $7.6 million above 2008 giving, it is $1.4 million below the 2007 record offering of $150.4 million. It is also $26 million short of the 2009 goal of $175 million.

Every penny given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is used to send and support missionaries — nothing is taken out for administrative, promotional or other costs.

Don Graham is a writer for the International Mission Board.

To learn more about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, go to imb.org/offering.

Jerry A. Rankin: Giving Churches Ownership

2010-05-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

We must acknowledge that a spiritual revitalization of born-again church members sharing their faith is the essential foundation for a Great Commission resurgence. Compelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, Christians whose lives have been truly transformed by God’s grace cannot be restrained from proclaiming the gospel. Such a grassroots movement will permeate our communities, spread across America and do whatever it takes to take the gospel to a lost world.

Making disciples will become an exponential movement when churches are teaching all that Jesus commanded and modeling Christlike character and service. Discipleship will be manifested in a compassion toward others and grace-filled witness that will draw people to Jesus Christ. To the contrary, too often the public profile of Southern Baptists is one of controversy, political action, attacks on culture and mutual alienation rather than one that draws people in the marketplace and neighborhood to our precious Savior.

We long for a fresh move of God among us in which a Spirit-filled lifestyle will infect our society and result in strong and growing churches equipped to fulfill God’s mission. But we cannot wait passively for that to happen, excusing our negligence and lack of devotion to the responsibility to take the gospel to the nations and under-churched areas of our nation. As long as churches are deciding how to use billions of dollars given for “the Lord’s work” and Southern Baptists allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to support various programs cooperatively, we must do what we can to give greater priority to our Great Commission task.

When it comes to applying financial resources to the Great Commission, there is little that can be done to change the current system without someone being impacted negatively. The case is made that we cannot do more until people give more and churches allocate more to the Cooperative Program. Actually, the SBC doesn’t have a good track record of designating more for missions when additional funds are available.

The restructuring in 1997 eliminated three agencies with the pretense that a streamlined structure would make more money available to missions. However, there was a net decrease in funding to the two mission boards and the Executive Committee and ERLC received the increases. The same thing happened when Guidestone relinquished its portion of CP; those funds went to ERLC, the EC and the seminaries. When funding to the Baptist World Alliance was terminated, instead of additional resources going to the mission boards, the Executive Committee created a new program of conducting conferences around the world.

Blaming individuals and churches and waiting on stewardship to improve is evading responsibility and attributing the problem to an elusive solution. The trends clearly indicate personal stewardship is diminishing and church allocations to the Cooperative Program continue to decline despite massive efforts of promotion, education and information.

I believe the solution is to create a new paradigm—something no one seems willing to talk about. I envision a system of cooperative funding that will be so compelling that churches will give priority to supporting it, and it will stir the hearts of individuals to give generously and sacrificially. There are three factors we must courageously embrace for that to happen:

1. Focus the Cooperative Program on fulfilling the mission of God.
2. Reflect integrity, transparency and efficiency in the use of CP.
3. Give churches ownership of the Cooperative Program.

I want to address the third suggestion in this post first but alert readers to three additional factors that will subsequently be addressed as issues which invariably arise in this discussion:

4. The fallacy of societal paranoia.
5. The debilitating dependence on subsidy at all levels.
6. The potential of church planting movements sweeping our nation and the world.

I have found that people and churches will give generously, but they want to know exactly where it is going, what it is accomplishing and want to be involved with what they give to. It was a past generation that was satisfied to give to generic causes without any direct accountability for use of the resources. Churches have discovered a smorgasbord of options for doing missions and the denomination is no longer the default channel. We tell churches to give to CP and they get to support 10,000 home and international missionaries…they don’t know them, don’t know what they are doing and will never hear from them, but just trust us and send your support. And by the way, we will use about 70 percent of what you give for other purposes enroute to that missionary support!

Let’s pretend for a moment that it is the 21st century! Churches don’t need the IMB to arrange a mission trip or contact with an overseas partner. Let’s assume we are no longer our own worst enemy in which entities compete with each other for church donations, as was the case in 1925. With electronic banking and transfers it is really not necessary for local states to collect Cooperative Program gifts from the churches on behalf of the SBC. Let’s acknowledge that it is not really cooperation for states to determine how much they keep without collaboration with SBC entities and then simply pass on the remainder.

We have tried to convince churches that they get to cooperate in all the work of the state convention, Baptist colleges, SBC seminaries, missionary work and a host of other ministries by just making a regular financial contribution. They don’t have to do anything. But is simply giving truly cooperation without involvement and ownership in the decision of what one gives to?

The case is made that churches do have ownership of what the states and the SBC do through the votes of their messengers at the respective annual conventions. But in reality those complex and massive budgets are formulated by staff and executive committees and then ratified by messengers who happen to be attendance, seldom representing more than 10 percent of the churches. All of the churches are then forced to give to everything or nothing. It doesn’t exactly create a sense of ownership and willingness to sacrificially support a plethora of ministries and administrative functions that don’t seem to have anything to do with the Great Commission.

As mentioned in the previous blog, the IMB is the largest recipient of CP. We and our missionaries promote it vigorously. In confronting pastors of churches which designate a negligible percentage, I have never had one tell me they don’t give more because they want more to go to the state convention! But they don’t have a choice. If they bypass the state convention, SBC entities receive the funds, but the church is reported as giving “zero” to CP and is considered non-cooperative!

A lot of churches, small and large, do not want more of their mission dollars going to subsidize Baptist colleges than to sending missionaries to reach the nations. There are those who would give far beyond their current level of CP support if they could be assured it was going directly to evangelism and church planting. They are not convinced that administration of the bureaucracy doesn’t consume an inordinate amount.

It is time to divide CP into two separate programs and eliminate the connectionalism that is a contradiction of our denominational polity. Churches can own the decision of how much to give to state causes and to SBC programs. It is not really too complicated to write two checks or make two bank transfers instead of one as each church feels led by the Lord to do. We would probably reach the ideal 50/50 proportion more quickly, but I am confident there would be an increase in total allocations to give churches ownership of that decision rather than it being imposed on them.

I commend the GCR task force for recognizing designated church gifts to both state and SBC entities and ministries as “Great Commission Giving.” But how much better would it be to allow any designated gift to an approved recipient of Cooperative Program funding to be considered CP? I don’t think this is a threat to adequate support of every entity and ministry. Most churches would continue to give more to the total generic formula as they are doing now. Churches that give just a small percentage to CP would give much, much more if they could give beyond the generic allocation to causes dear to their heart.

The primary argument I have heard against dividing CP is that it would destroy our cooperation. But that cooperation has resulted in declining support for years. Is stubbornly holding on to an antiquated legacy of cooperation more important than creating an innovative approach to stimulate giving? Which has the greatest potential: holding churches in bondage to generic giving or giving them ownership in how they cooperate and support what we do together?

Paying to Fulfill the Great Commission

2010-05-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Jerry Rankin Blog

This article is an introduction to a series of posts I will writing on “paying to fulfill the Great Commission.” The convention has convinced Southern Baptists that you and your church don’t have to do anything; the measure of commitment to the Great Commission is how much you give through approved channels for state and SBC entities to do the job of reaching a lost world. Churches may start dozens of new churches, lead their state in baptisms and invest millions of dollars in missions but are not considered mission-minded and cooperative nor are their members worthy of board positions if the percentage allocated to the Cooperative Program does not measure up to expectations.

Let me quickly add that I am not bashing CP. The International Mission Board and everything else we do as Southern Baptists would cease were it not for this amazing program of cooperative support. The IMB gets as much as all other SBC entities combined; a lot is being said about how much is kept by state conventions, but we receive more CP than dozens of states combined. So, please don’t construe anything I say as criticism of CP as I suggest in subsequent posts a new approach to “doing more together” to fulfill the Great Commission

The Cooperative Program is a miraculous system for denominational support. I have witnessed other mission agencies suffer high rates of attrition as their missionaries are unable to sustain support through individual fundraising. Our seminaries are among the largest in the world. The extent of what we are able to do through voluntary contributions of cooperating churches is phenomenal. We dare not do anything that would erode what I believe to be divinely inspired and created by wise and visionary leaders.

However, I believe it is critical that some changes be made to reconstruct the Cooperative Program to be relevant for the future, appeal to the mindset of our churches and result in a significant increase of resources needed to fulfill the Great Commission. An additional 1 percent here and there is not going to make a great difference in global impact. There is no way needed changes can be made without becoming a “win-lose” proposition for entities and between state and national work. I am going to suggest some changes that I sincerely believe could double receipts to CP and enable us to fund a radical advance for impacting lostness in America and around the world.

But first I need to acknowledge that even this will not make a great difference without a grassroots change in life transformation of the redeemed, quality discipleship and a strategy of “doing” rather than paying others to fulfill the Great Commission. Subsidizing state conventions and SBC entities, including mission boards, cannot substitute for what local churches and every believer must do!

Many other commentators on the GCR have mentioned the need for a more authentic approach to evangelism. One speaker called it a “shrink-wrap” presentation of the gospel in which people respond because they don’t want to go to hell, but they don’t want to die to carnal living and self-centered values. No repentance is involved. Something has to be suspect about an approach to witnessing that doesn’t result in life transformation. When those making professions of faith never follow through with baptism and identification with a local church and have to be coerced to attend and give, we should not expect them to share a persuasive witness with others.

Jesus sent us to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom in which God is glorified by the reign of Christ as Lord of one’s life, but we have resorted to proclaiming a gospel of salvation instead. Don’t think I am disparaging the simplicity of the gospel; I was saved by praying a sinner’s prayer in childlike faith. However, once people give intellectual assent to the premise of our presentation and sign on the dotted line, then it should not be an exercise in futility to persuade them to tithe, attend church, serve the Lord and live according to Christlike character.

Which brings us to the second aspect of our dilemma—a lack of discipleship. Too often discipleship is neglected or is simply approached as an introduction to church membership. One doesn’t become a disciple of Jesus Christ by being injected with information and knowledge, even of God’s Word. Discipling comes from relationship—a growing relationship with Jesus and with mature believers who walk alongside mentoring, encouraging and modeling Christian maturity. Knowing what to do and how we are to live doesn’t necessarily result in that becoming a reality.

In his book, Every Member Evangelism, J. E. Conant said, “The Great Commission is sufficient authority to send us after the lost, but it is not sufficient motivation; it is not the authority of an external command but the impulse of an indwelling presence that sends us after the lost.” Knowing we are to witness and do missions doesn’t result in it happening. It will not be driven by guilt and another program of mobilizing for witness. It is only the compelling power of the Holy Spirit within us that will compel us to reach a lost world.

When we recognize we are undeserving sinners saved by grace, there will be the motivation and impulse to share our faith with others and do whatever it takes to reach the lost. This is what is happening in so many places overseas. People’s lives are changed; they cannot be restrained from telling others what Jesus has done for them in spite of persecution, social pressure or government restrictions.

A third flaw is our tradition of a highly subsidized methodology and paying others to do it for us. We pay professional church staff to do the work of the church instead of a handful of gifted ministers equipping the members for witness, teaching and serving. Our programs demand expensive facilities and budgets that make it impossible for “offerings to the Lord” going to fulfill the Great Commission.

Beyond the local church, we pay the state convention, missionaries and the SBC to do the work for us. One of the critical issues in response to GCRTF proposals reflects an acknowledgement that the work of state conventions is based on subsidized resources that will be devastated if any changes are made. There will never be enough money to sustain all our denominational programs and stimulate any advance in fulfilling the Great Commission.

I believe we can do more and make our financial resource go further by reprioritizing what we do. This will create a more compelling motivation for stewardship and cooperative support. But there won’t be a significant difference without a spiritual renewal that brings about massive grassroots involvement in witness and missions, churches reproducing and starting churches and a paradigm shift from paying someone else to do it for us. Stay with me as we explore these issues.

America and the Rest of the World Part 2

2010-05-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

Jerry Rankin Blog

Certainly there are needs in our own country. There is no question spiritual renewal is the key to more effectively reaching the lost. But a Great Commission Resurgence is about the relative proportion of resources we devote to reaching a lost world. Not only does America represent less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it is where 45,000 Southern Baptist churches are located, hopefully sharing the gospel in their communities.

That same 5 percent of the world’s population is where 1,200 Southern Baptist associations are working with churches to reach their towns and cities. It is the same 5 percent of the world’s population where 42 state conventions are working. It is the same small proportion of the world’s lost among whom the North American Mission Board is directing its strategies and resources.

America is where Southern Baptists are already investing almost $12 billion while making available only $300 million to reach the other 95 percent where there are few resources. We have over 100,000 pastors, church staff and denominational workers here in America among 5 percent of the world’s population and say we are doing enough to send 5,000 missionaries to reach the rest of the world. Oh yes, and there are a few more churches other than Southern Baptists who are seeking to reach this 5 percent in America, as well.

But the most outrageous thing being advocated by many, is that we need to give even higher priority to reaching people where we live and channel even more resources into the needs here rather than doing what is needed to reach the world with the gospel. If what we are doing was working and effectively evangelizing America, that suggestion might have some merit, but why put more resources into something that is not really working very well?

God loves the whole world; so should we. Jesus died for the whole world, not just for our nation or our kind of people. As the body of Christ in the world today, He has left to us the responsibility of carrying on His work and fulfilling His mission. If we don’t reach the nations, who will? We are His people. We are the ones who have the Word of Life. We have been blessed to receive the hope of salvation. When will we get serious about sharing it with the rest of the world? If not now, when?

The Empty Tomb is a research organization in Chicago that tracks the stewardship and giving patterns of churches and denominations. In their last report they noted that the International Mission Board had set a goal at the turn of the century of engaging all remaining unreached people groups. This goal would require 8,000 missionaries and was an essential step in fulfilling the Great Commission. The Empty Tomb report observed that Southern Baptist church members gave enough financially to make this goal feasible. However, the SBC had demonstrated by how they were utilizing resources allocated to the denomination that the goal of the denomination was not to fulfill the goal!

We take pride is supporting 5,000 international missionaries, but that is only .03 percent of Southern Baptists. It is not even one out of every three thousand church members, yet it strains our resources to support that number. If we were really serious about reaching the world and recognized God had blessed us as a denomination to fulfill His mission, would it not be unreasonable that 1 percent our church members would be called to go as missionaries? That would be not 5,000 but 160,000! What potential would that have for eradicating lostness and taking the gospel to all peoples!

Could not the remaining 99 percent of our church members support the 1 percent who go as missionaries? What is the problem? It is a matter of disproportionate use of resources. We have determined we will do other things with our money than reach a lost world—comfortable spacious buildings and programs that serve the redeemed. We choose to keep most of the money at home while providing a token of resources to reach the rest of the world.

Years ago while serving as Area Director for South and Southeast Asia, I had the responsibility of dispersing the budget for more than 500 missionaries in the 15 countries of that region. We monitored receipts to CP and LMCO knowing it would affect the resources we had available. Even though there were usually increases in these income streams, it was never enough to meet our budget needs. I was the one who had to determine which programs would be cut back, which new initiatives would be deferred, etc.

One year, I had just received a population update for the countries under my administration. In exasperation of trying to stretch our budget resources I divided the amount of our annual budget from the mission board for field work and missionary support by the population we were trying to reach. The answer was 1.7 cents. I acknowledge that that really didn’t mean anything, but the thought occurred to me, “We don’t give two cents for the salvation of the people who are lost around the world!”

IMB welcomes 46 new missionaries in final appointment of Rankin's career

2010-05-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)—Tommy Reed* was soaked to the bone. Half-a-world from his native Tennessee, the 27-year-old missionary was caught in a torrential downpour as he rode his motorcycle to a Bible study in a remote Philippine village.

He found shelter under a thatched-roof shed and stumbled upon the woman who would one day become his church-planting partner — and his bride.

Reed worked with another missions organization at the time. He and his wife were among 46 missionaries appointed by trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB) in two services, one held Wednesday, May 5, at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church, Broadview, Ill., and the other Thursday, May 6, at First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss. The appointment services were the last for outgoing IMB President Jerry Rankin, set to retire July 31.

Karen Reed,* Jim’s wife, remembers that rainy night, now more than 20 years ago. The shed Reed stumbled into was owned by Karen’s family. They’d never befriended a foreigner, much less entertained an American in their home. But the Filipino family invited him inside anyway, and since he couldn’t go to his Bible study, Karen’s father asked him to share the Gospel with them instead.

Reed spent the next 16 months teaching Karen’s family about Jesus, eventually leading Karen, her mother, brother and sister to Christ. In 2006, Reed and Karen were married and are now heading to Southeast Asia to plant churches together.

Though the Reeds’ romantically inspired tale is unusual, it shares a common thread with the stories of all new appointees in the sense that every missionary’s call is unique.

GOD’S VOICE

Shawn Smith* remembers hearing God audibly confirm his calling to missions at age 18 while attending a youth camp.

“My Bible study leaders encouraged us to focus on prayer as a two-way conversation with God. One night, as we were singing, I was praying to God about my future,” Smith says. “I told Him that I wanted to go to the mission field, but that I would not unless He led me there.

“I asked God if that was His will for me. Then I waited in silence. After some time passed, I heard an audible ‘Yes.’ Startled, I jumped up and looked around. Everyone was still singing. I realized that God had spoken.”

Smith and his wife, Elise,* along with their three children, are now bound for Central Asia.

RETURNING TO HOMELAND

As a pre-schooler in Taiwan, Lee Chen* first heard the Gospel from American missionaries who visited his kindergarten.

“They gave us candy, crackers, milk and pencils. They also brought the love of Jesus,” Chen says.

Those seeds finally began to grow when Chen turned 16 and was invited to church by one of his classmates. Thirty years later, Chen and his wife, Lucy,* working with another missions organization, became one of the first Chinese missionaries to South Africa. Now the Chens are returning to their homeland to spread the Gospel in East Asia.

LAUGHED AT

Amy Sweet* remembers being laughed at when she told a room of accounting professionals interviewing her for a college scholarship that she wanted to use her “accounting skills to positively impact others,” possibly by working for a non-profit organization.

“This wasn’t the first time I received this reaction, but it was what I desperately wanted to do,” says the 26-year-old Texas accountant. “I began to pray, and God opened a door for me to impact lostness.”

Sweet is now moving to South America to plant churches and serve with the IMB’s finance department.

FIRST BELIEVER

Church wasn’t an option for Michael Kim,* whose parents strictly forbade him from attending the lone Presbyterian congregation in the South Korean town where he grew up. As eldest son, he held the role of family priest, responsible for leading ancestor worship rituals. But he was drawn to Jesus nonetheless and became a believer at age 16, the first in 38 generations of his family.

His new faith enraged his parents, who beat him, threatened to disown him and threw his Bibles into the fire. Kim eventually smuggled a Bible into his room and read secretly in bed, hiding under the sheets. By the time he finished college, he’d read through the Bible seven times.

“In order for me to hear the Gospel, there was a long flow of blood, sweat and tears of Western missionaries to Korea,” Kim says. “As a debtor of the Gospel, I am … heading to Southeast Asia to share the Good News of Jesus.”

RANKIN’S APPOINTMENT MILESTONE

The appointment services marked a milestone for Rankin, bringing the number to 101 he’s been a part of during his 17 years as IMB president. In that time Rankin has seen more than 10,000 men and women sent out as Southern Baptist short-term and career missionaries.

“I want to thank you, Southern Baptists, because of your faithfulness in praying, for your heart for a lost world, for your faithful giving to the Cooperative Program [that] has enabled them to go in obedience to God’s call,” Rankin said.

He challenged the new missionaries to stay focused on their vision and passion for sharing the Gospel, something he found essential during his 40-year service with the IMB.

“It’s so easy [to get distracted] living in a foreign country where you get caught up in just surviving; taking care of your family and all of the bureaucracy and red tape and hassle of congested crowds,” Rankin said.

“Even though he was threatened, stoned, beaten, imprisoned, eventually martyred … [the Apostle Paul] was undeterred because he had a passion for a lost world to know Jesus Christ as Savior. You’re here tonight because you had a very distinct sense of God’s call to the mission field.

“As [Paul] expressed in that final message of farewell to the Ephesian elders, ‘I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry I’ve received from the Lord Jesus Christ.’ That was Lottie Moon’s life verse. My life is of no account; my only purpose, my only passion, is to faithfully fulfill the calling of God to share Christ with the lost world.”

*Names changed.

Don Graham is a writer for the International Mission Board.

IMB trustees elect officers, tap Meador as potential interim president

2010-05-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

5/6/2010

By Erich Bridges

CHICAGO (BP)--International Mission Board trustees elected new officers during their May 4-5 meeting in Chicago, continued their search for a successor to IMB President Jerry Rankin and made arrangements for interim leadership if the search extends beyond Rankin’s July 31 retirement.

Should a new leader not be in place by the end of July, trustees tapped IMB Executive Vice President Clyde Meador as interim president, beginning Aug. 1, “to serve until a new president is elected and assumes his responsibilities.”

Meador, 65, from Albuquerque, N.M., has been executive vice president since July 2003, directing many of the board’s day-to-day operations. A veteran missionary and mission administrator, Meador and his wife, Elaine, served in multiple assignments in Asia for more than 25 years before he joined the IMB home office staff in 2001.

The trustee presidential search committee continues its work — and continues to ask Southern Baptists to pray it will find the right person for the job. Committee chairman Jimmy Pritchard, pastor of First Baptist Church, Forney, Texas, said there was no firm timetable for a selection.

“We are making progress but have not been able to arrive at a consensus at this point,” Pritchard said. “We will get there. We’re just not quite there yet. We are waiting and working and praying, and God in His time will give us a consensus.”

NEW OFFICERS

In their annual election of new officers, trustees elected Pritchard by acclamation as board chairman. He succeeds outgoing chairman Paul Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church, Mt. Washington, Ky., who led the trustee board for two years as the IMB launched a major global reorganization. Pritchard will continue in his role as leader of the presidential search committee.

Also elected unanimously were Tim Locher, a retired airline pilot from Hendersonville, N.C., as first vice chairman; Joe Hewgley, a property manager from Rogers, Ark., as second vice chairman; and Kathy Towns, a small business owner from Arcadia, La., as recording secretary.

The trustees also appointed 46 new missionaries recognized during services at Broadview (Ill.) Missionary Baptist Church in the Chicago area and First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss.

FINANCIAL OUTLOOK

David Steverson, vice president for finance, reviewed the IMB’s 2009 financial statements during his report. He also predicted the final 2009 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions will top the 2008 offering of $141 million — despite the ongoing economic difficulties faced by Southern Baptists.

“We do a projection the first couple of weeks in March, which we share with the finance committee, and we monitor the receipts on a weekly basis,” Steverson said. “The closer we get to the closing date, the more we are convinced that Southern Baptists are responding and we will see an increase when the books are closed on May 31.”

Investment income also has rebounded after the disastrous market nosedive of 2008-2009. However, Steverson reminded trustees that the IMB has dipped into reserve funds to cover its 2010 budget and faces significant budget limitations for the foreseeable future.

“Cash contributions were down almost $8 million [for the calendar year],” he reported. “This is reflected in both Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon [receipts]. We were able to compensate for this by reducing overseas expenditures $13 million and [U.S.] expenditures $6 million.”

MISSIONARY PERSONNEL

Meador briefed trustees on the IMB’s annual missionary personnel report. The board counted 5,441 missionaries at the end of 2009. Some significant numbers highlight who they are, where they serve and other key factors:

--Fifty-four percent of IMB missionaries are women, 46 percent are men; 84 percent are married.

--More than 56 percent of all IMB workers now serve in restricted-access locations where most unreached peoples are found. Only 38 percent work in “open” areas — “a continually decreasing number, as more and more of our personnel serve in high-security places,” Meador said.

--More than 4,300 missionaries serve in long-term assignments. About 1,120 are short-termers (two- to three-year assignments). The percentage of short-termers, already down somewhat from previous years, will continue to decrease as the IMB focuses limited resources on supporting long-term workers.

--The 2009 personnel attrition rate was 5 percent, in keeping with the average rate for the past 15 years.

RANKIN ON MISSIONS FUTURE

In his report, Rankin expressed optimism that the just-released final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force “lays the foundation for a renewed impetus on … cooperative efforts to reach the lost throughout North America and the world.” However, he cautioned, the report and potential actions taken on it by the Southern Baptist Convention in June “are simply a start and incentive to much that must follow in subsequent years.”

In the meantime, he challenged IMB trustees to “not wait passively for these changes to take place, but to make decisions that will move us aggressively forward in engaging all peoples with the Gospel. Our primary focus is not just doing evangelism overseas. It is penetrating lostness and giving all peoples an opportunity to hear, understand and respond to the Gospel in their own cultural context.

“You have already affirmed that we are to be more than a missionary-sending agency. Just because we are having to limit the number of personnel we can send and support, we cannot just shrug our shoulders and apologetically excuse ourselves from pressing forward to finish the task of reaching all peoples. We have to recognize the vast potential of partnership with Southern Baptists, Great Commission Christians and the network of national Baptist partners around the world.”

Personal involvement and hands-on mission partnerships are the “desire of a new generation,” Rankin stressed. “I am convinced a future generation will give and give generously, but they want to be involved, and they want ownership of what they do. They want to make a difference in the world. …

“If the IMB stays focused on the task, is driven by a compelling vision to fulfill the Great Commission and stays aligned with what God is doing around the world, the future is promising. But whether or not this makes a difference is contingent on adjusting our thinking to the demands of a changing world. …

“Even with an improved economy, we will never have enough missionaries to reach the whole world, but 45,000 churches and 16 million Southern Baptists can do it. But we must radically change our thinking as a denominational entity if we are to successfully relate to our constituency and effectively mobilize them in a Great Commission Resurgence.

“If we don’t do it and lead the way, who will?”

‘GET THE MESSAGE OUT’

Outgoing trustee chairman Chitwood urged his colleagues to explore “new and creative ways” to increase financial support for international missions in a day when God-called missionary candidates are being turned away for lack of funds.

“Estimates are that in the next 40 years somewhere between $40 trillion and $50 trillion will pass from the builders and boomers to their children and grandchildren — and to the causes they choose to support,” Chitwood said. “Legacy gifts to institutions may be down, but they are not out. Money is still changing hands. Worthy causes are still being funded. While we are still receiving an amazing amount of gifts through the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, we could do more if we had more … .

“The bottom line is this: I give more through the IMB than I did eight years ago, because I know more. We have to get the message out in new and creative ways, not only to our churches but to individual Southern Baptists who want to leave a legacy that impacts eternity. I know of no more worthy cause than the cause we champion.”

Chitwood also called upon the board to keep moving forward in the area of theological education.

“I want to commend President Rankin for being proactive in the employment of Dr. Chuck Lawless as an advisor in theological education,” he said, and for creating four positions for theological consultants during the recent reorganization.

Chitwood urged the trustees both to expect the next president to value the role of theological education and to continue to focus on creating a culture that recognizes the importance of well-trained missionaries.

“As we better equip our missionaries to train and equip those who are being reached, we are making an investment with exponential returns,” Chitwood said. “As Dr. Rankin often says, our missionaries will not reach the world. But if those whom our missionaries reach are trained to reach, reaching the world becomes possible.”

In another action, trustees paid tribute to Jeremiah Johnson, a 21-year-old student missionary killed April 12 in a motorcycle accident in the African nation of Mozambique. Johnson, a member of Royal Palms Baptist Church in Phoenix, Ariz., was working with the IMB’s Hands On initiative, which enables college students to work on the mission field for a semester.

The trustees expressed “deep appreciation” for Johnson’s service to God and pledged special prayer support for his family in the days ahead.

The next meeting of IMB trustees will be July 20-21 in Rockville, Va., at the IMB’s International Learning Center.

Erich Bridges is a global correspondent for the IMB.

Why does God allow His children to suffer?

2010-04-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

Why does God allow His children to suffer? I can never completely answer that question. It is the hardest of all questions both lost and saved people ask me. I have learned a lot in Costa Rica. I might even learn some Spanish before I leave. But I have learned a second huge lesson in my life. That yes God does allow His children to suffer. And that if we are smart enough to listen during our suffering we might sometimes understand why.

For two days I suffered the most intense pain I have ever suffered in my life. Yes this is a man who splintered his femur in an accident and yes if you have known me a long time who at 17 ran his Motorcycle into a 18 wheeler that was stopped at a red light at around 50 miles per hour. Neither of these paled in comparison to the constant pain of the last 48 hours.

I cried out to God all night Saturday and Sunday to please take away the pain. I begged him to tell me why I had to suffer such pain. I kept begging and begging but I was not listening. I kept getting stronger and stronger medicine. Took the antibiotics even thought of doubling them. I took 4 Extra- Strength Tylenol every 2 hours in addition to the prescription. No relief. Just before I called La Doctora from Punta Leona (What was I doing in Punta Leona, another story) a friend of a missionary family there had just had knee surgery and had a prescription for a narcotic pain killer, she gave me one and I took it before we left for San Jose; no relief, the pain only increased. I think my good buddy Ronnie was very worried about me on the way home. He even came for the surgery.

When I arrived back home in San Francisco, I had 2 Hours before La Dentista would arrive. I sat in our living room and started to pray. The pain was at its worst and for the first time I started to cry, something I wanted to do for two days, and when I spoke to God and I found myself on my knees telling God I could not take any more, that I was giving this pain to Him that it was more than I could bear. And before I knew it I told Him I was so sorry for the person I had become the past few weeks. So frustrated with Spanish so frustrated with so many cosas. And I sat there for more than a hour and waited, and waited and I truly believe with all my heart that what God said to me was thank you my son, that’s all I was waiting on. Even as I relive this IM weeping out of control; In fact the sky just burst open and its pouring down as if God is crying with me.

Three hours later God through the hands of this gifted woman God took away all my pain. It was gone and I haven’t taken as much as an aspirin since. Gracias a Dios.

Now today as I waited to return for the second leg of my Root Canal I have been reading my Bible. And what God has taken me to is what He has to say about The Body. As I read the words of Paul I remember so many times explaining to my members how important to God each part of the Body is. That the eye with all its importance cannot function without the lesser members. As I read God began to show me more of what I was to take from this experience.

I have taught and have understood for many years that what Paul is saying is that if any part of the body is not functioning the whole suffers. And remember this is the Body of which Jesus Christ, GOD, is the head of. That has always been hard for me to process; that a big toe can disrupt the Body of Christ.

Well I have to first admit that some of those cosas that have frustrated me are other members of this Body I claim to be part of. So this next part while gross, and graphic, I believe God intended for good. When La Dentista drilled trough my tooth and removed the nerve and artery and such leaving a clear path for the infection, she then pressed on the huge swelling in the roof of my mouth. When she did, and I don’t think she expected it at all, but the puss from the infection squirted out from my tooth all over my cheeks and down my neck. She rushed to grab some towels and apologized. It was brown and went up my nose and was so horrible smelling. I had never in my life thought something like that could come out of my mouth.

Today as I read my Bible I had a whole new understanding off the importance of every member of the Body, and god showed me how one small member of the Body can become so poisoned, even though no one can see it from the outside, so poisoned that they are causing so much pain to the body, that the entire body is so concentrating on the member and the pain they are causing that they ignore the head. God showed me that in us the members and in us the Body that sometimes He has to allow pain, even extreme pain so that we will turn back to the Head, so that he can remove the poison that is causing the pain. Not us, but Him.

I thought I understood this; I have lived it out, members, deacons, staff, fellow missionaries that were absolute poison to the body. But everyone wanted to take more medicine. Just ease the pain. And I many times was just as wrong; I wanted to charge in and do the surgery myself. And sometimes did. And I have paid the price.

I thought as I read of some things one of my favorite authors on church, Neil Cole has said. Neil is probably the most like minded person I have ever read. I do not have to personally write much because when I read him I say amen, or been there done that over and over.

Neil says and I paraphrase, that we must have every cell of Christ Body healthy.

I would say “all” myself, and that this is not possible, yes not possible if a single disciple, one disciple, is not fully following Christ. When and only when we know that every single part of Christ Body is connected to the Head and is hearing from Jesus the Head, and I want to emphasis the only Head, the only one who has paid the price of being the head, only then will there be order and unity within the Body; one mind, one purpose, and one Lord. That is what Jesus died for my friends. Please hear me, don’t force Jesus to put you on your knees in pain.

And hear me, to be okay with the status qua, to just want to cover it over, bleach it, call it something else, is a SIN against the Head. I know I’m preaching and it feels good. There are Pastors, Deacons, church members, Churches, Missionaries and organizations in the Body that are full of poison and puss that the ultimate physician is going to drill into and squeeze the poison out of. But hear me; it is He and only He that will do the surgery. But, and this is so important, for us to be happy and content with them is sin. To support something opposite than this idea is adulterous. It is sleeping with the enemy. And it is not to be so among the Body of Christ.

I know, I have been there. I went there again. And I say thank you God for removing the poison from my body once again, and loving me just the same, enough to let me suffer to the point that I can’t handle one bit more. If we disciples are unhealthy, we will never become the expression of The Body that is necessary to save this lost world. And thank God that when we become unhealthy He is the Great Physician!

Many of you will think poor Greg how unfortunate that he suffered so much these past few days.....please....don't.

America and the Rest of the Word (part 1)

2010-04-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Jerry A. Rankin

Most of our missionaries go through occasions of culture shock upon arrival overseas, no matter how much they study and prepare for their place of assignment. I was unprepared for the congested crowds of people when we arrived in Indonesia in 1971. There were 120 million people on the island of Java where we lived—an island about the size and shape of Tennessee, which, by comparison, has about 6.3 million people.

We worked many years in South Asia, relating to our work in Bangladesh, a country the size of Arkansas with 140 million people. If the U.S. had the same population density of India we would have three billion people. Can you imagine what that would do to our jobless rates and healthcare plans? But it wasn’t just the masses of people, poverty and disease, but the spiritual hopelessness that was overwhelming.

Researchers tell us there are still 1.3 billion people who are isolated culturally and geographically in places where they have not yet even heard the name of Jesus. That is hard for us to comprehend in this age of technology and communication when we can see news events as they occur simultaneously all over the world. But multitudes live where there are no churches and no Christian witness among them. They have no Bible in their language. No missionary is available to engage them with the gospel.

Did Jesus really mean for us to preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15)? Did He really intend for us to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)? Are we really supposed to go make disciples of all peoples (Matt. 28:19)? If so, how can we neglect the task—allowing masses to live a lifetime and die and enter a Christless eternity in hell—while justifying staying at home and focusing on our own needs and programs?

It is being pointed out that America has the fourth largest population of lost people of all the nations of the world. Many are sincerely saying we should not neglect the lost around us in order to divert resources to other nations. We even claim Jesus tells us to first of all be responsible for reaching those at home. While acknowledging our global responsibility, many rationalize to say we will never reach the world if we don’t give priority to our churches at home—after all, we have to build the foundation for calling out and sending missionaries.

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.

Often after I preach for a mission emphasis in a church the pastor will say, “Dr. Rankin, we appreciate your missions challenge. We are trying to build up our programs, reach our community, pay off our building indebtedness…then we are going to get involved in missions.” But it never happens. Churches that are focusing on their own programs and community seldom fulfill the criteria for moving on to a compelling missions involvement.

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.

God confirmed the call of one of our missionaries when he was interviewing for a church staff position. His role was to visit door-to-door because, as the senior pastor described the situation, “There are so many churches in our town we have to compete for members.” The prospective staff member thought, “You have got to be kidding…when billions of people don’t have any church?”

God yearns for the nations to know Him. He is not willing that any would perish. How can we justify the relative disproportion of resources, duplication of efforts, and replowing of the same ground when there are so many places the seed of the gospel has yet to be sown?

A story that impacted my call to missions was one that told of ten men trying to lift a log. There were nine men at one end of the log and only one at the other end. Which end should you go help?

Yes, we desperately need a Great Commission Resurgence to shift the imbalance of resources from America to the rest of the world.

Global consultants to focus on developing theologically grounded church plants

2010-03-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

3/18/2010

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--A newly identified team of missionaries from the International Mission Board (IMB) will focus on helping leaders of overseas church plants build solid theological foundations.

Four missionaries will serve as full-time area theological education consultants for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. They will build relationships with overseas seminaries and Bible schools, developing programs for leadership training. They also intend to work with Southern Baptist seminaries to encourage and facilitate partnerships with national Baptist seminaries.

The team will be headed by Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. The IMB hired Lawless as its global consultant for theological education in 2008 to assess the status of theological education overseas and to identify areas where Southern Baptists can help ensure the development of theologically sound churches.

“We’ve been planting churches but not always doing the best job of discipling,” Lawless says. “My prayer is that these new consultants will be another step in helping ground national pastors and lay leaders in the Gospel.”

Other team members include Calvin Morris of Georgia, who has served in the Americas since 1988, and will be the theological education consultant for the Americas; Louisiana native and 16-year missionary Preston Pearce for Europe; and Missouri native Randy Arnett for Africa. IMB leadership is still working to identify the fourth consultant who will serve Asia.

Arnett, a former IMB regional leader for West Africa, has been heavily involved with theological education during his 20-plus year career on the field, teaching in situations ranging from formal, brick-and-mortar seminaries to oral, lay-leader training sessions in dusty African villages. Arnett compares the need for solid theological education to Jesus’ story in Luke 6 of the man who built his house upon the rock and says it must be part of the spiritual DNA of every believer and church.

“We talk a lot about the right DNA in a church or the right DNA in a believer, and a lot of the time we’re thinking about obedience-based discipleship,” he explains. “We also have to look at the theological components. What are those components of that healthy church or that healthy believer that we need to instill in that DNA?

“What happens all too often is that we come in and we blow the Gospel out there … and pop the question really quickly, ‘Will you trust Jesus?’ And the person may respond, but that DNA from the beginning is unhealthy. … We don’t want to see that believer or church fall away.”

Arnett has witnessed firsthand how dangerous a lack of theological training can be. While teaching at a seminary in Togo, West Africa, he started a church with a national Baptist partner. But Arnett didn’t realize this man, who was leading the new church, was mixing the Gospel with elements of African traditional religion — the worship of spirits in nature and of ancestors.

“When it came to dealing with people’s spiritual problems, he resorted to what he knew from his African traditional religion — beating people with brooms, hitting them on the heads with handkerchiefs — doing all sorts of strange stuff that was simply way out of line,” Arnett says. “We ended up shutting down that entire church start because it had already fallen into heresy.”

The four-person consultant team’s efforts will be combined with more than 140 IMB missionaries already engaged in both residential and nonresidential theological education.

Evangelism and church planting efforts must be grounded in solid theological foundations and leaders trained in those foundations to sustain growth, says Gordon Fort, IMB vice president for global strategy. “So the question is, ‘How do we best deliver the theological education in a way that helps us sustain our objective but also meets the needs of our Baptist partners?’

“This is where I think there’s been some misunderstanding on behalf of those who feel that because we focus on evangelism and church planting we don’t care about the seminaries, about theological education, which is not true. … What we’re trying to do is have a balance between those two where we don’t divert our energy and resources from that frontline growth.”

Fort adds that he’s particularly excited about seminary to seminary partnerships.

“I believe our seminaries in the States have much more capacity and capability to do theological education than the IMB,” he says. “They have the faculty, the resources, the experience and the history.”

Don Graham is a writer for the IMB.

Machete attacks on Christian villages kill 500-plus in Nigeria

2010-03-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group.

While troops were deployed to the villages to prevent new attacks, security forces detained 95 suspects but faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Media reported that Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau state had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape before the exit points were sealed off.

Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from members of the rival Berom group by chanting 'nagge', the Fulani word for cattle. Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.

One local paper said the gangs shouted Allah Akhbar (God is Great) before breaking into homes and setting them alight in the early hours of Sunday. Churches were among the buildings that were burned down.

The Vatican led a wave of outrage with spokesman Federico Lombardi expressing the Roman Catholic Church's "sadness" at the "horrible acts of violence".

The UN chief told reporters he was "deeply concerned".

"I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint," he said.

"Nigeria's political and religious leaders should work together to address the underlying causes and to achieve a permanent solution to the crisis in Jos."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged "all parties to exercise restraint", but also called on the Nigerian government to "make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice."

"The Nigerian government should ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice under the rule of law and that human rights are respected as order is restored," the chief US diplomat said.

The death toll was initially put at a little over 100 but then shot up. The information ministry said pregnant women were among those killed and around 200 people were being treated in hospital.

"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong.

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

Survivors wail as children, women buried in Nigeria

Much of the violence was centred around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs set fire to straw-thatched mud huts as they went on their rampage.

The explosion of violence is the latest between rival ethnic and religious groups. In January 326 people died in clashes in and around Jos, according to police although rights activists put the overall toll at more than 550.

"The attack is yet another jihad and provocation," the Plateau State Christian Elders Consulatative Forum (PSCEF) said.

However the archbishop of the capital Abuja, John Onaiyekan, told Vatican Radio that the violence was rooted not in religion but in social, economic and tribal differences.

"It is a classic conflict between pastoralists and farmers, except that all the Fulani are Muslims and all the Berom are Christians," he said.

Fulani are mainly nomadic cattle rearers while Beroms are traditionally farmers.

A curfew imposed after January's unrest is supposed to be still in place but Christian leaders said the authorities did nothing to prevent the bloodshed.

The PSCEF said it took the army two hours to react from the time a distress call was put through and "the attackers had finished their job and left".

Witnesses said armed gangs had scared people out of their homes by firing into the air but most of the killings were the result of machete attacks.

"We were caught unawares ... and as we tried to escape, the Fulani who were already waiting, slaughtered many of us," said Dayop Gyang, of Dogo Nahawa.

Gbong Gwon Jos, a Muslim resident of Dogo Nahawa, told The Nation daily he received advanced warnings of the attacks.

"I got a text message about movement of the people."

Rights activists said the slaughter appeared to be revenge for the January attacks in which mainly Muslims were killed.

Locals said that the attacks on Sunday were the result of a feud which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then fuelled by deadly reprisals.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan placed security services in Plateau and nearby states on red alert to contain the violence before he sacked his chief security advisor.

Convoluted Priorities By Jerry Rankin 3/8/2010

2010-03-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

If there were any question about the need for a Great Commission Resurgence and a study of our structure and programs it has been dispelled in the convictions and positions that have surfaced from many prominent voices. It is evident where resistance will come to recommendations from the GCRTF at the convention in June.

Many will be pointing out how the recommended changes will impact what we are doing as a convention—but isn’t that exactly the point! Watch for those who stand to lose entitlements of a system that hasn’t been moving us toward effective engagement of the lost. Dr. Morris Chapman found a receptive audience in speaking to the winter meeting of State Executives last month in passionately pointing out that the purpose of our denomination is not the Great Commission but cooperation.

Apparently it doesn’t matter whether we impact a lost world or accomplish anything else as long as we cooperate together. In fact, it was said that the formula for Cooperative Program allocations must not change. I now understand why for 17 years I and my staff have been meeting with the budget workgroup of the Executive Committee, presenting our required report on funding needs, but nothing is ever done. It is just a meaningless exercise of denominational bureaucracy.

A mighty move of God could open the world for harvest with thousands of missionaries poised to be deployed to the nations, but we could not do anything about it as Southern Baptists. More important than actually reaching a lost world is every entity getting their share. The priority is reflecting our cooperative commitment to all our programs as if everything we do is of equal value.

The above scenario is not altogether hypothetical. God is using global events to open unprecedented doors of opportunity to penetrate previously restricted and unreached people groups with the gospel. War, political disruption, economic uncertainty and natural disasters are turning the hearts of people all over the world to a search for spiritual answers that only Jesus can provide. Thousands of missionary candidates are in the appointment process but cannot be sent.

What our convoluted priorities are practically saying is, “It is better to let the lost multitudes never hear the gospel and go to hell, than change the way our denomination functions.” It is too bad that we have a system in which only two percent of our resources are given to reach a lost world that Jesus died to save. It is unfortunate our denomination can channel only 17 percent of Cooperative Program allocations to international missions because we have to sustain everything else we are doing. We can’t expect to cease a valid ministry, compromise programs that serve ourselves and our own churches in order to provide resources to get the gospel to those who have never heard! That, in essence, is what is being communicated.

One of my exasperations in working cooperatively with other convention entities has been the difficulty in nailing down the purpose of what is being done. On Mission Celebrations, which used to be World Mission Conferences, is a mission event hosted by local associations. IMB, NAMB, WMU and State Conventions all send personnel to speak in the churches, report on what we are all doing in missions, supposedly to enhance mission awareness. Pressing to know if there is an outcome that is supposed to result from this event, I am usually told that the event is an end in itself. Nothing is done that actually enlists and equips the church for missions involvement once the week is over.

Participation in Jericho Weeks at Ridgecrest and Glorieta rapidly declined when it became obvious that this mission week was more about profiling the cooperation of IMB, NAMB, WMU and LifeWay than accomplishing anything that would significantly advance missions. What about annual state convention meetings and associational meetings? Is there any outcome that made a difference, or do we continue to expend time, energy and expense on just being who we are?

Cooperation is about us; it is self-centered, self-promoting and maintaining everything every entity is doing without any concern for priorities or results. The Great Commission is not about us, our programs and sustaining what we have always done; it is about others. It is about a lost world. It is about consolidating our resources and focusing our energies to proclaim the gospel to those who have never heard, to win the lost and see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord.

I wonder which is God’s priority. Yes, He is pleased with unity among God’s people. He is honored by anything we do cooperatively for His sake. But not to the neglect of His mission! Cooperation is the means through which we work together, not an end in itself. Why couldn’t our cooperation be for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission? Now that would be a quaint idea!

© Copyright 2010 Jerry Rankin Blog

Sickened By The Ugliness Of Their Own Sinfulness

2010-03-08T04:38:00.000-08:00

'Let us be found faithful,'

2010-03-06T09:59:00.001-08:00

'Let us be found faithful,' Chitwood tells trustees

3/4/2010

By Mark Kelly

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)--Paul Chitwood knelt with six other believers in an overseas province where all of the nearly 100 million inhabitants know little or nothing about salvation through Jesus Christ. They prayed God would send Southern Baptist workers to tell the people there about the Good News.

“Yet I flew back to America knowing how unlikely it would be that God would send an IMB missionary there because we are in the process of reducing our mission force by several hundred people,” Chitwood told trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB) during their March 3 business session in Memphis, Tenn.

His voice filled with emotion, Chitwood, chairman of the board of trustees and pastor of First Baptist Church in Mt. Washington, Ky., challenged his fellow board members to be passionate advocates for the Great Commission cause of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

“To most of the world, how to know God is still a mystery. But we know the mystery has been solved,” Chitwood told the trustees, who were about to appoint 61 new missionaries in a service at nearby Bellevue Baptist Church. “Some have heard and not yet believed, but over a billion have not yet heard. Our labors and our struggles are so that all may hear. Thank God for those who are willing to go and share their lives among the nations that all may hear.

“God has given us a small piece of the greatest endeavor He has undertaken,” Chitwood added. “Let us be found faithful, doing our part.”

Chitwood’s impassioned plea closed out a two-day meeting in which trustees also heard an update on Southern Baptist relief efforts in Haiti and Chile, received an “over and above” check from a group of Texas Baptist churches and recognized the leadership of Lloyd Atkinson, who served in South America in the 1970s before having various leadership roles in the IMB’s personnel office.

‘AN INSPIRATION AND A BLESSING’

Atkinson, a senior consultant who served as the IMB’s vice president for mission personnel from 1999-2009, retires March 31.

“Lloyd and his staff have led in an era of growth beyond what anyone would have dared imagine a few years ago,” said IMB President Jerry Rankin. “Lloyd has demonstrated not only superb leadership skills as a team builder but also conscientious commitment to the values and policies of this board.” Speaking directly to Atkinson and his wife, Sue, Rankin added: “It has been a wonderful journey. You have been an inspiration and a blessing.”

“I am so optimistic about the future. God’s hand, I believe, is on this board,” Atkinson told the group. “God called all of us a long time ago to carry out the Great Commission and that Great Commission is still in our hearts. I’m looking forward to the days ahead even being greater than they are now.”

OVER AND ABOVE

The trustee board also received an “over and above” check from Bryon McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas, and president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. That state convention sends 55 percent of its Cooperative Program missions receipts to national and international missions causes — a percentage well above that of most state Baptist conventions. It also was the SBTC that presented an “over and above” check for $100,000 to the IMB during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., in June 2009.

“I am thrilled to be part of a state convention that is so missionally minded,” McWilliams told the trustees. “Today it is my pleasure to represent the more than 2,000 Southern Baptist of Texas Convention churches and give another check for $100,000 … to the IMB.”

HAITI AND CHILE

Terry Lassiter, IMB strategist for the American peoples, reported on the entity’s relief efforts following major earthquakes in both Haiti and Chile. In Haiti, joint relief efforts with Baptist Global Response, Haitian Baptists, Florida Baptists and the North American Mission Board are focusing on food, shelter and medical needs, especially in areas being missed by the larger international relief effort, Lassiter said. A total of $1.8 million has been donated to the IMB for Haiti relief and $475,000 of that already has been targeted for specific projects.

In Chile, Southern Baptist missionaries in the country deployed only minutes after the Feb. 27 earthquake to begin assessing needs and ministering to survivors, Lassiter reported. Two missionary assessment teams are converging on Concepcion, the city most affected by the quake, to bring badly needed food, water and medicine. An initial release of $50,000 has been approved to launch that effort, which will be conducted in partnership with Chilean Baptist churches and Baptist Global Response.

MEGACITY MISSIONS

A project in a major North American city is helping Southern Baptist missionaries better understand how to evangelize the megacities in which they will be serving overseas, said Gordon Fort, the IMB’s vice president of global strategy.

The purpose of the project is to help new missionaries, many of whom grew up in relatively small communities, understand how to share the Gospel in the post-modern environment of an ethnically diverse megacity, Fort said.

The program, which completed its second four-month cycle in January, challenged its 13 participants to learn how to live in an apartment-dwelling, mass transportation environment and required them to engage the people they encountered with the Gospel, Fort said. Over the four months, a full 41 percent of the people engaged indicated they were not interested, yet three salvations were recorded, five home or Bible study groups were started and one church was planted.

It was exciting that “in a city like this — post-modern, with its ethnic diversity, many people as hardened to the Gospel as any place in the world — your missionaries in those four months found responsiveness that we will continue to build on ... ,” Fort said. “These excited, enthusiastic new missionaries were coming in, struggling with the city, trying to learn how to live in a city, adjusting themselves to the city, but coming to love the city.”

‘WHAT AFFECTS OUR MORALE’

Dramatic changes in IMB structure have occurred in recent months and people ask board leaders how the reorganization has affected morale among the missionaries, said a key leader for missions work among Central Asian peoples.

“By and large, the average worker on the frontlines is hardly aware that anything has happened. They are simply continuing to do what God called them to do,” said the leader, whose name is being withheld for security reasons. “Reorganization is not what affects the morale of our leadership team and keeps us awake at night. What affects us is lostness.

“We have overwhelming lostness facing us and we are being told we are going to have to address that lostness with fewer workers. That’s what keeps me awake at night,” the leader said. “What keeps me awake at night is getting calls from churches ... that have qualified people in the pipeline [to become missionaries] ... and having to tell them, ‘Slow down. We can’t take you this year. Maybe we can’t take you next year. We don’t know.’”

Deciding how to allocate scarce missionary resources among vast numbers of lost people is extremely difficult, the mission leader said.

“I’ve got somebody ready to go to that place, but I’m going to have to say no because we don’t have the money to send them,” he said. “How do we prioritize? It’s like asking which of your children you are going to save. ... That’s what breaks my heart.”

In other business, trustees:

— Adopted a resolution of appreciation for Robert E. Brown, a Masters missionary to sub-Saharan African peoples since 2004, who died of a heart attack Jan. 7 while on family leave in the United States.

— Heard a request from the chairman of the board’s presidential search committee that Southern Baptists set aside March 13 as a day of prayer and fasting to ask God to direct their path.

— Listened to the first reading of a temporary bylaws change that would save money by eliminating the January and July 2011 trustee meetings. Trustees will vote on the proposal during their May meeting in Chicago.

— Received a report about a medical missions mobilization summit set for July 8-10 at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga.

The next meeting of the trustees will be held May 4-5 in Chicago. Two appointment services will be held in conjunction with this board meeting. The first appointment service will be May 5 at Broadview Baptist Church, Chicago. The second appointment service will be held May 6 at First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss.

Mark Kelly wrote this story on behalf of the IMB.

The 50% Myth

2010-03-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Churches send on average less than 7% of there total income to their State Agency. Then 14-57 % goes to the SBC where 50% goes to the IMB. So the 50% everyone talks about is 50% of 14-57% of only 7%. It is really less than 2% of Church Income!

Preliminary report of the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force

2010-03-05T03:55:00.001-08:00

Creativity, new paradigms needed to reach lost world, Rankin says

3/4/2010

By Mark Kelly

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)––The Feb. 21 preliminary report of the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force deals with some of the areas where Southern Baptists “are languishing in the task of the Great Commission,” International Mission Board (IMB) President Jerry Rankin told the entity’s trustees March 3.

While much more needs to be done to focus the denomination on evangelizing a lost world, Southern Baptists “must be creative and willing to explore new paradigms … for the sake of mobilizing the resources impacting a lost world,” Rankin said.

The comments, which came on the second day of the IMB’s two-day meeting in Memphis, Tenn., specifically addressed proposals to allow the IMB to work directly with unreached people groups present in the United States, to shift 1 percent of the SBC budget from the Executive Committee to the IMB and to create a new category of giving called “Great Commission Giving.”

NORTH AMERICAN MISSIONS

Rankin said he sees significance in the door being opened for the IMB to work directly with unreached people groups in the United States.

The geographic restriction in the IMB’s ministry assignment “has created a debilitating dichotomy in our denominational strategy,” Rankin said.

“Reaching these ethnic people groups, many of which are from areas that are closed or restricted to a Christian witness overseas, represents a potential for engaging their language and society with the Gospel as it invariably flows from those reached in America to relatives in their homeland,” Rankin told the trustees.

At the same time, however, such a change would not result in the IMB assigning missionary personnel to the United States, Rankin said. Pulling a missionary away from an unreached people group of 10 million people would not make sense just to engage a few of those people in an American city.

“If this recommendation is adopted by the convention, I anticipate we will organize to make a concerted effort to work with NAMB (North American Mission Board), state conventions, local associations and in response to requests of local churches, to identify unreached ethnic people groups and utilize our personnel and resources to train stateside entities to understand and witness to those with other cultural worldviews,” Rankin said.

BUDGET SHIFT

While Southern Baptists do need to be more effective in reaching their own country, evangelizing unchurched cities and reversing the decline in baptisms, the task force’s final report must give greater emphasis and channel more resources to reaching the thousands of unreached people groups around the world, Rankin said.

While he appreciates the additional $2 million in funding represented by shifting 1 percent of the Cooperative Program allocation budget to the IMB, Rankin said it is more significant that the barrier of allocating 50 percent of that budget to the IMB is being broken.

“Yes, we want to see baptisms increase and America evangelized, but that is comparing 6 billion people to [250 million] lost people at home where there are already 45,000 churches working and 97 percent of our financial resources are being applied,” Rankin said. “It comes down to a decision of whether or not Southern Baptists want to settle for sending and supporting 5,000 missionaries, or to provide the resources to do what it takes to be aligned with God in reaching the nations.”

The “Covenant for a New Century” reorganization of the SBC in 1997 eliminated several SBC entities and consolidated their functions into a more streamlined structure that was supposed to free up more money for missions, Rankin noted.

“What actually happened was a total reduction in the allocation to missions while the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Executive Committee received increased funding,” Rankin said. “The reduced allocation of 1 percent to the Executive Committee will be a sizeable portion of its budget. However, like other areas of the convention, [the Executive Committee] has allowed its role to expand beyond providing administration and facilitating services to the convention to engage in ministry assignments such as Empowering Kingdom Growth and Global Evangelical Relations as well as Cooperative Program promotion.”

‘GREAT COMMISSION GIVING’

One of the more surprising recommendations in the GCR task force report was acknowledging designated gifts to convention entities at the state and national level as “Great Commission Giving” while affirming the Cooperative Program as the primary channel of support, Rankin said.

“Many strong mission-minded churches are being alienated and treated with condescension because of their level of giving to the CP,” Rankin said. “I plan to speak to this in the future –– not to criticize the Cooperative Program, but to suggest it needs to be re-created for the 21st century.

“We are the largest benefactor of CP, but it is floundering, putting our future in jeopardy,” Rankin added. “I suggest we could not only increase but double Cooperative Program receipts for the work of our convention and the Great Commission task by giving ownership and flexibility to the churches, removing the contradiction of connectionalism between the SBC and state convention and promoting it with transparency and integrity.”

Rankin said he would be blogging on that subject at rankinconnecting.com.

The trend of decline among Southern Baptists is evident and the consequences of not creating a new paradigm of Great Commission cooperation are disturbing, Rankin asserted.

Whether the task force recommendations are adopted or not, “it is a new day for Southern Baptists,” Rankin added.

“These initiatives cannot be put back in the can; they will be the incentives for new paradigms created by a new and younger generation of leadership,” Rankin said.

“…We must be creative and willing to explore new paradigms for serving Southern Baptists for the sake of mobilizing the resources impacting a lost world.”

Mark Kelly wrote this story on behalf of the IMB.

61 New Missionaries

2010-03-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

61 new missionaries sent out to tell others that 'Jesus is the answer'

3/4/2010

By Alan James

CORDOVA, Tenn. (BP)--As “Jennifer” held the hand of a dying man in the intensive care unit of a hospital, she knew God was calling her to a career in missions.

A nurse for the past five years, Jennifer had already felt God’s call to missions. As she watched that particular encounter with eternity, she realized that people are dying every day without a relationship with Jesus Christ. She is unable to share her real name because soon she will be traveling with her family to an area resistant to the Gospel.

“I knew it was now time to tell an unreached people about the Great Physician,” Jennifer told a crowd during an International Mission Board (IMB) missionary appointment service March 3 at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn.

Jennifer and her husband were among 61 missionaries appointed that evening. The total number of IMB missionaries now stands at 5,413. And many like Jennifer and her husband are working in areas that are resistant to the Gospel.

“It’s our job to go to the world,” said Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church.

“It’s not our job to tell the world to come to us.

“One day we’re going to make it to heaven and … we’re going to see people of every nationality, every tongue, every skin color, every kind of person you can imagine … so many different kinds of people and yet all people created in the image of God,” he continued.

One new appointee shared how her work with international students while attending college confirmed her heart for the nations — especially those in South Asia.

“They heard about Jesus for the first time,” said the woman. “I became burdened for all nations to know Him.”

Another shared how her trip to the gym in a Muslim country confirmed her call to career missions.

“While exercising, a woman approached me,” she said. “She whispered that she’d seen me in a dream, and God told her I could explain how to be saved. When she accepted Christ, God confirmed His call on my life to be a light.”

Many others around the world, like that Muslim woman in the gym, are discovering that God speaks their language, said Gordon Fort, IMB’s vice president of overseas operations.

Fort, who served 11 years in Botswana with his wife and children, told how some of the villagers reacted when they saw the JESUS film translated into the language of Setswana.

“Those people were startled and astounded that Jesus spoke their language,” he said.

“As people around the world discover that Jesus Christ died on the cross for every language, every people, every tribe, every nation, they are being transformed.”

Fort told about a Muslim-background believer in Bangladesh who was tortured by a group of Muslims and told to recant his faith or they’d cut off all his fingers.

The man replied, “You can cut my body into a thousand pieces, and every piece will cry out the name of Jesus.”

Fort asked, “Why would a man do this?

“Jesus spoke their language,” he added. “[God] knew their heart and their longing for spiritual truth, and they were putting their faith in Jesus Christ.”

During the past three years, IMB missionaries and their Baptist partners have baptized an average of 500,000 people a year, Fort said.

Jerry Rankin, IMB president, challenged those in the crowd to join God’s work overseas.

“The call to missions is not just for an elite few such as these sent by the International Mission Board,” Rankin said.

Too many people are not going to the mission field because they claim, God has not called me. The Great Commission was given to every church and every believer, Rankin said.

“Many times we have a stereotypical idea of what a missionary is — a pastor, church staff or seminary graduate,” he said. “Did you hear those testimonies tonight? … A businessman, doctor, teacher or coach.”

“How grateful we are that we’re able to send out these 61 new missionaries,” he added. “But how many more will it take? How many more until the whole world knows Jesus?”

Alan James is a writer for the IMB.

New Ministry

2010-03-04T04:27:00.000-08:00

Please pray for the new ministry God has brought me to. A fellow student that is in his last trimester started working last year at a halfway house. This eventually led to a ministry where he began to disciple 6 men on Thursdays at a park downtown.

A few weeks ago he approached me about joining him in preparation of his leaving in April. I was very excited because if you know me Discipleship is my passion and this ministry would be great preparation for Mexico and allow me to practice my Spanish and hopefully allow God to use me to change the lives of these new believers.

Well after just one week, the leader of this ministry is in the States and I will be leading today. Is God stretching me or what? Pray for me and these men, and that God will prepare me by April to help this ministry flourish.

FOUR MISSION ‘MYTHS’

2010-01-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

In his remarks to trustees, Rankin said that before “fading away into the sunset” he intended to use his remaining board reports to review “where we are in our mission task, why we do what we do and the foundational principles of our mission.” He used the first such opportunity to confront four “prominent myths” that “create misinformation and distort perceptions” about IMB strategy and work:

-- “Evangelism and missions are one and the same.”

“One does not do missions without evangelism. Witnessing, winning and discipling people into the kingdom as Christ-followers is the heart of the mission,” Rankin stressed. But failing to understand the “subtle distinction” between the two leads many churches and Christians to conclude they are primarily responsible only for evangelizing the people who live right around them — or people around the world who are immediately responsive to the Gospel. It also leads to another assumption that has long hindered missions: Since salvation is the “sovereign work of God, we don’t need to be concerned about results.”

Such misunderstandings continue to lead many Christians to relinquish the mission task to “an elite few ministry professionals and missionaries who work on their behalf,” Rankin lamented. As for concentrating exclusively on responsive regions and peoples, he added, “we could probably double the number of reported baptisms each year by concentrating our missionary force in a handful of open and responsive countries, but that would hardly be fulfilling God’s mission, as it would result in multitudes never hearing the Gospel.”

-- “Church-planting movements are a humanly designed strategy to speed the completion of the Great Commission.”

The notion that authentic, rapidly growing church-planting movements — led by lay believers, often amid persecution — are just another mission program or strategy “is a blatant misrepresentation of the work of God,” Rankin charged.

“There will never be enough missionaries to reach the whole world. The only possibility of everyone having access to the Gospel is through a grass-roots network of indigenous, reproducing churches being planted in every community,” he said. “It is a matter of pride to assume that an almighty, sovereign God is dependent on the human instrumentality of educated, mature Western missionaries to teach and train and lead before [local believers are] qualified and capable of sharing their faith with another.

“I find it appalling that there are those who actually advocate slow growth, taking years to disciple new believers to maturity, requiring seminary training of leaders before they can pastor a church or share their faith. … Certainly training is valuable, and our reports reflect the priority that is being given with the number of those being trained [by IMB missionaries and their ministry partners] growing from 30,000 to more than 200,000 in the last decade. We believe in theological education. … But which church is healthier and more spiritually vital — the one reproducing and sharing their faith, or those which never start another church and see negligible numbers coming to Christ?”

-- “Our mission strategy of reaching all peoples is based on Matthew 24:14 and a desire to hasten the return of Christ.”

In Matthew 24:14, Jesus Christ declares that the Gospel “will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Reaching all peoples in order to hasten the end of the age, however, “has never been voiced or intimated by me or anyone responsible for strategic leadership at the International Mission Board,” Rankin stressed. “Yet it continues to be voiced by critics of our passionate devotion to what our Lord has mandated us to do. The time of our Lord’s return is in the Father’s hands, and we will do nothing to change that timeframe. We could never presume to interpret the Father’s criteria for what it means to fulfill the Great Commission. My frequent use of Matthew 24:14 is simply to glorify God that this prophecy is being fulfilled as the Gospel is being proclaimed among all peoples and nations.”

-- “Advocating a certain priority or objective nullifies or excludes others.”

Prime examples of this myth, Rankin noted, include the perceptions that because IMB missionaries focus on evangelism, reaching unreached peoples and partnering with Southern Baptist “mega churches,” they are no longer committed to theological training, medical and humanitarian work, aiding established churches in evangelized areas or working with smaller Southern Baptist churches to mobilize for missions.

“Such reasoning is illogical and so far from the truth as to be ludicrous — were it not representing the perception of so many, even among some of the ranks of our missionaries,” Rankin said. “It doesn’t seem to be simply a misunderstanding, but an intentional way of holding on to a narrow, personally convenient position. …

“We must realize there will always be critics and detractors,” Rankin concluded. “We must do a better job of communication. We need to be sympathetic and patient with those who resist change. We need to minister to those who are challenged and stressed by change. But we must not be deterred from moving forward in the task our Lord has committed to us.”

WorldView: The 'First Globals'

2010-01-12T04:40:00.001-08:00

WorldView: The 'First Globals'

1/7/2010

Visit “WorldView Conversation,” the blog related to this column, at http://worldviewconversation.blogspot.com/

By Erich Bridges

Richmond, Va. (BP)--A father who lives down the street from me turned his small backyard into a state-of-the-art batting cage, complete with a high-velocity pitching machine, when his son was in elementary school.

The son practiced hitting for hours every day. He played high school baseball. Now he’s playing college ball. Just what Pop wanted.

I hope it’s what his son wanted.

We’ve all seen sports dads, stage moms and other victims of a condition I call “Hyperactive Parent Syndrome” living out their dreams through their kids. Maybe we’ve even been one of them.

We do it because we love our children, right? We’re involved in their lives because we care. We want to encourage them to develop their gifts and talents.

Involvement and encouragement are great. Manipulation isn’t.

I’m thinking about the difference a lot these days while trying to help my senior-high kids find the right college.

What is the point of going to college in the first place? To study the best our civilization has to offer, according to the classical ideal? To gain the knowledge and skills to launch a career? To earn more money?

Or to serve God with all one’s mind?

“What are your goals?” asks C.J. Mahaney, editor of Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World (Crossway, 2008). “Do they move you forward — to financial security, more friends, successful kids, a certain position at work, learning a craft or trade? Or do they drive you upward — to obeying and glorifying God above all else?”

There’s nothing wrong with helping a young person prepare to earn a living. But there’s more to life than earning a living, even in hard economic times. That’s what Jesus meant when He said we do not live by bread alone, but by the words of God.

We cannot force our children to serve the Lord. Neither should we unwittingly push them toward worldliness and materialism with the best intentions of helping them achieve “success” as defined by the world. Rather, we should model lives of love and service — and invite our children to join us in the great task of sharing the Gospel with lost and suffering people everywhere.

There’s plenty of data indicating they’re open to the invitation.

Pollster John Zogby has renamed the so-called Millennials (18- to 29-year-old Americans) the “First Globals.” They are “the most outward-looking and accepting generation in American history,” Zogby reports. “First Globals are also the most cosmopolitan age group in America, the most international, and the one most concerned about the environment and human rights.”

By and large, they’re comfortable with the different skin colors, cultures and languages they encounter every day. A fourth of them expect to live outside America at some point in their lives.

They sound like potential missionaries to me.

If your children fall into this age group or mindset, why not show them the unprecedented opportunities they have — not just to pursue a career, but to pursue the glory of God among the nations?

Living above the Line Sermon 5

2010-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Two Sides of the Cross, Christ Lives In You
1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,…. God abides in him, and he in God.

1) Christ Lives in You

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, comma…You know how many Christians sit on that comma. Some do for years, some do for ever. I did for 27 years. Then I experienced the other half of that verse, God abides in him, and he in God. Jesus said I AM the LIFE. I finally realized the LIFE had been residing in me all along. But I did not know it.

I have been talking a few weeks now about the two sides of the cross; the blood side and the body side. On the blood side, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Through His death we obtained forgiveness. On the body side of the cross, in the unseen and eternal realm, in our spirit, we experienced with Christ what He experienced; we died with Him and were raised with Him.
The past 3 weeks I have focused on the death aspect of the body side. We died on the cross with Christ. Our old self is dead, burred. We are dead to sin. We are dead to the law. We are dead to ourselves as a point of reference. The fact that we died is a foundational truth of the Christian life IN CHRIST.

But, if we only emphasis our death in Christ, we will never see what God purposed to be resurrected out of our death; what is that…it is LIFE! We can stand on the tomb and celebrated our death all day long and never, never ever, get on to living the life.

In Romans 6, Paul emphasized both our crucifixion and our resurrection with Christ.
Romans 6:4-5, 11 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. V. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

God raised our new man from the dead, and then God berthed in us an entirely new spirit, holy, and righteous, so that He could then unite Himself to our spirit and live His life through us. And whether we knew it or not, at our rebirth, Jesus came into us and we became one with Him. He now lives in and through us. Two sides of the cross; Blood, and Body, Christ died for us, Christ lives in us.

Now it is time for another trip. Last time 2000 years to the cross, this time 3400 years to the Exodus. God gave us a wonderful illustration of what IM trying to help you understand. We call it the Passover. In Exodus 12, before God sent the death angel to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, God told the Hebrew people to set apart a lamb from the flock, to kill it, and smear the blood on the doorposts of their dwellings. When God saw this blood, He would then Passover that house and spare the firstborn inside. The people had only to apply the blood to the doorposts.

This part of the Passover foretells the blood side of the cross. The lamb died for the household. The household did not participate in that death, because the lamb died for them. When they applied the blood to their doorposts, they escaped the wrath of God. The firstborn was sparred.
This parallel to the blood side of the cross is undeniable. Christ died for us. He shed His blood as payment for our sins, a satisfying sacrifice to the righteous judgment of God. When, by faith, we today apply Christ’s blood, His death, to our lives, we are spared the wrath of God upon us. Our sins are forgiven.

Now follow me. Let me ask you this. When the children of Israel were in captivity under Pharaoh, what country were they in. Where were they?...(Egypt.) And after they put the blood on the doorposts and the Lord passed over them, and the firstborn son was spared, what country were they in. …(Still Egypt.)

You know, as long as our revelatory knowledge is limited to the blood side of the cross, Christ died for us, we may still have our firstborn. That is our sins may be forgiven. But we still live in captivity experientially. We are still living as if we are the subjects of the Pharaoh of our life, in bondage. If I were to allow for the term Carnal Christian to be used, this would be my definition of one. A Christian, living in bondage to the ruler of this world, trying to overcome with one’s own efforts, trying to become spiritual. And what happens is, they think it sure is great to have my sins forgiven, but this captivity stuff sure takes the excitement out of it. They think I sure thought it would be different.

And God had a solution, then and now. The solution was to provide them with LIFE. To get them and us out of Egypt, He instructed each household to roast the lamb and eat it as nourishment for the journey ahead. This is the body side of the cross. You take the lamb, Jesus, into you as LIFE. God showed them and us today that the same lamb that provided the blood is to be eaten for the journey.

Everything that is necessary for living comes from the lamb. It is not that the lamb dies for you then you are sent out on your own to do the rest on your own, and not even that you do it with His help. The lamb is everything here. The lamb gave His blood for them and his life to them. They took its meat into them, and it became nourishment, strength, vitality for the long journey. They lived their life out of the lambs life. They walked in his energy. They killed one lamb for two purposes; the Passover and the walk.

Paul also calls the New Testament life a walk. What is the LIFE of that walk? Well it is not our trying to walk for God. It may look that way on the outside, but we have the Lamb of God in us. He is not only forgiveness of our sins. He is also the LIFE in us, from whom we make the journey.
One cross, two purposes, just like one lamb two purposes. God say’s “Take the blood and put it on your door. Take the meat and put it in your body. Put The LIFE in you. And unless you put the LIFE in you, you will always be operating in that realm of bondage. When you put the LIFE in you, you will be ready to live. You will be ready to start the journey.”

Christians can walk around for years with a sense of forgiveness, but absolutely no sense of LIFE. WE have the LIFE in us, but we do not know it. We try to generate the LIFE ourselves, but we are doomed to failure, because it is impossible for us to generate the LIFE. God is telling us, I will share my Glory with no man. Only I can live MY LIFE. But, …I will impart the LIFE to you. I will give you the LIFE. I will live it through you.”

This is why there is not anything beyond the grace of God, once it is understood, that is necessary for living the Christian LIFE. All you are ever going to need for LIFE is in the cross, ..that is both sides of the cross. It is all in Christ. And HE is in us.

The Apostle Paul wrote: Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. See, we were saved not just by Jesus’ death, but also by His LIFE. This is true eternally, above the line, but it is a truth here and now. We are saved by the Life of Christ that lives within us.

2) Not us, But Jesus In US

In the 6th chapter of Johns Gospel, Jesus feeds 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When he leaves the crowd goes after Him. They want more. He tells them, you did not see the miracle in the miracle. You saw the seen and temporary. You saw bread and fish multiplied. But you missed the unseen and eternal miracle. I AM the unseen and eternal miracle. See Jesus is not just a bread producer He is THE LIFE giver.

Later in John 6, He says “I AM the bread of life…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood; you have no life in yourselves. He who eats MY flesh and drinks MY blood has eternal life.”

We, Christian, have ETERNAL LIFE in us, God’s very LIFE; LIFE without beginning and end. We have the uncreated LIFE.

Jesus is telling us, I AM all a person needs for living the LIFE, it is not ME plus something. It is not Me plus your prayers, or your Bible study, or your service, or all you can do, because you will never produce a life that pleases ME. I AM the only LIFE that pleases Me.

See,… no one gets offended when your talking about separation from God, instead of Union with God. As long as it is God up there and us down here, He does things for us from up there it is okay. But when you start talking about Jesus and He does something for us, as us, things get touchy. People get nervous when you start touching them. In John 6, the people were perfectly satisfied with Jesus as long as He produced bread. The problem came when He said I AM the bread. How can this man give us His flesh to eat?

Jesus was telling the Jews, you are doing all the external things, but there is no LIFE in it. What is the opposite of LIFE?...Death!. This became so real to me at Faith Temple these past few months. In March as I prepared to write these very sermons I wrote an editorial in our monthly news letter. In my excitement I wrote that God is ready for spiritual awakening, another term for The Life, at Faith Temple, and that I was also, and that if you were not please leave. I had no Idea how upset this would make people. I mean what is the opposite of Spiritual Awakening, ..Spiritual death. If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death. Yea, people are okay when its God up there and us down here. But a preacher starts talking about Christ in the man, oh he better watch out, people get made, they make comments like, oh I guess it’s his way or the highway, well, that what Jesus said.

Yes, If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death..but, ..it does not look like death, because we often get results. I think that is another lie of the devil. “Results” Church programs get results, personal programs get results, in the seen and temporary realm below the line, and people are getting results. Jesus has a word for Christian trying to get results; it is “Enjoy Your Reward.” You want results; you’re getting results, well then enjoy your reward. Go ahead with it. But it is not of Me. It is not MY LIFE flowing through you.

Paul revealed the secret of Christ in us. He said to the Galatians, I live, but not really, Christ lives in me. It looks like me, but it is Christ. To the Colossians he wrote, It is Christ in you that is your hope of Glory. To the Philippians he proclaimed; For me to live is Christ. Who was doing the living? Jesus Christ was. But if we could look at Him, we would see Paul.

2 Cor. 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. These ambassadors were pleading, but who was really pleading? God was. He was making His plea through them. The words and the works came through Paul. But Paul knew he was not working up this concern for lost people, God was. God was in him making the appeal. It looked like Paul, but it was the indwelling Jesus Christ.

3) What does Jesus In Us Look Like

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
What did Jesus mean, Learn from Me? The Gospel of John has the answer. Jesus says over and over things like, I do nothing of my self, I only do what I see with the Father, I only speak what I hear from the Father, the works I do , they are not My works, they are the Father’s works, who dwells in Me.

When Jesus said “Learn from Me, He meant from how He lived. And how did He live. He lived out of the Father. He had no other secret. He did not have a Bible to read, He did not have a prayer group, He simply let the Father live through Him. He learned how to live off the resources of the Father, which are not of this temporary realm below the line. The resources of the Father are above the line, in the eternal realm.

Jesus could have said it this way. The Father is LIFE. Every statement He ever gave is a witness to this. God is LIFE! The Father was living His LIFE through Jesus. Jesus says, what you see when you look at Me is the Father in Me. We are ONE. The Father lived through Him as Him. Jesus was at rest in Him. Jesus was at rest all this time. The Jews were irate when they heard this.

The life of the Son was the Father, and the Life of the sons is the SON. So how do we live the LIFE? We learn to live it out of the Son and the Father. To learn to live out of the Son and the Father you have to know something. …Where the Son and the Father live. Where do they live…In US!

It is a miracle, it is absolutely amazing, I can not fully explain it, But it can be witnessed in the LIFE of one man, The Man Jesus Christ.

How do we live The LIFE? We don’t, because we can’t. For years this is where I lived, but I could not produce the LIFE of God. I could not bring the uncreated, Gods LIFE out of the creation, me. How was I ever going to do that? Well, as long as I saw myself as the source of LIFE I kept on trying. Then one day, Jesus said to me, I AM your LIFE. I AM the only One acceptable to the Father. I not only want to forgive you; I want to live the LIFE in you. I want to be your LIFE!

Look at Roman 6 one more time. Verse 7 says He who has died is free from sin. Most then usually skip to verse 11 in their focus and read, consider yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ. But I want you to focus on verse 10 for just a moment.
Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

The LIFE that Jesus lives,…. He lives to GOD! And where is Jesus? He is in us. Jesus in us lives His LIFE to God. He lives only to God. …We don’t have to try and live to God! He who lives in us lives to God. If we know that the old self is dead and out of the way, we can rest assured that the Person in us is going to live for the Glory of God. Jesus said; My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. That is who lives in you. His only desire and will is to do the Will of the Father. He lives in you and me, and HE will Do IT!

So let me bring all this to a conclusion.

We have really only 3 questions. Who is The LIFE? Where is the LIFE? And who am I?

When we get those settled, LIFE is easy. …
Who is The LIFE? Jesus is The LIFE.
Where is the LIFE.. Jesus lives in me.
And who am I?I am the vessel, a container of His LIFE, holy, righteous, and blameless in His sight.

If I know who life is and where the life is, I am free from trying to become something I was never meant to be. It is easy to be natural. It is hard to be unnatural, trying to produce the LIFE on our own, resulting in frustration, anger, desperation, till finally you give up. I did.
We are not meant to operate un-naturally. But if we know who we are, and who LIFE is, and where LIFE is, we can just be ourselves and let Him live it because no one has any trouble being themselves.

I pray you are on the verge of an I SEE moment. An I see now how to live the life moment. Let him live it. If so then I encourage you to count yourself dead. The old self dead. Count on it. Count yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. He is the One in you that lives to God. Count on Him to be doing it moment by moment. By faith reckon yourself dead as your point of reference. You are holy and righteous and blameless in His sight. Christ in you is your point of reference. He is sufficient, always loving, and always living to the Father.

It is not our trying that releases Christ life through us. It is our trusting. Just say, Lord, Your Holy Spirit is showing me this truth. I embrace it by faith, just as I embraced Jesus for forgiveness of my sins. I now embrace Jesus in me as my LIFE. Teach me; convince me God, of this truth by the Holy Spirit, so that I will not be captive any longer to trying to produce the LIFE myself.

Conclusion:
Is it not good news to us to know that He did not just die for us, though that is great news, that He is with us, though that is great news, that He is in us helping us, though that is good news, but that HE IS In US, Living The LIFE! He has joined His Spirit with our spirit. In the eternal realm, above the line, there is Deity inside us. We are not Deity, but we are containers of that Deity.
A well of eternal life is springing up inside of us, within us. This LIFE is adequate, This LIFE is sufficient; This LIFE is never exhausted, never tires, never taste bitter. This LIFE is always light, always has mercy in it, always has a second chance in it, always carries God’s forgiveness toward others, and always is love.

When we recognize this, suddenly the ought-to’s and musts of the Devils frantic way of life become the “Be Still and be’ of God’s LIFE. The be still and be of His eternal presence. A dramatic change of our point of reference results.
Satin’s invitation to humanity was “you Become.” …And when we are playing in his game of must and ought-to, we are in the spotlight. Our performance is the center stage. But our new point of reference is the indwelling Jesus Christ. He has no part in the separation implied by must and ought. He lives in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where all simply is.
We are invited to let that be, and let Him come. We pray it all the time. It is time we meant it. They Kingdom Come, Thy will be dome, on earth, below the line, just as it is in Heaven, above the line. Christ in the man, God back in His Kingdom.

IMB reports 500,000 baptisms in 2008

2009-12-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

By Don Graham

EDITOR’S NOTE:This is the first of two stories that look beyond the numbers in the Annual Statistical Report to the lives changed by Southern Baptist missionaries and their ministry partners.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--“You could be killed for talking about Jesus around here.”

That’s what a Muslim named Bershi* told missionary Luke Jenkins* after Jenkins shared the Gospel with him.

Bershi was an illegal immigrant looking for work when he came to the Central Asian nation where Jenkins serves as a church planter. But his warning didn’t stop Jenkins. He continued to discuss Jesus with Bershi, and as the young man’s interest grew, they began studying the Bible together. Eventually Bershi gave his life to Christ and was baptized.

Since that time Bershi has begun to actively share his faith, and even baptized three others he led to Christ earlier this year. He’s also returned to his own country, a place with severely limited access to the Gospel and very few believers.

Bershi’s baptism is among the more than 506,000 recorded by the IMB (International Mission Board) in 2008 — about one baptism per minute. Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners also reported starting more than 24,650 new churches last year, as well as engaging 93 new people groups with the Gospel for the first time. The total number of overseas churches broke records again, topping 204,000, continuing a steady climb from 111,000 just five years ago.

The numbers are evidence of the powerful way God is using Southern Baptists to complete the Great Commission task.

ESTHER’S STORY

Missionaries Karl and Anna Rickman* work with college students in East Asia, an area of the world that sometimes presents some unusual challenges when baptizing new believers.

The Rickmans led a Bible study group where five of the students accepted Jesus as their Savior. As the Rickmans began discipling the students, one of the first lessons focused on baptism. After reading the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, one of the students, Esther,* raised her hand.

“I want to be like that Ethiopian eunuch,” she said. “I want to be baptized now.”

“When she responded to the story so quickly my husband looked at me and said, smiling, ‘I think you should go prepare the bathtub,’” Anna remembers. “We knew that the Holy Spirit was leading her, and we were not about to quench it.”

But the typical Asian bathtub is a lot smaller than the tubs most Americans are used to — only about 3 feet long. Esther is 5’8”. She had to scrunch up her knees to sit down in the tub and leave enough room to be dunked. Karl proceeded with the baptism, but even with the tub filled to the brim, Esther’s knees remained dry.

“She looked at Karl and pointed to her dry knees and said earnestly, ‘What about these? Can you please baptize my knees, too? I want to be completely clean,’” Anna said. “So Karl helped slide her legs back into the water so they would be covered.

“Oh, if we could only possess that kind of heart. With tears in our eyes we were reminded that it is God’s Holy Spirit that prompts us, and it is only by the blood of Jesus that any of us can become clean — even to our knees.”

ASSAN’S STORY

You might think missionaries would jump at the chance to baptize someone. But that wasn’t the case for Jack Kirk,* who works in a dangerous Central Asian nation known for violent encounters between Muslims and Christians. He met Assan,* a local believer, through a mutual friend and wanted to hear his testimony.

Assan explained that he gave his life to Christ in prison after a fellow inmate gave him a copy of the New Testament. He read through it dozens of times during his five-year incarceration, and though he had no one to disciple him, Assan knew he wanted to be baptized.

Soon after his release, Assan went to one of the few Christian churches in town. He visited with a priest for three days, repeatedly asking to be baptized. But the priest refused because he suspected Assan was a government spy or an Islamic radical.

The experience left Assan discouraged, but the Holy Spirit didn’t allow that to squelch his passion to be baptized.

Four years had passed before Assan met Kirk. Almost immediately he asked Kirk to baptize him. Kirk was more than willing, but felt it would be better if Assan was baptized by one of his own people. He set up an appointment for Assan with a local Baptist pastor, but before they could meet, the pastor was thrown into prison for evangelizing.

Again, Assan asked Kirk to baptize him.

“I was still hesitant, so we read Scriptures concerning baptism,” Kirk said. “When we read the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, with tears in his eyes, Assan said, ‘Every time I read this I cry.’ At that point I knew that the Holy Spirit was giving me the OK to do this.”

So Kirk brought his children’s plastic swimming pool into the house, filled it with water and baptized Assan. After rising from the water, he sat still for a few moments, trying to regain his composure.

“I believe he was trying to not cry, which is very shameful in this culture,” Kirk says. “The joy that flooded the house was incredible.”

-30-

*Names changed

Don Graham is a writer for IMB.

URGENT PRAYER

2009-12-04T11:19:00.001-08:00

URGENT PRAYER
IMB
DECEMBER 4, 2009

AFRICA. Urgent prayer is needed for a situation involving a Baptist convention in an unstable country in southern Africa. Attempts are underway to discredit convention leaders and have them arrested on fabricated charges. Pray for the protection of everyone from threatened physical harm. Pray for wisdom and safety for national believers and missionaries as they work to resolve these issues. Pray that Satan’s schemes will be revealed. Pray that national believers will stand against these schemes. Pray that they will remember that a believer’s armor does not protect their backs, teaching us that we are not to retreat from evil. Pray that truth will be known at every turn, exposing all lies.

Living Above The Line Sermon Series

2009-11-29T13:13:00.000-08:00

Two Sides of the Cross, Part 2 Christ Lives In You

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,…. God abides in him, and he in God.

Christ Lives in You

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, comma…You know how many Christians sit on that comma. Some do for years, some forever. I did for 27 years. Then I experienced the other half of that verse, God abides in him, and he in God. Jesus said I AM the life. I finally realized the LIFE had been residing in me all along. But I did not know it.

I have been talking about the two sides of the cross; the blood side and the body side. On the blood side, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Through His death we obtained forgiveness. On the body side of the cross, in the unseen and eternal realm, in our spirit, we experienced with Christ what He experienced; we died with Him and were raised with Him.

I have focused on the death aspect of the body side. We died on the cross with Christ. Our old self is dead, burred. We are dead to sin. We are dead to the law. We are dead to ourselves as a point of reference. The fact that we died is a foundational truth in the Christian life IN CHRIST.

But, if we only emphasis our death in Christ, we will never see what God purposed to be resurrected out of our death; what is that…it is LIFE! We can stand on the tomb and celebrated our death all day long and never get on to living the Life.

In Romans 6, Paul emphasized both our crucifixion and our resurrection with Christ. Romans 6:4-5, 11 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. V. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

God raised our new man from the dead, and then God berthed in us an entirely new spirit, holy, righteous, so that He could then unite Himself to our spirit and live His life through us. And whether we knew it or not, at our rebirth, Jesus came into us and we became one with Him. He now lives in and through us. Two sides of the cross; Blood, and Body, Christ died for us, Christ lives in us.

Now it is time for another trip. Last time we went back 2000 years to the cross, this time we will go 3400 years to the Exodus. God gave us a wonderful illustration of what IM trying to help you understand. We call it the Passover. In Exodus 12, before God sent the death angel to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, God told the Hebrew people to set apart a lamb from the flock, to kill it, and smear the blood on the doorposts of their dwellings. When God saw this blood, He would then Passover that house and spare the firstborn inside. The people had only to apply the blood to the doorposts.

This part of the Passover foretells the blood side of the cross. The lamb died for the household. The household did not participate in that death, the lamb died for them. When they applied the blood to their doorposts, they escaped the wrath of God. The firstborn was sparred. The parallel to the blood side of the cross is undeniable. Christ died for us. He shed His blood as payment for our sins, a satisfying sacrifice to the righteous judgment of God. When, by faith, we today apply Christ’s blood, His death, to our lives, we are spared the wrath of God upon us. Our sins are forgiven.

Now follow me. Let me ask you this. When the children of Israel were in captivity under Pharaoh, what country were they in. Where were they?...Egypt. And after they put the blood on the doorposts and the Lord passed over them, and the firstborn son was spared, what country were they in. …Still Egypt.

You know, as long as our revelatory knowledge is limited to the blood side of the cross, Christ died for us, we may still have our firstborn. That is our sins may be forgiven. But we still live in captivity experientially. We are still living as if we are the subjects of the Pharaoh of our life, in bondage. If I were to allow for the term Carnal Christian to be used, this would be my definition of one. A Christian, living in bondage to the ruler of this world, trying to overcome with one’s own efforts, trying to become spiritual. And what happens is, they think it sure is great to have my sins forgiven, but this captivity stuff sure takes the excitement out of it. They think I sure thought it would be different.

And God had a solution, then and now. The solution was to provide them with LIFE. To get them and us out of Egypt, He instructed each household to roast the lamb and eat it as nourishment for the journey ahead. This is the body side of the cross. You take the lamb, Jesus, into you as LIFE. God showed them and us today that the same lamb that provided the blood is to be eaten for the journey.

Everything that is necessary for living comes from the lamb. It is not that the lamb dies for you then you are sent out on your own to do the rest on your own, and not even that you do it with His help. The lamb is everything here. The lamb gave His blood for them and his life to them. They took its meat into them, and it became nourishment, strength, vitality for the long journey. They lived their life out of the lamb’s life. They walked in his energy. They killed one lamb for two purposes; the Passover and the walk.

Paul also calls the New Testament life a walk. What is the LIFE of that walk? Well it is not our trying to walk for God. It may look that way on the outside, but we have the Lamb of God in us. He is not only forgiveness of our sins. He is also the LIFE in us, from whom we make the journey; one cross, two purposes, just like one lamb two purposes. God say’s “Take the blood and put it on your door. Take the meat and put it in your body. Put The LIFE in you. And unless you put the LIFE in you, you will always be operating in that realm of bondage. When you put the LIFE in you, you will be ready to live. You will be ready to start the journey.”

Christians can walk around for years with a sense of forgiveness, but absolutely no sense of LIFE. WE have the LIFE in us, but we do not know it. We try to generate the LIFE ourselves, but we are doomed to failure, because it is impossible for us to generate the LIFE. God is telling us, I will share my Glory with no man. Only I can live MY LIFE. But, …I will impart the LIFE to you. I will give you the LIFE. I will live it through you.”

This is why there is not anything beyond the grace of God, once it is understood, that is necessary for living the Christian LIFE. All you are ever going to need for LIFE is in the cross, ..that is both sides of the cross. It is all in Christ. And HE is in us.

The Apostle Paul wrote: Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. See, we were saved not just by Jesus’ death, but also by His LIFE. This is true eternally, above the line, but it is a truth here and now. We are saved by the Life of Christ that lives within us.

Not Us, But Jesus In Us

In the 6^th chapter of Johns Gospel, Jesus feeds 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When he leaves the crowd goes after Him. They want more. He tells them, you did not see the miracle in the miracle. You saw the seen and temporary. You saw bread and fish multiplied. But you missed the unseen and eternal miracle. I AM the unseen and eternal miracle. See Jesus is not just a bread producer He is THE LIFE giver.

Later in John 6, He says “I AM the bread of life…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood; you have no life in yourselves. He who eats MY flesh and drinks MY blood has eternal life.”

We, Christians, have ETERNAL LIFE in us, God’s very LIFE; LIFE without beginning and end. We have the uncreated LIFE.

Jesus is telling us, I AM all a person needs for living the LIFE, it is not ME plus something. It is not Me plus your prayers, or your Bible study, or your service, or all you can do, because you will never produce a life that pleases ME. I AM the only LIFE that pleases Me.

See, no one gets offended when you are talking about separation from God, instead of Union with God. As long as it is God up there and us down here, He does things for us from up there it is okay. But when you start talking about Jesus and He does something for us, as us, things get touchy. People get nervous when you start touching them. In John 6, the people were perfectly satisfied with Jesus as long as He produced bread. The problem came when He said I AM the bread. How can this man give us His flesh to eat?

· Jesus was telling the Jews, you are doing all the external things, but there is no LIFE in it. What is the opposite of LIFE?...Death!. This became so real to me at Faith Temple these past few months. In March as I prepared to write these very sermons I wrote an editorial in our monthly news letter. In my excitement I wrote that God is ready for spiritual awakening, another term for The Life, at Faith Temple, and that I was also, and that if you were not please leave. I had no Idea how upset this would make people. I mean what is the opposite of Spiritual Awakening, ..Spiritual death. If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death. Yea, people are okay when it’s God up there and us down here. But a preacher starts talking about Christ in the man, oh he better watch out, people get mad, they make comments like, oh I guess it’s his way or the highway, well, …that what Jesus said.

Yes, If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death..but, ..it does not look like death, because we often get results. I think that is another lie of the devil. “Results” Church programs get results, personal programs get results, in the seen and temporary realm below the line, and people are getting results. Jesus has a word for Christian trying to get results; it is “Enjoy Your Reward.” You want results; you’re getting results, well then enjoy your reward. Go ahead with it. But it is not of Me. It is not MY LIFE flowing through you.

Paul revealed the secret of Christ in us. He said to the Galatians, I live, but not really, Christ lives in me. It looks like me, but it is Christ. To the Colossians he wrote, It is Christ in you that is your hope of Glory. To the Philippians he proclaimed; For me to live is Christ. Who was doing the living? Jesus Christ was. But if we could look at Him, we would see Paul.

2 Cor. 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. These ambassadors were pleading, but who was really pleading? God was. He was making His plea through them. The words and the works came through Paul. But Paul knew he was not working up this concern for lost people, God was. God was in him making the appeal. It looked like Paul, but it was the indwelling Jesus Christ.

3) What does Jesus In Us Look Like

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

What did Jesus mean, Learn from Me? The Gospel of John has the answer. Jesus says over and over things like, I do nothing of myself, I only do what I see with the Father, I only speak what I hear from the Father, the works I do , they are not My works, they are the Father’s works, who dwells in Me.

When Jesus said “Learn from Me, He meant from how He lived. And how did He live. He lived out of the Father. He had no other secret. He did not have a Bible to read, He did not have a prayer group, He simply let the Father live through Him. He learned how to live off the resources of the Father, which are not of this temporary realm below the line. The resources of the Father are above the line, in the eternal realm.

Jesus could have said it this way. The Father is LIFE. Every statement He ever gave is a witness to this. God is LIFE! The Father was living His LIFE through Jesus. Jesus says, what you see when you look at Me is the Father in Me. We are ONE. The Father lived through Him as Him. Jesus was at rest in Him. Jesus was at rest all this time. The Jews were irate when they heard this.

The life of the Son was the Father, and the Life of the sons is the SON. So how do we live the LIFE? We learn to live it out of the Son and the Father. To learn to live out of the Son and the Father you have to know something. …Where the Son and the Father live. Where do they live…In US!

It is a miracle, it is absolutely amazing, I cannot fully explain it, but it can be witnessed in the LIFE of one man, The Man Jesus Christ.

How do we live The LIFE? We don’t, because we can’t. For years this is where I lived, but I could not produce the LIFE of God. I could not bring the uncreated, Gods LIFE out of the creation, me. How was I ever going to do that? Well, as long as I saw myself as the source of LIFE I kept on trying. Then one day, Jesus said to me, I AM your LIFE. I AM the only One acceptable to the Father. I not only want to forgive you; I want to live the LIFE in you. I want to be your LIFE!

Look at Roman 6 one more time. Verse 7 says He who has died is free from sin. We then usually ship to verse 11 in our focus and read, consider yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ. But I want you to focus on verse 10 for just a moment. Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

The LIFE that Jesus lives, He lives to GOD! And where is Jesus? He is in us. Jesus in us lives His LIFE to God. He lives only to God. …We don’t have to try and live to God! He who lives in us lives to God. If we know that the old self is dead and out of the way, we can rest assured that the Person in us is going to live for the Glory of God. Jesus said; My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. That is who lives in you. His only desire and will is to do the Will of the Father. He lives in you and me, and HE will Do IT!

So let me bring all this to a conclusion.

We have really only 3 questions. Who is The LIFE? Where is the LIFE? And who am I?

When we get those settled, LIFE is easy. …Jesus is The LIFE. Jesus lives in me. I am the vessel, a container of His LIFE, holy, righteous, and blameless in His sight. If I know who life is and where the life is, I am free from trying to become something I was never meant to be. It is easy to be natural. It is hard to be unnatural, trying to produce the LIFE on our own, resulting in frustration, anger, desperation, till finally you give up. I did.

We are not meant to operate un-naturally. But if we know who we are, and who LIFE is, and where LIFE is, we can just be ourselves and let Him live it because no one has any trouble being themselves.

I pray you are on the verge of an I SEE moment. An I see now how to live the life. I let him live it. If so then I encourage you to count yourself dead. The old self dead. Count on it. Count yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. He is the One in you that lives to God. Count on Him to be doing it moment by moment. By faith reckon yourself dead as your point of reference. You are holy and righteous and blameless in His sight. Christ in you is you point of reference. He is sufficient, always loving, and always living to the Father.

It is not our trying that releases Christ life through us. It is our trusting. Just say, Lord, Your Holy Spirit is showing me this truth. I embrace it by faith, just as I embraced Jesus for forgiveness of my sins. I now embrace Jesus in me as my LIFE. Teach me; convince me God, of this truth by the Holy Spirit, so that I will not be captive any longer to trying to produce the LIFE myself.

Conclusion:

Is it not good news to us to know that He did not just die for us, though that is great news, that He is with us, though that is great news, that He is in us helping us, though that is good news, but that HE IS In US, Living The LIFE! He has joined His Spirit with our spirit. In the eternal realm, above the line, there is Deity inside us. We are not Deity, but we are containers of that Deity.

A well of eternal life is springing up inside of us, within us. This LIFE is adequate, This LIFE is sufficient; This LIFE is never exhausted, never tires, never taste bitter. This LIFE is always light, always has mercy in it, always has a second chance in it, always carries God’s forgiveness toward others, and always is love.

When we recognize this, suddenly the ought-to’s and musts of the Devils frantic way of life become the “Be Still and be’ of God’s LIFE. The be still and be of His eternal presence. A dramatic change of our point of reference results.

Satin’s invitation to humanity was “you Become.” …And when we are playing in his game of must and ought-to, we are in the spotlight. Our performance is the center stage. But our new point of reference is the indwelling Jesus Christ. He has no part in the separation implied by must and ought. He lives in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where all simply is.

We are invited to let that be, and let Him come. We pray it all the time. It is time we meant it. They Kingdom Come, Thy will be dome, on earth, below the line, just as it is in Heaven, above the line. Christ in the man, God in His Kingdom.

IMB appoints 55 missionaries despite financial hardships

2009-11-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

11/13/2009By Don Graham

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)—Despite the rocky economy and a red-line budget, IMB (International Mission Board) trustees took a step of faith Nov. 10 when they celebrated the appointment of 55 new missionaries at Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., in conjunction with the Louisiana Baptist Convention meeting.

Earlier this year, 25 of the 55 appointees were told they would be delayed going to the mission field until 2010 because there wasn’t enough money to send them. The global recession, decreased giving through the Cooperative Program and a $29 million shortfall in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering left the IMB with a limited budget, forcing trustees to restrict new missionary appointments. Sixty-nine long-term candidates and 350 short-term candidates already in the pipeline to go overseas were put on hold.

But during the summer, Southern Baptists responded to the IMB’s financial restrictions with a grassroots effort to raise additional support to send as many of the delayed missionary candidates as possible before the end of 2009. IMB leadership determined the extra gifts would be enough to send 25 of the 69 career candidates on hold, including Tim and Audrey Shepard.*

The Shepards had already quit their jobs, sold their house, said goodbye to family and friends — even given away the family dog — when they got the news their appointment was being delayed until 2010, potentially leaving them in limbo for six months or more. But now they won’t have to wait and are already preparing for their assignment in Asia.

“We’re thrilled to be missionaries again,” Audrey said. The Shepards previously served 15 years with the IMB but left the field in 2004 so their daughter could attend high school in the United States. “We have seen how it is for missionaries that are sent without the support that Southern Baptist missionaries have, and we know that in this economy they must be really struggling.

“We don’t have that burden as Southern Baptists. … We can be on the field drawing people into the kingdom and not think about where our next paycheck is coming from, and that’s a tremendous blessing. We have faith in Southern Baptists that they will never let their missionaries go in need; that they will always support missions, and they’ve proven that throughout history.”

Zoe Parker,* who also was among the 25 appointees who would have been delayed, is now getting ready to go to South Asia where she’ll serve as a church planter.

Born to an abusive, alcoholic father, she became a Christian at age 9 only to turn her back on God at 16 when her boyfriend committed suicide. Parker says she was angry at God because He didn’t seem to answer her prayers to heal her family, and her boyfriend’s death was the last straw. She eventually married and became a social worker, trying “to fix an unfixable world.” She remembers sitting on urine-soaked sofas and fending off roaches while visiting clients’ homes, experiences she now recognizes as training ground for her work in poverty-stricken areas.

Then at 34, her life was rocked again by death when her husband, Carl, died suddenly of a heart attack. But this time, instead of driving her away, the death brought Polk back into a relationship with her Savior. Fifteen years later, she is answering God’s call to share Christ’s love overseas.

“God has used everything with a purpose for getting me to this point,” she said. “I’m very excited that God is allowing me to go [to the field] earlier than expected. … I feel very humbled and very grateful.

“How do you say thank you in a situation like this? … It’s an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord my God and to go on this adventure with Him. It’s not something that I take lightly or for granted.”

BEST OF THE BEST

IMB trustee chairman Paul Chitwood praised missionaries like Parker and the Shepards for their commitment and passion, calling them the “best of the best” in light of the IMB limiting the number of new appointments to the most strategic assignments.

“Their testimonies are clear. Their commitment is unquestionable. Their identity as Southern Baptists is without apology. And their call — God’s call on their lives — is so evident,” Chitwood said.

But he cautioned that the extra gifts that made it possible for many of the new missionaries to go would be given in vain without Southern Baptists’ continued support to keep missionaries on the field.

“In the midst of this unprecedented opportunity all over the world, we find ourselves … paring back our missionary force because of a lack of funding,” Chitwood said. “As excited as we are to see these 55 new missionaries appointed, and as grateful as we are to Louisiana Baptists for [helping to] make it possible, my prayer is that you will be challenged to make a greater commitment to pray, and during this Lottie Moon Christmas Offering season, to give.”

‘SECOND MILE’ OFFERING

As a sign of their commitment to support the new missionaries, Louisiana Baptists present for the appointment service took up their own special offering of nearly $8,500. David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, called it a “second mile” offering, in reference to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

“Louisiana Baptists love missions, and we’re going to make a demonstration of that tonight,” Hankins said, addressing the many church pastors in the audience. “If someone compels you to go one mile, then you go a second mile. The first mile is out of duty, the second mile is out of love. The first mile is what you do under ordinary conditions; the second mile is what you do under difficult conditions.

“One of the most important things you can do pastoring people is to go to your church and say, ‘This year we don’t care how hard the economy is, how strong the recession is, we’re going to do more for international missions through the Lottie Moon offering than we’ve ever done before. This is what is demanded by difficult times, and we’re going to go the second mile.”

DEAF AND KOREAN APPOINTEES

Gordon Fort, IMB vice president of global strategy, pointed out the special significance of having Korean Americans and Deaf Americans among the appointees. He lauded the more than 200 Korean Americans now serving with the IMB, as well as the growing number of Deaf missionaries. There are more than 30 IMB missionaries, a third of whom are Deaf, who use sign languages from various countries to share the Gospel.

“We became convinced that a person who is, for instance, a Deaf Chinese, has more in common with a person who is a Deaf Russian than they do with a hearing person in their own population,” Fort said. “We began to understand that there had been an artificial barrier that was preventing many of the Deaf people of our world not only from hearing the Gospel but from crossing the boundary into the church.”

Fort spoke about meeting a young man, both deaf and blind, who responded to God’s call to missionary service.

“He had to understand what was being said through the interpretation of the fingers of the lady whose hands he held,” Fort said. “With tears streaming down his face the young man said to me through his interpreter, ‘Could God use someone like me as a missionary around the world?’

“Friends, I felt so ashamed … because there are people that have far greater capacity and ability than that young man has, who today are unwilling to go. We as Southern Baptists claim to be a missionary people and we are. But we only have [5,500] missionaries engaging 95 percent of the world’s population, and if we as Southern Baptists would simply send 1 percent of the 10 million active members … we would have 100,000 missionaries.

“While a young man like that is willing to go and should go, there are many of us that might consider the possibility that we are the ones to take this Gospel into some of these last remaining strongholds around the world.”

RANKIN’S CHALLENGE

IMB President Jerry Rankin concluded the appointment service with a challenge for the appointees and some words of advice. He urged the new missionaries to fully let go of the life they leave behind in the United States and to be wary of distractions once they reach the field.

“It’s so easy to get diverted, to get caught up in our ministry and doing good things that we lose the focus on why we are there,” Rankin said. “Satan knows how vulnerable we are to busyness. … It’s so easy to determine your own agenda and miss God’s priority for what He wants you to do.

“Don’t compromise in longing for a more comfortable lifestyle, the amenities that you enjoyed in America. Don’t always be entertaining thoughts that if it doesn’t work out ‘I can always return to the States and ministry there’ — no, place your life on the altar.

“Never forget the reason you’re going is that God has called you to plant your life among people who are lost. Tell them about Jesus, preach the Word and proclaim redemption until all have heard.”

Rankin also reminded the missionaries that their effectiveness as Christ’s witnesses is dependent solely on His power.

“We have no business going and thinking we can convince Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others of the truth of the Gospel … except for His power to draw all men to Himself because He was lifted up on the cross, died and rose again.

“We’re not sending you out simply because of your qualifications and your education … certainly that’s important, in fact, essential. But it’s not your ability — it’s your availability to the power of Jesus Christ. … Never forget He will demonstrate His power as you faithfully bear witness according to His purpose.”

Rankin also asked the audience to consider God’s calling on their lives.

“God may want you right here in northwest Louisiana — or wherever you’re from. But you can never be sure you’re in the center of God’s will if you’ve never come to the place of saying, ‘Wherever He leads I’ll go.’

“There is no greater thrill than sharing Jesus with someone who has never heard.”

Great Commission resurgence requires radical change

2009-11-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Great Commission resurgence requires radical change, Rankin says
11/13/2009

By Mark Kelly

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)—If Southern Baptists truly want to experience a Great Commission resurgence, they must turn their backs on business as usual and be willing to make radical changes in their missions commitment and approach, Jerry Rankin told IMB (International Mission Board) trustees Nov. 10 in Shreveport, La.

Rankin, who plans to retire as IMB president July 31, 2010, believes the 23-member task force studying how Southern Baptists can be more effective in obeying the Great Commission will bring some radical recommendations to the June 15-16, 2010, Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Fla.

“We should not be afraid of making radical changes. If we come out just kind of tweaking what we are doing to try to do it a little better, that would be most unfortunate,” Rankin said. “We are at a watershed time in history, with an unprecedented opportunity. God has blessed us and we must not become ingrown and self-focused, committed simply to continuing what we are doing in the way we are doing it. We’ve got to be willing to change.”

Rankin said he finds some merit in the idea of merging the denomination’s international and North American mission boards but only to the extent that it helps Southern Baptists accomplish the mandate to take the Gospel to “the the ends of the earth” and “make disciples of all nations.”

“If we’re thinking of combining [the two boards] just for the sake of efficiency, thinking it will release more funds to be more focused on our mission task, I think that would be a huge misperception,” Rankin said.

Trying to merge the two entities could merely wind up creating “a complex, bureaucratic structure that would dilute the effectiveness of what each of us is doing,” Rankin said. On the other hand, the current geographic dichotomy between North American and international missions “doesn’t make a lot of sense and is a detriment to fulfilling our Great Commission task,” he said.

Nearly every “people group we would ever hope to reach anywhere in the world is found right here in our own country,” Rankin said. “If there could be a way to come to a global missions entity that is focused on evangelizing and planting indigenous churches and reaching all the peoples of the world, whether here or overseas, there could be some merit in that. ... We could not afford to be diluted in [the] focus and application of our resources on taking the Gospel to all peoples.”

One challenge in facilitating a Great Commission resurgence among Southern Baptists lies in the fact that “Great Commission” is not a term found in the Bible and people differ in their definitions of its mandate, Rankin added.

While the Bible passage usually identified as the Great Commission — Matthew 28:19-20 — makes it clear that Christ’s mandate is to make disciples of all the world’s people groups, the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 often are misunderstood, Rankin said.

When Jesus told the disciples they would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” he was outlining the progression the Gospel would take as it moved toward the “ends of the earth,” Rankin said. Understood in the light of Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission is to focus on people groups that have yet to hear the Gospel and become disciples, he explained.

“Certainly God wants us to reach our home community, to evangelize our state, to minister to people in need,” Rankin told the trustees. “But let’s not misuse the Scripture to divert our attention from the focus of what the Great Commission is all about: reaching the ends of the earth, those that are yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“I am quite concerned we will miss [a Great Commission resurgence] if we miss that very foundation of what we’re talking about when we talk about a Great Commission resurgence: to restore Southern Baptists to God’s heart, God’s priority as His people in reaching the nations and peoples of the world,” Rankin added.

“If you define the Great Commission as anything and everything we do as a denomination, an increase in baptisms, more healthy churches, greater cultural impact on our society, there’s not going to be a lot of change because we will just continue to do anything and everything the best that we can,” Rankin said. “But I am convinced that God has blessed Southern Baptists, He has raised us up in numbers and resources, not to take pride in being a great denomination and how many programs we can implement and how well we can do them but to be His instrument to reach a lost world and fulfill His mission.”

Rankin noted a recent report from Empty Tomb, a Christian research organization in Champaign, Ill., that Southern Baptists set a goal several years ago to fulfill the Great Commission and complete the task of reaching all peoples with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and calculated that if Southern Baptists could field 8,000 international missionaries, the remaining unreached people groups realistically could be engaged.

The report, however, then went on to analyze what Southern Baptists do with the billions Southern Baptist churches receive each year and the amount of money actually allocated by the denomination to send out missionaries and finish the task of the Great Commission, Rankin said.

The research organization’s conclusion was that the Southern Baptist Convention has obviously implemented a goal not to fulfill the goal of the Great Commission, Rankin said.

“We must be very careful of how we speak of other entities in our denomination. I know the leadership of our state conventions, our SBC entities, how conscientious they are, how sincerely dedicated to serving the Lord ... and the wonderful job they are doing. That’s not the issue,” Rankin said. “If we are to have a Great Commission resurgence, we’ve got to be willing to ask, ‘How does it all stack up in relation to reaching the nations and getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.’

Living Above the Line Sermon Series

2009-10-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Living Above the Line

Two Sides of the Cross Part One 1 Cor. 15:3

A very large majority of Christians only know about one side of the cross. Much of modern preaching is nothing more than a steady diet of Christ died for the forgiveness of your sins. Week after week preachers deliver this message and already saved Christians are perfectly happy hearing it again and again and again… The problem is that most audiences in churches on Sunday morning are already saved; their sins are already forgiven. And if and when another message is offered it is typically having to do with some external compliance or keeping some commandment.

Much of my life I heard these messages and thought that there has got to be more. This is not getting me any further along than I already am. It was like a rehearsal Sunday after Sunday, but never any performance. Lots of effort but no action, no growing, defiantly no growth spiritually.

Why? Why is there no growth? Because only one side of the cross is being preached; the local church is being feed a steady diet of only half of the cross. The church is being sustained on only one half of Gods daily requirement of nutrition. Now one side of the cross has a strong enough nutritional value to sustain life but that’s all. It sustains life but does not provide growth. And where there is no growth the body’s development becomes stunted. So what we have is a body with an Identity problem as we saw last week, but also a problem in its development.

Let me take you back two thousand years.You are in Jerusalem for vacation. It is Passover week and you can not believe you did not read up on the travel brochures and find out never to come during one of the local peoples religious festivals. But all the talk is see the Holy Land. You’re out shopping and you hear that there is to be a crucifixion that day. Two local thieves and some man accused of being a political extremist, an enemy of Caesar. ….Your disappointed in the place, the food is bad, the climate is hot, public transportation stinks, so you say to your wife lets go to the crucifixion and see what that’s all about. …That is what we see in the seen and temporary realm.

So you go out in the middle of the afternoon, and they nail the man in the middle to a cross and He dies.

Being Americans, nothing holds our attention for any length of time, so we immediately ask, What else is going on.

But then, a very strange thing happens. A voice within says, this was no political extremist. This is My Son. I AM God the Father. This is God the Son. And He died for your sins. If you will receive this, your sins will be forgiven.

We hear this and respond yes, I will receive that from Him. …

All of us who have believed, had faith in, who have trusted into Christ, have had this experience. It is not important that you know the date, or the time, but that you know it happened, so that you can say MY SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN! That is a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Nothing from the seen and temporary realm, below the line, tells you that your sins are forgiven. It is a truth from the unseen, eternal realm above the line.

This is the first side of the cross. Christ died for you. 1 Cor. 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins. And this message is spread throughout the New Testament. (Eph. 1:7-8, Col. 1:14, Col. 2:13, 1 John 2:2)

And it is a thrilling thing to have your sins forgiven. Just knowing that we are forgiven and now have a right standing with God is usually enough to carry even the weakest of Christian for at least a few months, as we marvel at God’s amazing grace toward us. And that is all most preachers preach, a steady diet of Christ died for your sin’s, a constant diet of Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me and Are Washed in the Blood fully trusting His Grace this hour. You know, week after week, are washed in the blood, are your garments clean, are they white as snow, and we scream yes, yes, yes, …hallelujah…

But very soon, and in some case very, very soon, we encounter a problem. Why, because there is only one lesson that the Holy Spirit can teach us from this event in Jerusalem of Christ dying for us: Your Sin’s Are Forgiven. That is the basic truth this event contains. But once we are forgiven, Jesus said its time to start living. … and so we ask, how in the world do I live this thing out. How on earth do I get my act together? How am I going to keep from sinning?

And we discover the truth that we are forgiven, does not tell us one thing about how to live the life. It only addresses the question, what do I do about my sins.” It has nothing to do with living the life. Forgiveness is the only inner revelation we have so far from the Holy Spirit. We do not have any revelation on how to live the life. So we take this one single revelation, that our sins are forgiven, and we try to stretch it out to somehow cover how to live the life.

And how do we do it? We go out and try to live the Christian life, but we just can not quite pull it off. Instead, we sin a little bit, or a lot, and then we get forgiven before we go to bed at night. Or we get forgiven on Sunday at church. Preachers take their congregation through this week after week after week.

They say, this is what we have done wrong; now let’s ask God to forgive us. Then let’s do out best to make it until next Sunday. The People say, Thank you preacher, you made me feel twice as bad as last week, and I’m twice as glad I’m forgiven this week, oops, now its 12:00 o’clock time to pass the potato salad, got to go.

And that’s the way it is for far too many, either at church, or in their individual lives. And there is no way out, because we do not have anything from the Lord yet on how to live the life. So we become preoccupied with whom? With ourselves and on our sin’s.

We still see ourselves externally, based on our performance. And this is like being on a roller caster, because our performance goes up and down and we never measure up. So we are very unhappy, but we smile, a fake smile, sometimes. We go to church and say IM fine when asked. We think IM actually miserable, but it is Sunday, I can not say IM miserable in here because everyone is so happy. I mean Happy happy. So we say where’s the coffee? I need more spirit. More caffeine please, turn up the music.

See, after you get over the thrill of being saved, you’re stuck on this treadmill. And It is worse than being lost. And by that, I don’t mean it is really worse than being lost, but I mean it feels worse than being lost. … Why, because when you were lost you were comfortable being lost. You do not have to do anything to be lost. Have you ever seen a book on how to be lost? Lost people are good at being lost. …It is easy to walk on two feet, it gets difficult when you have to drop to your knees and spend the day crawling. It is against our nature to crawl. We are comfortable being lost because it once was our nature.

And it is easier being lost than being saved and trying to live off of only “IM forgiven,” trying with all your might to be a good Christian. Because that is simply only one side of the cross; it is only half of the Gospel Jesus proclaimed. And it will give you only a partial, fragmented view of salvation. With only half the Gospel, we go back to the old way, into our independent self-effort, trying to make the rest of it happen on our own.

And we can not make it happen. But, there is a reason why, this is actually part of the way God programmed us. God programmed us so that if we try to make the Christian walk work on our own we will fail. He designed you in a way that that kind of living would bring you nothing but heartbreak, and despair and disappointment. He designed us that this kind of life would bring nothing but condemnation.

And so many simply preach or decide that this must be how the Christian life is supposed to be. That victorious living on this side of Heaven, below the line is impossible, that this is the Christian life, this side of eternity, and it is never more than a struggle in which you will suffer defeat after defeat after defeat. That is a far cry from what my Lord Jesus promised as “Abundant Life.”

So why the disparity? ….Because the first side of the cross only deals with the issue of sin’s. S-I-N-S. Plural. Jesus Christ died on the cross, our S-I-N-S are forgiven. God has wiped the slate clean of all the offenses we have or ever will commit against Him.

But, getting our sins forgiven does not deal with the question of sin. S-I-N. Singular. Sins are the product of something that the Bible says dwells within us-which is sin. (Rom 7:17)

Sin is a power, or a force, that is in rebellion against God and produces sins as its fruit. We inherited sin through Adam, from whom sin was passed to every subsequent generation (Rom 5:12). As long as sin dwells in the center of our being, it will produce sins. So most Christians are on this sort of treadmill: we sin, we get forgiven; we sin, we get forgiven. Over and over and over.

But, we read our Bible and think praise God, it says one day that sin will not dog us anymore, causing us to do what we don’t want to do. We read God’s promises of abundant life, and how we have victory over sin. But because we don’t experience that victory over sin, in the here and now, below the line, we conclude that some event is yet to take place before we can experience them. And that is exactly right.

That event is that WE MUST DIE. But we even have that all wrong.

See, we tell ourselves that once we physically die we are going to move into the unseen and eternal realm above the line. Then we are going to have everything that we have anticipated. So we push all of God’s promises off into the eternal future, and we say, Thank You God that this great big struggle will end when I die. When I die, IM going to join the unseen and eternal realm above the line, and everything is going to be great!

And there is a tremendous truth to this thinking. … I know, I lived that life; But there came a moment in my life when I realized that none of those words in the Bible applied to the future. Every single one of them applied to my life now. Remember the word I said best described the eternal, unseen realm, it was simply “Now.” 2 Cor. 1:20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. Not will find their yes, not will be yes, but find, are yes, in Him. God did not intend me to relegate them to the divine realm. He meant for Greg to experience them now.

But we have one thing right. The only way to experience these promises is to die. When we die, we finally will be free from ourselves. That is an absolute truth. We all must die to enter into these unseen, eternal realities, above the line. So I say, you do have to die, but the issue is when you die? You know what God showed me, 27 years after I became a Christian, I had already died, and it was a whole lot earlier than I ever imagined. Here I was walking along waiting on something to happen that in the unseen, eternal realm above the line had already happened. I had already died. ….

Now let’s go back to our Holy Land trip 2000 years ago. Remember we were standing just outside of Jerusalem observing a crucifixion. There the Holy Spirit told us that the man in the center was God’s Son, and He died for the forgiveness of our sins. But now the illustration changes. Suddenly quite beyond our understanding we are transported off the ground and up into that body. The body of Jesus Christ Himself. And we are no longer observers of something He is doing for us. We are participating with Him in the event. We are being crucified with Him. And when He dies, we die with Him.m

Look at Romans 6 Romans 6:3-6 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him …

I used to read that passage all wrong. Being a Baptist, and not reading Greek back then, I came along the word baptize and all I saw was a pool of water. But the Greek word Baptizo does not mean what baptize means to us. We are victims of the fact that King James was a Catholic. Rather than translate into the proper English word immerse, the translators decided to keep their heads, I mean literally keep their heads, and just turned the Greek word into an English word. Baptizo became baptize. And whenever someone says baptize we think of water and a religious ceremony of some sort.

But we get a much more accurate meaning when we translate it directly into the corresponding English word. Do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into his death? There is no water here, because Paul is saying that we were immersed into Christ. We went into Him. He swallowed us up.

All of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into his death!

Why? Because He died. And whatever happened to Jesus on the cross happened to whomever was immersed in Him. We were all immersed into Him. We were in Him on that cross, experiencing what He experienced. So when He died, we died. When He was raised, we were raised with Him. And to emphasize the point, Paul said that we were “buried with Him.” And when we bury someone it can only mean one thing. At least it better. They are dead! The human life is over. Whatever they were is gone.

So there is a great big question confronting every one of us today. What died with Christ? It certainly does not seem like we died with Him. Here we are, still alive, still breathing, and alive. Jesus died 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. How could we have possibly died with Him.

The answer can be found in Romans 6:6 We know, or knowing this, that our old self, (the one we inherited from Adam, cut off from God but alive to the power of sin) was crucified with Him, Christ. …..Look at Ephes. 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The source of that life had to die. You can not put an I Love Jesus Band-Aid over it. It had to die. It had to be cut off. Cut Loose. The root must be killed. You can not just scrape off the sin and cover it up. God had to cut the old man out of you at the root or he would continue to produce his sinful fruit. So God crucified you with Christ.

The old man is indwelt and enslaved by sin. But God crucified that old man and gave us a new spirit, created in righteousness and holiness, (Eph. 4:24). Hundreds of years before Christ, Ezekiel prophesized that God would perform this heart transplant under the New Covenant: Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you,

We were dead in trespasses and sins. But we are no longer. We were sons of disobedience. But we are no longer. We were expressing desires of our spiritual father, Satan. But he is our father no longer. We were children of wrath. But we are no longer.

How could we have been crucified with Christ 2000 years ago? Because we were not crucified physically, in the seen and temporary realm below the line, we were crucified in the sprit realm, the unseen, eternal realm above the line. In the realm in which time has no meaning; because everything is now!

This is why Jesus is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. In the seen and temporary world below the line, He was slain 2000 years ago. In the unseen and eternal world above the line, He has always been the slain lamb. In the seen and temporary world, you and I live physically right now. In the unseen and eternal realm, you and I were crucified on the cross with Christ. Our old man, inherited from Adam, dead and separated from God, died wit

h Christ!

This is just one side of the cross. There are two sides. The first is the blood side. That is where Christ dies for us. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sin’s. The second side is the body side. We were united with Him on the cross, participants with Him in death, burred, and resurrected. Our old man was crucified with Him. Our new man, righteous and holy, was resurrected with Him.

On one side of the Cross is the Blood, Christ died for us, on the other side is the body; we died & were raised with Christ.

This should not be so unfamiliar to us. Every time we take communion we eat the bread, we drink the cup. The problem, most Christians do not have a clue what the bread represents. What representing the body really means.

It means that we were united with Him, and that when He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. When He was raised, we were raised. The heart of Paul’s theology is built on the Lord’s Supper; the blood and the body of Christ. Christ died for us; we died with Him.

We do not feel dead. We do not look dead. We do not act dead. But at some point the Holy Spirit pulls back the certain and shows us that in the deepest part of us, our spirit, which is who we truly are, a death has occurred that has forever changed us. We are going to look the same, feel the same, and think the same on many, many days. But…. we will know this, we are not the same. 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. If this has happened to you, you are ruined for the ordinary.

My friends in the unseen and eternal realm, above the line an exchange has taken place; I call it the great exchange, a change in our spirit that once we know it, produces a quality of life that is different from anything else the world has ever seen. It is light in darkness. It is God’s love in place of a world of self love. It is desirable above all else. And it is in us.

Shortfall stirs quick response; 25 more missionaries able to go overseas

2009-10-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

10/8/2009

By Shawn Hendricks

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--It didn’t look like they would be going overseas anytime soon.

After selling their house, notifying the schools where they worked, saying goodbye to friends and giving away their miniature collie, Q-tip, Tim and Audrey Shepard* were told there wasn’t enough money to send them to the mission field — at least not until next year.

Because of reduced giving to the 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and fallout from a tough economy, IMB (International Mission Board) put on hold some missionaries it had planned to send this year.

When word of the shortfall began to spread, pastors and denominational leaders launched a grass-roots effort on behalf of overseas missions. Southern Baptists quickly responded with a ground-swell of special offerings.

The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention was one of the first, presenting a check for $100,000 at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June. Those who attended the denomination’s Pastor’s Conference gave an additional $43,000. In August, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary students, faculty and staff took up a special offering of $60,000.

These along with other gifts from across the denomination will result in 25 more missionaries —including the Shepards — being appointed this fall.

For the Shepards, the delay has been challenging, but God has provided. Both were able to keep their jobs — one as a middle school math teacher and the other a school psychologist — and their family was able to move into a condominium owned by Audrey’s sister.

Though they admit they have settled back into their routine, they are “ready to go” to the mission field.

“It’s fantastic!,” Tim Shepard says. “Southern Baptists are so missions minded — obviously those who are aware of the shortfall are trying to do something about it.”

Now the couple will be able to share Jesus among 24 minority groups — 18 of which are untouched by the Gospel — in Asia. Without the Shepards, there would only be one other couple to work among more than a million people. The Shepards will help with ministry logistics, training national partners and following up with new believers and others who’ve expressed an interest in Christ.

ONGOING CHALLENGE

After IMB announced cutbacks this past spring, encouraging phone calls and e-mails started rolling in to the organization. Pastors and ministry leaders shared how their congregations had sacrificed a Sunday’s offering or collected special offerings for international missions.

While IMB has not yet received all of the anticipated funds, the decision to appoint 25 additional personnel was based on reports sent in by pastors and denominational leaders.

“We are humbled and gratified when we hear about churches encouraging their people to dig deeper than ever and taking special offerings so that more people can go to spread the Good News,” said David Steverson, IMB treasurer.

“While we rejoice in these special offerings … we must ensure to the best of our abilities that whoever is sent will be able to be sustained for the long term.

“We pray that those who gave a special gift this summer will give again during their church’s regular focus on international missions or Lottie Moon Christmas Offering campaign.”

Last year, giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering fell about $9 million short of the previous year’s offering and $29 million short of its goal. This year’s goal is set at $175 million. Continued support through the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is crucial to continuing the work, Steverson said.

RETHINKING PRIORITIES

News of the shortfall challenged Michael Cloer, pastor of Englewood Baptist Church, Rocky Mount, N.C., to rethink his priorities. Even with Englewood in the midst of a $1.1 million building project, Cloer said he felt convicted to respond to the shortfall.

“The Lord impressed upon my heart to put His kingdom first before our own needs here at Englewood,” he said. “This is a no-brainer … we’ve got to do this.

”In response, the congregation set aside the fourth Sunday in August to give every dime of their offering to international missions. The church usually runs about 1,000 people in three worship services on Sunday mornings. That day the church collected $76,209 — an amount Cloer noted was above their usual weekly offering.

“It’s a tough time, but we believed and stepped out [in faith],” Cloer said. “We’ve been hit just like everybody else in the economy … and God has taken care of us.”

About an hour’s drive west at Cresset Baptist Church in Durham, the congregation of about 175 also decided to take a special offering for international missions. Instead of challenging everyone to “give large amounts,” Pastor Jon Glass encouraged them to consider what would happen if every Southern Baptist gave $5. He then set a goal of $1,000.

When all the money was counted, the church had collected $4,700.

Glass, who started as pastor of Cresset in February, said the church’s response renewed his appreciation for the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which allow Southern Baptists to pool their resources.

“If every Southern Baptist who attends church on a Sunday were to give about $5 then it would make up for the shortfall,” Glass said. “We could continue to do so much work around the world.”

‘HOW COULD WE NOT?’

Teens at Super Summer camps (youth evangelism and leadership camps) in Missouri also joined in the effort. Campers sacrificed money they had planned to spend on T-shirts, pizza or CDs for international missions instead.

“There were audible gasps when I laid out the shortfall in giving,” said Matt Kearns, student ministry director for the Missouri Baptist Convention. “When I asked, ‘Would you all be interested in [giving to international missions]?’ they cheered.”

During the two weeks of camps, students gave more than $3,000 to international missions.

“There were piles and piles of dollar bills,” Kearns said.

Kearns and his ministry team of about 30 people then chipped in, raising the total to $6,000. He admits his team didn’t know about their part until he announced it onstage.

“Every one of them responded by giving … how could we not?”

* Names changed

Shawn Hendricks is a writer for the IMB.

60 new missionaries appointed

2009-09-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

9/18/2009
By Caroline Anderson

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)—Does God know sign language?

Some Deaf that a new missionary knows in Asia are asking the question. Since their earthly fathers cannot speak to them in their heart language, can their Heavenly Father understand them?

Emma Zondervan* says yes — God does know sign language.

“When God speaks to you, He speaks to your heart. He doesn’t speak to your ears,” said the Huntsville, Texas, native, who can hear. “Your deafness does not prevent you from going to heaven.”
Zondervan is among 60 new missionaries appointed by IMB (International Mission Board) Sept. 16 at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla. These appointees are being sent to four continents —35 to Asia, 12 to Europe, 12 to Africa and one to the Americas. That brings the total number of Southern Baptist missionaries to 5,562.

While in college, Zondervan called the IMB almost every week for two years to keep informed of opportunities to serve the Deaf. While still a student, she raised her own support and worked with Southern Baptist missionaries in Europe ministering to the Deaf in the summer of 2006. After graduation, she spent several months in Asia working with the Deaf — once again, on her own dime.

These trips confirmed her calling and now Zondervan is going to Asia to minister to the Deaf.

Rick Eckhart* and his wife, Lena*, have a message to share, too.

When Rick was in high school in Maryville, Tenn., a missionary invited him to serve in Papua New Guinea one summer.

“As a teenager I was like, ‘there’s no way I’m going to New Guinea,’” Rick said. “I was thinking … about all the … things that I was going to miss out on.”

But God started working in Rick’s heart, and he realized he didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

“In Papua New Guinea, I shared my testimony with a tribal group in the jungle. A tribal leader, after hearing my words, stood up and asked me to come and teach them the Scriptures,” Rick said. “His request, along with the prompting of the Spirit, solidified my call to missions.”

During that trip Rick knew he wanted to be a missionary. The thought of people, like the Papuan tribal leader, perishing without hearing the Gospel broke his heart.

“I walked away from that trip totally and completely changed. From that point forward, I’ve geared my life toward missions and God has just continued to give me confirmation … that He wanted me to be on the mission field,” Rick said.

The Eckharts are going to work in South Asia in a city that is largely unreached with the Gospel.

“There are others who would like to be here, who anticipated being here, but because of financial limitations, the number of missionaries that we are now able to send out is having to be restricted,” IMB President Jerry Rankin told the new appointees. “It is indeed a privilege in the providence of God that you’re among those who … can go to the ends of the earth and share the Gospel.”

Southern Baptist missionaries are experiencing unprecedented victories in sharing the Gospel around the world, according to Gordon Fort, vice president of the IMB’s office of global strategy. Fort reported that in the past five years, thousands of people from Muslim backgrounds in South Asia accepted the message of salvation.

But there are still many who have not heard, Rankin reminded those attending the appointment service. In Central Asia, only about 80 of its 500 people groups have access to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

“By what criteria should any people be deprived of hearing the Gospel, when God has blessed us so richly in numbers and resources as Southern Baptists?” Rankin asked.

“You’ve been confronted tonight with a world that is dying without Jesus Christ,” he said.

It is our responsibility, he said, to respond to the Great Commission call to take the Gospel to a lost world.

—30—

Rankin's retirement, new missionaries top IMB trustee meeting

2009-09-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

9/17/2009

By Don Graham

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)--Word of IMB (International Mission Board) President Jerry Rankin’s retirement and the prospect of appointing 25 additional missionaries in 2009 led the agenda at the IMB trustee meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 15-16.

Rankin told trustees he will step down July 31, 2010, after 17 years of service in that role. Rankin said he has “absolute confidence” the decision to leave came from God, the same sense of conviction that prompted him and his wife, Bobbye, to be appointed as Southern Baptist missionaries in 1970.

“I believe the appropriate time has come for a new, younger generation of leadership to guide our global mission efforts into the future,” Rankin said. “You can be assured that this [decision] comes from prolonged and intensive times of prayer and fasting in seeking confirmation of God’s will.

“God has indicated that this is the appropriate time, and we dare not forfeit the future that He has prepared for the IMB and for us in the next stage of life.”

Trustee chairman Paul Chitwood announced the formation of a 15-member search committee to find Rankin’s replacement. Jimmy Pritchard, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Forney, Texas, was tapped to chair the committee with Norman Coe (Kentucky) as vice chair.

Other members are Stuart Bell and Joe Hewgley (Arkansas), Jana Brown (Georgia), Charles Fowler (Tennessee), Robert Jackson, Mike Penry and Tim Locher (North Carolina), Nathan Lino (Texas), Dick Landry and Kathy Towns (Louisiana), Ray Jones (Alabama) and Richard Powell (Florida). As trustee chairman, Chitwood also will serve on the committee.

“The task that falls now to us as trustees of this board is indeed a weighty task,” Chitwood said. “If we measure what is significant based upon the potential to impact the kingdom of God, then choosing the next president of the United States would pale in comparison to choosing the next president of the International Mission Board.

“I say none of that to fill us with pride. I say it to drive us to our knees in prayer, asking that God’s will be revealed to us and that God’s will be done.”

SENDING MORE MISSIONARIES

On the heels of Rankin’s retirement announcement, IMB treasurer David Steverson told trustees that more missionaries will be sent this year than originally planned, thanks to special offerings collected by Southern Baptists.

In May, trustees were forced to reduce missionary appointments because of a shortfall in funding from the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The appointment of 69 long-term candidates and some 350 short-term candidates waiting to serve on the mission field was delayed. Now, about 25 of those 69 long-term candidates will be added to a group of 37 already slated for appointment in November.

“While our Lottie Moon receipts have not yet increased substantially because of these efforts, we have received many, many anecdotal reports of churches taking special Lottie Moon offerings over the past few weeks,” Steverson explained. “We don’t yet know the total we will receive … but we are convinced these funds are in the pipeline.

“We are grateful to Southern Baptists for their response to this challenge by stepping up and giving above and beyond what they would normally do,” Steverson said.

But he stressed that one-time gifts aren’t a long-term solution — Southern Baptists must continue to give sacrificially to sustain these additional missionaries after they are sent, not to mention the more than 5,500 missionaries already serving around the world.

“It is inexcusable that 16 million Southern Baptists cannot support 5,600 missionaries,” said Gordon Fort, IMB vice president of global strategy. “May God help us to send out a clarion call to Southern Baptists to return to their first love, back to the priority which is on the heart of God, that every language, every people, every tribe and every nation would have their witness.”

BUDGET SHORTFALL ‘CRISIS’

Despite Southern Baptists’ generosity, Steverson cautioned trustees that IMB’s financial situation remains serious. Calling the budget shortfall a “crisis,” he said IMB would, for the first time in its history, be forced to dip into contingency funds in order to balance the budget.

“We have been able to cut out almost $19 million from the expenditure side of the budget we are currently drafting for 2010,” Steverson said. “Unfortunately … we are about $7.5 million away from a balanced budget.”

Steverson said IMB will close the budget gap by drawing the $7.5 million from its contingency funds. He acknowledged this is not a long-term solution to decreased giving, but said he believes the biggest economic crisis in U.S. history since the Great Depression warrants such action.

“Since we first established a contingency reserve some 60 years ago, this will be the first time we have used it for our benefit,” Steverson said. “We believe that demonstrates our commitment to living within our means but also to appropriately draw on our reserves in truly extraordinary circumstances.”

APPOINTMENT SERVICE

Trustees concluded their time in Florida with the appointment of 60 new missionaries at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville. The next trustee meeting will be held in Shreveport, La., Nov. 9-10. A missionary appointment service will be held Nov. 10 in conjunction with the meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

Don Graham is a writer for IMB.

Rankin announces retirement

2009-09-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

9/16/2009

By Michael Logan

Jacksonville, Fla. (BP)—IMB President Jerry Rankin announced today he will retire July 31, 2010, ending a 17-year tenure marked by sweeping organizational changes and a steady personal calling.

“Everything I have done has been driven by an unequivocal sense of a call to missions, to make my life count and to make the greatest impact possible on reaching a lost world for Jesus Christ,” Rankin said.

Rankin told IMB (International Mission Board) trustees during his report at their Sept. 15-16 meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., that his presidency should not be judged for the accomplishments of the organization under his leadership but for how the organization is poised for the future.

“For the second time in my tenure we are implementing a radical paradigm shift in organization and strategy,” he said. “This is not because of past failure and ineffectiveness but a vision of the changes needed to ensure relevance and effectiveness in the future.”

Such sentiments are consistent to Rankin’s approach in leading the 163-year-old organization. Early in his administration Rankin began placing a greater emphasis on the work remaining in world evangelization rather than on what had been accomplished.

“It’s not … our size or annual statistical report that should drive us,” he said. “We need to be driven by a vision to bring all peoples to a saving faith in Christ and what it takes to get there.”

Yet there has always been a need to track progress. When Rankin took over leadership of the IMB in 1993, the Southern Baptist mission organization saw nearly 4,000 missionaries help start more than 2,000 churches in 142 countries. Last year more than 5,500 IMB missionaries helped plant nearly 27,000 churches and engage 101 new people groups for a total of 1,190 engaged people groups.

The move from tracking countries to focusing on people groups reveals another area where Rankin worked to change the IMB. Country counts faded during the past 10 years as the organization shifted to finding the best ways to engage new people groups and population centers.

“I think moving us to a people group focus helped us learn to innovate,” he said. “But probably the most radical innovation of all has been the process of moving us to a mobilization perspective.”

Such a shift has not been easy. He has pursued it almost his entire tenure.

“To mobilize and involve churches and Southern Baptists rather than our doing missions on behalf of Southern Baptists is an innovation that we have been pursuing for the past 12 years. The whole mobilization perspective is where we are going. That’s the hope of the future of missions,” he concluded.

Rankin has not always been so confident of the future. He was surprised and overwhelmed when a 15-member trustee search committee asked him to become the IMB’s next leader in 1993.

“I felt so inadequate to the task. And I certainly didn’t come with a vision of ‘Here’s my agenda. Here’s how we are going to reach the whole world.’ But it was one of, ‘OK, Lord, I’m your servant. I’m available. What do you want to do through the IMB?’”

Rankin and his wife, the former Bobbye Simmons, were appointed missionaries to Indonesia in June 1970. They studied language in Bandung, Indonesia, and he served as a general evangelist in two other Indonesian locations.

Rankin also consulted in evangelism and church growth in India, served as associate to the area director for South and Southeast Asia, and then as administrator for mission work in India. He became area director for Southern Asia and the Pacific where he oversaw the work of 480 missionaries in 15 countries.

“I never anticipated that I would move beyond a niche where God had called us to serve as missionaries in Indonesia,” Rankin said.

“It made no sense for a field missionary who had been overseas for 23 years,” Rankin told the trustees, “to be selected over others who were far more qualified and at a peak of controversy regarding control of leadership roles among Southern Baptist Convention entities.

“I had not even attended a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting until the year prior to my election.

“I reluctantly accepted the role (as president), not out of any desire for status or reputation and certainly not for a denominational administration role, but only to make the greatest impact on reaching a lost world that my life could make. The motivation for accepting this was only that same missionary call that carried us to Indonesia.”

Rankin said that he sees that same sense of call uniting the organization’s leadership teams as well as in the emerging young leaders within the IMB’s staff and missionary force. He said the same spirit of unity rests within the current body of trustees.

“Never in my experience have we had a board of trustees so unified, supportive and sensitive to the spiritual nature of our task,” he said in his report.

Rankin said this common vision is vital as the organization moves into the next phase of its history.

“We have always been a missionary-sending agency with unlimited capacity to send and support the missionaries being called out of our Southern Baptist churches. That is no longer the case as appointments are being restricted and strategies must be changed to more effectively deploy and utilize limited numbers of personnel.

“The next president must deal with economic realities that will not permit us to presume upon unlimited financial resources as we have in the past. Southern Baptists are at a point of crisis in deciding whether to continue a bureaucratic legacy, supporting a comprehensive plethora of ministries and programs, or focus resources on fulfilling the Great Commission.”

Rankin added that the IMB stands on the verge of unprecedented opportunities to complete the task of engaging every nation, people and language with the Gospel.

“We need a leader who can identify with the next generation, one who has credibility to mobilize Southern Baptists, creative vision to implement new strategies and faith to provide the spiritual leadership that will keep us aligned with the mission of a sovereign God.”

-30-

Michael Logan writes for IMB.

Rankin's report to IMB trustees

2009-09-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

9/16/2009

Jerry Rankin

While my life is one driven by vision and a constant focus on the future and what could be, when I pause to reflect on the past I realize life’s journey is marked by a sequence of transitions. From high school to college, from college to seminary, from seminary to church ministry and missionary appointment, each change and location is a transition that indelibly marks one’s life with both accomplishments and opportunities for growth. In my own experience these steps were each characterized by challenges, new and enlarged responsibilities, and a deeper resolve to more dedicated service. Each successive role was accompanied by a sense of inadequacy for the task, a greater awareness of the need for God’s strength and guidance, and a renewed devotion to prayer and seeking Him.

Every change was preceded by what I have come to characterize as God stirring my nest. Like the eagle stirring the nest to disrupt the comfort and security of the young eaglets when it is time for them to fly on their own, there has been an inevitable stirring in my heart and life. You know the feeling that precedes a new job offer, the call to a new church or a change of direction vocationally. Sometimes it is a sense of a task or ministry being accomplished, perhaps a changing family situation or a vision for greater significance. Whatever the circumstance, and however God chooses to speak and reveal His will, there is a sense of rightness and divine timing that confirms the change and new direction.

Bobbye and I found that unmistakable when it was time for us to move toward missionary appointment in 1970. The call had come earlier in life. We had been diligent to get the educational preparation needed and were obedient as God led us to gain valuable experience in youth ministry, student work and the pastorate. After nine years in our church planting assignment in Indonesia, the stirring came at the point of moving into a field administrative role, relocating to Bangkok and later to Singapore. Our leadership and influence was later expanded into India and South Asia, and then after 23 years we reluctantly recognized that God was managing the sequence of events that brought me into this role as president of the Foreign Mission Board.

I think all of us would understand and agree that a convicting sense of God’s will and what He would have us to do isn’t always consistent with our personal desires nor is the timing necessarily convenient in terms of personal preferences. But obedience and the willingness to trust God is an exciting pilgrimage of faith as we face the future confident He is leading and His hand is upon us with a providential knowledge of the future.

With these comments and observations, it should come as no surprise to the discerning listener that I am leading to an announcement some have anticipated, others want to deny and defer, and some may celebrate, but one that we all know is inevitable. With conflicting emotions that are running rampant but with absolute confidence this decision comes from God, whom I have always aspired to follow and serve faithfully, the time has come for me to reveal my plans for retirement, effective July 31, 2010.

It will have been 40 years since Bobbye and I were appointed as missionaries. I will have had the privilege of leading the International Mission Board for 17 years, the second longest tenure of any president in the last century. I will be 68 years old and am confident that God has a significant role of ministry and influence for me in the years to come, but I believe the appropriate time has come for a new, younger generation of leadership to guide our global mission efforts into the future.

This final year will enable me to oversee our new structure and organization, to help bring stability to the radical changes being implemented and prepare our staff and missionary personnel for the transition to a new president. I have shared these plans with our chairman, Paul Chitwood, in anticipation a search committee will be appointed and a successor identified before my tenure lapses next summer. It would be my desire that there be a time of overlap and transition with the new president so that a change could be implemented without disruption and loss of momentum.

For those of you who know me, you can be assured that this comes from prolonged and intensive times of prayer and fasting in seeking confirmation of God’s will in this decision as in others throughout my life. Knowing the eventuality of this time was inevitable, it was only a matter of discerning God’s timing. I clearly recognize the danger and debilitating impact on an organization to hold on to a leadership role too long. But neither would I dare lay aside this responsibility prematurely out of preference for my own plans and desires contrary to God’s permission. There have been times when I would have readily relinquished this role and walked away to return to the mission field or a less burdensome responsibility. In times of criticism, misunderstanding and personal attack, I thought, “I don’t have to put up with this.” But inevitably there would come that still, small voice saying, “Yes, you do!” In this role I have discovered God’s faithfulness, experienced the depth of His grace and had the incredible privilege of having an overview of His providence at work around the world.

I do not have any specific plans to announce at this time, but I am confident that retirement with the IMB will not mean a cessation of activity and involvement in serving God for many years into the future. He has blessed us with health, energy and vision, and we anticipate being used in a number of significant roles as we are released to pursue opportunities for speaking, writing, ministry and mission involvement. So why step down at this time? Why not stay on a few years longer? I am confident I have your support and could well do that, except for the fact God has indicated that this is the appropriate time, and we dare not forfeit the future that He has prepared for the IMB and for us in the next stage of life.

Also, while not being factors precipitating this decision, there are a number of trends that confirm it is an appropriate time for new leadership to take the IMB into the next phase of its long and distinguished history. We have always been a missionary-sending agency with unlimited capacity to send and support the missionaries being called out of our Southern Baptist churches. That is no longer the case as appointments are being restricted and strategies must be changed to more effectively deploy and utilize limited numbers of personnel. The next president must deal with economic realities that will not permit us to presume upon unlimited financial resources as we have in the past. Southern Baptists are at a point of crisis in deciding whether to continue a bureaucratic legacy, supporting a comprehensive plethora of ministries and programs, or focus resources on fulfilling the Great Commission. We have already initiated significant efforts in mobilizing church partners in the task of overseas missions, but we are at a crucial stage at which it is imperative that we become a different type of organization — a denominational entity that is not doing missions on behalf of Southern Baptists but is essentially serving and facilitating churches in taking responsibility for the task. But especially, it should be recognized that we stand on the verge of unprecedented opportunities to complete the task of engaging every nation, people and language with the Gospel. We need a leader who can identify with the next generation, one who has credibility to mobilize Southern Baptists, creative vision to implement new strategies and faith to provide the spiritual leadership that will keep us aligned with the mission of a sovereign God.

This is a role and responsibility for which I never aspired and accepted with great reluctance 16 years ago only because it was evident it was of God. It made no sense for a field missionary who had been overseas for 23 years to be selected over others who were far more qualified and at a peak of controversy regarding control of leadership roles among Southern Baptist Convention entities. I had not even attended a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting until the year prior to my election.

This is not a time to reflect on the factors God used to bring me to this position. Neither is it the appropriate time to review my tenure, acknowledge the many failures and note a few accomplishments. There will be occasions for that later, but there are a couple of relevant perspectives worthy of mentioning at this time.

I quickly gained an increasing appreciation for my predecessors and realized whatever God chose to do in my tenure of leadership was due to the vision and effectiveness of those who have gone before. This realization brought into focus the reality that the mark of my leadership would not be measured by what was accomplished by the IMB during my years as president, but by what the organization was positioned to do in the future. For the second time in my tenure we are implementing a radical paradigm shift in organization and strategy. This is not because of past failure and ineffectiveness but a vision of the changes needed to ensure relevance and effectiveness in the future. I look forward to continuing to lead this transition over the next 10 months to help assure that things are on track and we remain positioned to focus on an unprecedented impact on lostness and global advance in a rapidly changing world and uncertain denominational future.

It has always been my desire to step down from this role in the midst of God’s blessings and while the IMB was riding a wave of effectiveness rather than under a cloud of controversy and discouragement. I could enumerate the many times of being confronted by my own inadequacy and failure. I learned that obedience always must pre-empt personal desires and convenience. Faithfulness does not come without sacrifice. It would be easy to claim some degree of credit and take pride in the growth the IMB has experienced and the global impact we have made, but it has been my desire that no one will be able to identify anything Jerry Rankin has done. It will simply be recognized that I had the privilege of filling a necessary role and bearing a title when God chose to work among us!

Books on management say that one mark of successful leadership is nurturing a successor. Unfortunately, I don’t have that prerogative. However, we have in place a stable and extraordinarily capable executive leadership team along with a vast network of new, younger leaders throughout our staff and around the world devoted to carrying out our mission. Never in my experience have we had a board of trustees so unified, supportive and sensitive to the spiritual nature of our task. You own the vision and share a passionate devotion to the success of our mission task. I want our staff, missionaries and Southern Baptist constituency to be assured that you can be trusted and deserve their prayers as you seek the heart and mind of God in choosing the one to serve and lead the IMB into the future.

It is going to be difficult and emotional to express at this time and over the coming months the appreciation I feel for our leadership team, our staff and missionaries serving around the world. When I walk through our offices and pass staff in the corridors, I am conscious of feeling a deep love and respect for each one. I am constantly reminded, without exception, of their commitment to our mission. I have been blessed by their support and confidence in me and enriched by their love and devotion to the Lord. Those who stand beside me in positions of executive leadership are the ones who have done the work and made possible that for which I get credit. The transparency in our relationships and the example of their lives have shaped and influenced who I am today.

Sixteen years ago I was often reminded by our trustees and others that I would never have been considered for this role were it not for Bobbye. No one would question the fact that I would not have survived had it not been for her love and support. The hours she spends in intercessory prayer and tactful, sensitive admonishment — you husbands know what I mean — have kept me anchored in the Lord. It hasn’t been easy for her to share the burden, endure the criticisms that inevitably accompany a leadership role and tolerate the intense travel schedules, incessant program responsibilities and times of separation. But she would affirm with me that the blessings, the gratification and reward have been worth it all.

I would not presume to equate my devotion to the Lord and passion for His mission with the Apostle Paul nor with that of Lottie Moon, who adopted Paul’s testimony in Acts 20:24 as her life verse, but it expresses what we want to communicate on the occasion of this announcement.
“I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of God.” I do not consider the course of my life and God’s purpose complete, but at this stage of the journey it is time to press forward in the calling of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lift Up Thine Eyes

2009-08-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Living above the Line

“Lift Up Thine Eyes”

2 Cor. 4:18 (ESV) As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

This verse contains two absolute truths. One truth talks about things that are seen and temporary, the other talks about things that are unseen and are eternal. A line exists between the two. Above the line is the unseen and eternal; below the line is the seen and temporary.

ETERNAL
Unseen
______________________________

Seen
Temporary

Now just for the sake of explanation, there really is not a physical line; these two realms coexist. The unseen and the eternal are going on in the midst of the seen and temporary. As Christians, we have the privilege of living an unseen and eternal life in the midst of this seen and temporary world. But, because we think in concepts, it helps to separate these two realities with the line to understand them better.

As 2 Cor. 4:18 indicates, the realm above the line is invisible and eternal. It is changeless and timeless. It is the realm of spirit and of God’s absolutes. It is the realm of ultimate reality, of the uncreated, of completeness and wholeness, it is where things are finished and settled. The eternal realm can be illustrated by the word “now.” It is the realm of I AM, where things simply “are.”
The realm below the line is visible and temporary. We call it the natural realm. The Apostle Paul called it “this age.” It is the created realm of matter, of substances and appearances. It has a beginning and an end. It is the realm of past, present, and future:… birth, life, and death are here, …. sowing, growing, and reaping are here. It is the realm of activity, process, and need. It is a realm where we often say, I want to grow in Christ.” It is a realm in which we see both good and evil. …Where as the unseen and eternal realm is the realm of “I AM,” the seen and the temporary is the realm of “I am becoming.”

Spirit “I AM” Ultimate Reality
Wholeness ETERNAL Changeless
Complete Unseen Timeless

_______________________________________________________________

In Progress Seen Time-based
Need Temporary Changing
Matter “I am becoming” Appearances

Now, hear me, I’m not talking about a belief in which one realm, the realm of spirit, is pure and all important, and the other realm, the physical, is un-clean and unimportant, or even unreal. Both realms are crucially important to God, because He made both of them. The seen and temporary is a true realm and is important. We live in the seen and temporary realm. But, we are simply acknowledging what Paul says, that there are two realms, and that one is greater than the other. And we, as Christians are to focus on the eternal realm.

Many Scriptures illustrate the difference between the two realms. When Moses asked God His name Ex 3:14, God replied, “I AM WHO I AM”. He told Moses to tell the Hebrews that “I AM” had sent him. God’s very name indicates the changeless, timeless, eternal, present-tense nature of His being. Jesus used the same language to refer to Himself: John 8:58 “I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” The writer of Hebrews said Heb13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Our God is the unseen, eternal, timeless, changeless One.

At the appointed time, however, I AM came down below the line and entered the seen and temporary realm that HE had created. And John 1:14 says “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us... . The changeless, timeless One became a seen and temporary man. As a man, Jesus experienced all that we experience below the line, except sin. He had a past, a present, and a future. He experienced growth both as a child, (Luke 2:40) and as an adult (Heb 5:8). He had needs just like us.

In a very similar way, we as God’s children live both above the line and below the line. The verse that best illustrated this is Hebrews 10:14: For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. God has already perfected those of us who are in Christ. We are complete in Him Col 2:10. We are His righteousness 2 Cor 5:21. We are Holy, and blameless and beyond reproach. Co 1:22.

These are all already true of us above the line, in the unseen and eternal realm, in God’s Kingdom, in our spirit. These are the eternal, unchanging truths of our identity as new creatures, as sons and daughters whom God has birthed John 3:3-6.

Below the line, however, in the seen and temporary realm, we are in the process of being sanctified. We have needs. Our emotions fluctuate. Our behavior changes. And through it all we experience growth.

We live in both realms but what is important, is where-our-eyes–are-focused!

Now this distinction between the two realms is vital to us for three reasons.

First, in the here and now, God has designed His Kingdom to work by faith. God could have placed the eternal in the visible realm. His eternal kingdom would then be plainly seen. But if He had done that, there would not be any faith. Everything would, in fact, be exactly as it appears to be, and faith would be pointless.

But the whole universe operates on faith. We in particular, were designed to operate by faith. We have the privilege of looking through the seen and temporary to the unseen and eternal. … By the Spirit of God, living in us, Christ in the man, we discern what, from God’s perspective, is taking place in the seen and temporary around us.

That is how Jesus lived. He saw the seen and temporary around him, but when the man stretched out his withered hand, Jesus did not see the withered hand as ultimate. When the people brought Jesus five loaves and two fish, He did not see them as insufficient. When they took him to the dead girl, He did not see death as ultimate. In each case Jesus saw beyond the outward appearance to what His Father was doing. He lived in another Kingdom. He lived in another realm. And He invites you and me to do the same.

Your cancer, your heart disease, your handicap, is not what is ultimate in the eyes of Jesus. Your current financial situation is not what is ultimate in the eyes of Jesus. Even your death, is not what is ultimate in the eyes of Jesus. And it does not have to be for you ether. It is all a matter of where your eyes are fixed my friends. This life is a vapor. What is real is above the line in the eternal realm. God wants you to lift up your eyes beyond what’s here and now, look up Christian, look to the Heavens, cast your eyes upon Jesus.

Second, the distinction is important because it enables us to understand our true identity in Christ.

As Christians, our failures, sins, and shortcomings---all things below the line, are realities, and constantly confront us. They are right in our face. Unless we understand that our true identity lies above the line in our spirit (which is the identity God gave us when we were reborn, our new birth), unless we understand that our true identity lies above the line in our spirit we will draw our identity from our below the line performance, whether good or bad. Our focus will be on trying to clean up our act and to look good enough for God to accept.

That is where most Christians are living: (and it makes me want to scream out, just what Jesus did, He said tear it down and in three days I will rebuild it. They did and He did. If my getting a bull dozer and tearing down this building would help you understand this I would) Christians are trying to become something they already are. We have it backwards.

See, in God’s system, in the seen realm we become because in the unseen realm we already are. In the eternal realm we are ether eternally lost or eternally saved, and we cannot live in the seen world differently that we are in the eternal realm. Christians are saved but they are still living as though they need saving.

As we know and rest in the unseen and eternal truth, God manifests that truth in the visible realm. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. In the unseen and eternal realm, God has already perfected us. ….In the seen and temporary realm, God is bringing that perfection, or completion, into view.

That is why we can say we are a complete and a new creation while simultaneously, in the seen and temporary realm, a process is going on. From God’s point of view, in the unseen and eternal realm, we are a finished product. At the same time, in the seen and temporary, He is continuing to work the truth deeper into us and He is continuing to conform us to His image.

Third, the distinction between the two realms is important because God has designed us so that we can find fulfillment only in the unseen and eternal realm.

The seen and temporary realm offers many pleasures that God has provided, but none of them ultimately satisfy. That is why Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst John 6:35. Hear me; there is not anything below the line, no matter how beautiful, no matter how touching, no matter how true, that equals true Life. And we only find true Life above the line, in God. He and He alone is Life!

God has created each of us with a thirst that only He can quench. The French philosopher, Pascal, called it a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts that only He can fill. Or as the early church father Augustine said, “Our souls are restless until they find their rest in thee.” Man is forever seeking. To whatever degree we do not know the unseen and eternal realm; we seek answers in the seen and temporary. We look for eternal answers among temporary things. But we discover again and again that they cannot and never will provide them.

We are programmed for failure if we are looking for ultimate answers in a non-ultimate realm, a realm that is partial, fragmented, and incomplete. We end up worshipping the creation rather than the creator. We can do that as Christians too. I’m not talking about just houses and cars and boats and jewelry; we worship buildings and music and clothes and heat and air and soft pews. The ultimate answer is a Person …Jesus Christ. It is part of God’s program to make us dissatisfied with what the temporary realm offers, that’s why so many people do nothing but complain, they think they know what they want but what they need is Jesus, and more of Jesus. God’s makes us dissatisfied with what the temporary realm offers so that we will seek Life in Him.

What kind of life; a life of faith, it is our true identity, and fulfillment in life is all based in the unseen and eternal realm. Our problem is that we cannot see that realm or learn of it through our own observations, or experiments, or experiences. Presently, right this moment God’s unseen and eternal kingdom is within us, …but we can only understand the things of that realm if God reveals it to us. Look at 2 Cor 2: 14,10,12 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. But 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

We are completely dependent on the Holy Spirit to be our teacher.

To whatever degree the Holy Spirit of God has revealed to us the unseen and eternal realm, we live in it. So, to whatever degree we do not understand by revelation the unseen and eternal realm of God’s kingdom, we are locked into living in the seen and temporary realm. And, to whatever extent you greave and quench the revelation of God’s Holy Spirit of the eternal realm you condemn yourself to life in this realm of the here and now, below the line.

God makes known to us the eternal, unseen, spiritual realities of His own domain by revelation. He breaks through into our consciousness and reveals eternal truths not discernable in the realm of appearance. And we respond when we close our physical eyes and open up our hearts eye and say “Oh God, I see!” …I was blind God, but now I see, I see You God, I see You Jesus, I see heaven coming down and this realm is passing away, I see the Holy City God, coming down from You, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I hear Your voice saying Your dwelling place is among man. You dwell in them, and they are Your people, You God, our true God, are with us. You want to wipe away our tears; You want us to see God that death is no more, there is for Your children no more mourning, no more pain for us if we will lift up our eyes. That which is below the line has all passed away. ….Thank You God!

And what has happened? … Revelation has met with faith on our part, and when revelation encounters faith, it produces an inner knowing. …. Unfortunately for us this happens to us progressively. Some seek it, some give up, some think what they received on the day they received Christ is all there is to be had in this life.

One of our first revelations is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the World. The natural man does not know that. He cannot know it, even if he hears it over and over. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to him the reality of Jesus Christ. If this has yet to happen to you, you are lost. You are a captive, a prisoner of the temporary realm, below the line.

Once then we place our faith in Christ, the next revelation is that our sins are forgiven. That is an unseen and eternal truth. Nothing in the seen and temporary tells us that. The Holy Spirit reveals it. As is my testimony, I lived primarily on that revelation for 27 years. But thank God He continued and still continues to reveal unseen and eternal truths to me that expanded that basic spiritual understanding. And at the age of 37 I came to understand the truth I share with you today, the life of unspeakable joy.

As Christians, we live below the line, but we are not a below the line people. We are of God’s Kingdom. But we live in a realm of temporary appearance that differs from what Gods sees in the unseen and eternal. Spiritual Growth is a process of replacing temporary appearances with eternal reality, and then living it out. See, once one knows inner life, the Life of the Spirit; one cannot help but live it.

Generally speaking, except for brief excursions, we are almost always constantly living out what we believe. We cannot escape it. We do not do anything but what we believe. So, the more we understand the unseen and eternal realm we will live it, and as we live it, we become less and less oriented toward the seen and temporary. It exercises less control over us.

Paul in Romans Chapter 6 tells us that we died to sin and are free from it. That is an unseen and eternal truth, about which I will say more another time. Sin no longer has any power over us. But if we do not know that unseen and eternal truth, sin still exercises power over us. That is because we are caught in the trap of trying to become something we already are: what is that, we are free from sin.

We will never know abundant life until the unseen and eternal realm is home to us in our everyday experience. Until then, we will be living according to appearances, and appearances will never lead us deeper into the life of God. Only faith will. God wants to bring us to the point where we say, “I live by what God says about things in my life, …situations, people, and even myself. Then we see what He sees, that situations are not as they appear to be,… but that God’s absolutes are operating in the realm of appearance. We are at rest then in the unseen and eternal realm, and we experience His fullness within us.

In our daily lives as Christians,… the most important thing we can know from the unseen and eternal realm is that we and God are one, we are in union. That sounds heretical, but it is exactly what the Bible says: 1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

God has permanently joined Himself to your spirit. Your spirit and He are one. The two then operate as one spirit. When we begin to know and live out of that truth, all the promises of the New Testament Covenant, suddenly become real. We realize that there really truly is no more separation. No more God up there and us down here. We stop trying to get closer to God. We stop asking, How do I reach God. Give me a program, give me a plan, and give me a way.

Instead, we live out of what is already true. We live in union. God and we are one. In the seen and temporary, He operates as us. And we rest in Him.

Where you live and where your eyes are can easily be determined by your understanding of my next statement, ….Every one of us who has received Christ is complete in Christ (Colossians2:10). We are already Holy Col 3:12. There is nothing else to be done.

As we see that, we will live it, and God will make what is true in the unseen and eternal, above the line, a seen and temporary experience here below the line.

Living Above The Line Intro

2009-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Colossians 1:27, 3:4,11 says When Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory; Christ in you, the hope of Glory. (In fact Christ in us is our only hope of eternal Glory), for here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all.

The union of the believer to Christ is a topic I never truly understood as a Christian until I was older. It is a topic we as Baptist are a bit afraid of. When we begin to talk about matters of the spirit some Baptist get very uptight.

Galatians 2:20 says It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. No other verse captures the truth of the indwelling Christ, living in us, through us, as us, so well.

Jesus Christ living in us and through us, as us, is the only hope we have of experiencing the Glory God intends for our lives. I want everyone; I want to help everyone, to enter into Christ’s fullness in their life.

Now there is a flip side to “the hope of Glory,” Yes, Christ in us is our only hope of experiencing God’s glory ourselves. But we must understand that it is also the way that God has chosen to eternally manifest His glory. By living His life in and through a host of sons and daughters God has chosen to eternally manifest His glory. I want to begin this emphasis with a discussion of not the Glory we receive from God, but the glory He receives through us.

If we do not begin from God’s point of view, we end up with man at the center. That is true even in the way we approach the Word of God. For instance we often begin our study of the Bible with the fall of man into sin. We then perceive that after mans fall the entire Bible is a chronicle of God’s redemption of man. That is true, it is. It can appear however and is often preached, that God’s ultimate purpose is the rescue of man. So the whole matter focuses on us.

But if we just back up, and begin as the Bible does with before the foundation of the world, before Gen. 1:1, we start from another point of view. We start with the question: what is God’s intent? Galileo and Copernicus discovered that the earth was not the center of the universe, or at least not our little solar system. The Sun is. My dear friends IM here to remind you today we are not the center of the universe. The Bible says the Son is. (And I don’t mean the Sun.)

But, it is very easy to live as if we are the center of the universe. We would not ever say it, or even think it consciously, but it is easy to live as if God is here for us. That sort of teaching has in fact become very popular the past few years. That God is here to bless you that we ought to be wealthy and prosperous. We are due it, we are owed success, owed getting ahead. That God must respond to our faith. God has obligated Himself to bless us if we just do the right things. All of which means we are the center of the universe.

But if we start before the foundation of the world, we discover that God has a plan, a plan conceived before time began. Paul revealed God’s plan I think most clearly in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (Is it God’s intent to bless us? Yes, that is an absolute fact. In fact, He has already blessed us with every possible blessing in the heavenly realm.) V.4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world God had a purpose for us before the foundation of the world. (He chose us for that purpose. that we should be holy and blameless before him.) In love V. 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, (Gods plan involved having many sons and daughters who would be holy and blameless in His sight. Through the subjection of the Son to the cross, God intended to bring many children into glory. Why? Paul continued), … according to the purpose of his will, V. 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

And just to make sure we do not miss the point, he repeated it six verses later: V. 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. And again two verses later V. 14 the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

See here, we exist for the praise of His glory. God works all things according to the council of His will, v.11, to accomplish that purpose. And what exactly is it that glorifies God? What has He set out to accomplish from before the foundation of the world? V. 8-10 he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Gods Plan

God’s plan was to bring into being many sons and daughter whom He would indwell; through whom He would live and manifest Himself; and in and through whom Christ would reign supreme. We Christians are the beneficiaries of that plan. God, in His love and grace, has made us a part of His plan. But…we are not the center of it; Jesus is. We are participants in the plan, participants whom God loves and cherishes, and nourishes, as a husband does his bride. (Eph 5:25-32)

We are God’s inheritance. We tend to focus on what we inherit in Christ. We are God’s inheritance: V.18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

His inheritance is His body—the Body of Christ—accomplishing His purpose. And though the Bible records mans fall, that disaster has not done one thing to delay or change God’s purpose. His intention was always to have a vast family of sons and daughters. The fall did not deter that plan. God incorporates our redemption into that plan, but the plans goal is still the same. We are here for the praise of His glory. Romans 11:36 says this so well, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

From-Everything comes from God.
Through – By means of God.
To—The ultimate end is unto God. Not Him unto us, but us unto Him.

Everything we need to know for experiencing God’s abundant life is found in the cross of Christ. We look at the cross and see what God did for us there. I praise God for this truth. That was Christ’s work on our behalf.
Even more than that though, the cross was God’s work on His own behalf. Through the cross God accomplished what He needed to fulfill His own eternal purposes, so that all things might be summed up in Christ.

Christ in us, the Hope of Glory is primarily His glory. Christ lives in us to manifest His life through us, but His plan encompasses more than just that. He is working toward His own ends, and we are the vessels through which He works. We are the visible manifestation of what God is doing, with Himself as the ultimate goal, what is it, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:28)

That is why the Father wants us to be filled up to the fullness of God. And that is what this emphasis, Living above the Line is all about; our being filled to all the fullness of God, to the praise of His Glory

God Of This City /Mexico

2009-08-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

A rare opportunity...missed?

2009-08-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

Giving shortfall risks Southern Baptists' opportunity to re-engage closed country

8/20/2009

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--A rare opportunity to place missionaries in a highly restricted Central Asian country may soon slip through Southern Baptists’ fingers due to a serious shortfall in missions giving.

The country — which can’t be named without risking missionaries’ chances of obtaining a visa — is home to more than several million people, mostly Muslim. Only about 2,000 are believed to be evangelical Christians.

Shane and Melanie Johnson* were on track to become the first Southern Baptist personnel to serve inside the country in nearly a decade. But now that plan is in jeopardy.

On July 10, the Johnsons received word from IMB (International Mission Board) that their missionary appointment had been put on hold.

“It hurts,” Melanie said. “It’s really sad that in times of crisis [giving to] the church and charities is the first thing to go.”

“We want to go to one of those places on the map of lostness that’s totally black, where there is nobody there,” Shane said. “We know the Bible is clear about the Great Commission. We are to make sure that someone from every tribe, tongue and nation bows before the throne of God and praises His name.”

The Johnsons are among 69 long-term missionary candidates who are being delayed because of a lack of funds to send them to the field. That’s in addition to an estimated 350 short-term candidates who also are on hold.

In May IMB announced it would severely limit the number of missionaries sent in 2009 due to reduced giving through the Cooperative Program and a $29 million dollar shortfall in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. More than half of IMB’s annual budget comes from the Lottie Moon offering, 100 percent of which is used to send and sustain more than 5,600 Southern Baptist missionaries serving overseas.

The goal for the 2008 offering (which funds the 2009 budget) was $170 million, but only $141 million was received, $9 million less than last year.

But even if there were no shortfall, getting the Johnsons inside that Central Asian country won’t be easy.

Southern Baptist missionaries began spreading the Gospel there for the first time in 1993 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But by the year 2000 all missionaries had been asked to leave. That left behind 500 new Christians and a young church struggling to survive under intense persecution.

Since that time missionaries have been painstakingly training and discipling national believers by flying them in and out of the country. Though that strategy has seen success, it’s also slow, cumbersome and expensive, which is why IMB wants personnel living in country again.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Kris Plummer* leads Southern Baptists’ efforts to spread the Gospel in this area of Central Asia, including the country where the Johnsons want to serve. Once inside, he said their goal will be to lay the groundwork for IMB to re-establish a presence there.

Before they were delayed, the Johnsons planned to arrive in early 2010. But due to the financial shortfall, that isn’t likely to happen until that summer— at least a six-month delay. Plummer said the longer they wait, the risk is the situation may change.

“Right now we have a window of opportunity to try and place them in [the country],” he explained. “But we don’t know how long that window’s going to be open. … We’re ready to take advantage of this opportunity, but if this delay stretches out too long the window may close on us.

“It’s a disappointment because we’ve been trying to get back into [this country] for so long. … When we got the word the Johnsons were delayed, it’s just one more barrier to cross. And it’s a barrier that really shouldn’t be there.

“It’s not a question of Southern Baptists having money — even in this financial crisis Southern Baptists have money,” concluded Plummer. “It’s more of a question of what’s their priority for spending that money.”

Maybe even rarer than the window to enter the country, Plummer said, are missionaries willing to pioneer the work there — alone.

“Like most things in Central Asia, you never know until you try, and even when things look very wide open they can slam shut very quickly,” he said. “The glorious thing is we’ve got somebody like the Johnsons who are willing to try. Those kind of people don’t come around every day, and I want to take advantage of their heart and desire.”

PERSONAL HARDSHIP

Besides risking their chance to enter the country, the Johnsons say the delay is also causing them significant personal hardships as well.

They’ve both just graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and were planning to transition straight to the mission field. But now, without jobs, they’ll have to live with Melanie’s family in order to save money.

“Because of the delay we’ve rescheduled our whole plan for the next eight or nine months,” Shane said. “It was tough to come to terms with but it’s water under the bridge at this point.”

Adding to their stress is the impact the delay will have on their growing family. Midway through the application process the Johnsons found out they were pregnant with their first child. They were counting on IMB salary and medical benefits by the time the baby arrived, but the delay makes that impossible. They have some health insurance available through GuideStone Financial Resources, but the rest will have to come from Medicaid and their savings.

“The bottom line is that God has always provided for us,” Shane said. “We’re not in debt at all; we’ve made it through seminary … He’s going to take care of us just like He always has.”

TRUE COST OF DELAY

The greatest impact from the delay, the Johnsons said, will be on the peoples of Central Asia that God has asked them to serve.

“We’ll never know what the time we missed overseas might have resulted in as far as yields for the Gospel,” Shane said. “Even one believer can multiply exponentially and have a tremendous impact for the Gospel. … That’s the true cost [of the financial shortfall], and we’ll never really know what that is.”

*Names changed.

Don Graham is a writer for IMB.

It truly is a time for humility and thanks.

2009-08-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

FIRST PERSON: A time for humility and thanks

8/6/2009

By David Steverson

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Times like this call for humility and thanks.

While individuals, families and churches across the country are struggling with the realities of an economic downturn, we at IMB (International Mission Board) are struggling, too.

We are dealing with the sobering reality of a shortfall in last year’s Lottie Moon offering — we did not make our $170 million goal. When the final total of $141 million was counted, it fell $9 million short of what we received each of the past two years.

This has a profound effect on the work of Southern Baptist missionaries overseas. Every dollar from the offering goes to support their efforts — none is ever used for administration or promotion.

Also, the Cooperative Program funds from which we derive the rest of their support have been down from last year. Imagine sitting in my chair, as IMB treasurer, and looking at these numbers and knowing what they are telling us.

We’ve had to take drastic measures. We’re not sending the number of missionaries to the field we normally do. It means that some who are called, gifted and ready cannot go. We have canceled or scaled back short-term missionary programs knowing the results from some present work will not be realized.

Once again, imagine sitting in our last board meeting and watching our president and the chairman of our board openly weep when the motion was presented to curtail appointments.

The money is simply not there.

In such times it is easy to embrace the darker side. The economy still stutters. Many of our fellow Southern Baptists are out of work and struggling. A sense of recovery feels lost in an uncertain future. The dollar is struggling around the world, which also has a tremendous effect on our budget.

But with all of the negative, I prefer to look at the brighter side.

In one of the worst economies in decades, Southern Baptists gave the third largest Lottie Moon offering in our history. The Cooperative Program remains one of the best tools anywhere to support missions at all levels. Even in hard times, Southern Baptists continue to produce more people who are called and committed to going onto international mission fields than we have yet found ways to fund. Most importantly, God is still on His throne and remains in control of all we do.

It’s a wonderful challenge to have.

Our funding is less, but on the grand scale of things … not that much less. When I look across America’s corporate landscape we look pretty good.

And then there is the larger body of the church. The special offering taken at the Pastors’ Conference during the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, the $100,000 gift from Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the reports of additional offerings — large and small — from churches of all sizes across the convention and the prayers and concerns expressed by so many speak well of our health as part of the body of Christ.

I am humbled by the care and concern of many and their willingness to dig deep rather than turn their backs when the well is shallow. I give thanks for who we are as this people called Southern Baptists and what the Lord has given me the great privilege of being a part of.

There is much to celebrate.

If there are concerns, it is for the long view. It is wonderful that we are willing to give to send folks to the field now. But the December Lottie Moon offering comes again soon. The question is: Will we continue to sustain them so they will be there next year, the year after that … 10 years from now?

Each dollar we receive will be used to further the cause of Christ in other lands. But these funds must be from the deeper dig and not at the expense of other kingdom enterprises.

State and associational mission offerings and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions cannot be sacrificed or we are merely shuffling resources from one hand to another. While we at IMB are focused on the uttermost ends of the earth, we can’t ignore our Jerusalem, our Judea and Samaria. All parts of the body must be cared for.

Thank you, Southern Baptists, for being a people committed to the cause of Christ both here and around the world.

It truly is a time for humility and thanks.

David Steverson is IMB treasurer and vice president for finance. Before coming to Richmond, Va., he and his wife, Judy, served as missionaries for six years in Southeast Asia where he was business manager and treasurer.

"It’s time for a gut check. Are we serious about reaching the world or not?”

2009-08-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

Lottie Moon shortfall limits Gospel access, leaves missionaries on hold

8/14/2009

By Don Graham

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--They had said goodbyes to their neighbors, friends and church family. They had sold their home and furniture. They had resigned from their jobs. They had even given away the family dog, a miniature collie named Q-tip.

When Tim and Audrey Shepard* decided to answer God’s call to share Jesus in Asia as Southern Baptist missionaries, they knew there could be obstacles. But the couple never expected that the obstacle would be lack of funds from Southern Baptists.

The Shepards are two of the 69 candidates in the pipeline to serve as long-term missionaries through IMB (International Mission Board) who have been told they can’t be sent to the field at this time. That’s in addition to an estimated 350 short-term candidates who also have been turned away from missionary service this year.

In May IMB announced it would severely limit the number of missionaries sent in 2009 due to reduced giving through the Cooperative Program and a $29 million dollar shortfall in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. More than half of IMB’s annual budget comes from the Lottie Moon offering, 100 percent of which is used to send and sustain the more than 5,600 Southern Baptist missionaries serving overseas. The goal for the 2008 offering (which funds the 2009 budget) was $170 million, but only $141 million was received, $9 million less than received for the 2007 offering.

The Shepards previously served 15 years with IMB but left the field in 2004 and moved to Jacksonville, Fla., so their daughter, Nora,* could attend high school in the United States. They planned to return to the mission field when she entered college and began that process in the fall of 2008. They were on track to arrive in Asia by the end of 2009 to partner with another IMB missionary couple working to spread the Gospel among some of Asia’s minority people groups.

But all that came to a screeching halt July 27 when an IMB representative called the Shepards to explain that their missionary appointment had been put on hold because there wasn’t enough money to send them.

Audrey says the news has left the family discouraged and confused.

“You feel sort of directionless — we really don’t know what to do now,” she says. “It’s tragic that money is holding back God’s work around the world. … There are people dying every day that are not going to have the opportunity to hear about Jesus because so many missionaries are being held up.”

So far the Shepards haven’t been given a firm date when they will head to the mission field. Spring 2010 has been mentioned, but no promises have been made. That means the Shepards will be on hold for at least six months. Right now they don’t know where they’ll live or what they’ll do. They’ve decided to stay temporarily in their church’s mission house. They’re not even sure where to register their 8-year-old son, Eric,* for school this fall because that depends on where they’ll live.

There’s a chance Tim and Audrey will be able to keep their jobs in Jacksonville, but since they didn’t renew their contracts, there’s no guarantee. Tim taught middle school math and science; Audrey was a school psychologist.

“We’re ready to go to the field,” Tim says. “My mind is already on ministry and going back to secular jobs just to pay the bills doesn’t excite us too much.”

The Shepards’ delay also is having serious repercussions in Asia, at least for the team they were set to join.

Sam and Elizabeth Hughes* are Southern Baptist missionaries on the edge of exhaustion. They run a handful of ministries focusing on 24 minority people groups, 18 of which are untouched by the Gospel. Without the Shepards, that’s more than a million lost people divided between one husband-and-wife team with three young children at home.

Sam was counting on the Shepards’ arrival to provide some much-needed relief — helping with ministry logistics, training national partners and following up with new believers or those who’ve expressed an interest in learning more about Jesus. God has blessed the work to the point where it is more than Sam can handle alone. He says news of the Shepards’ delay — and of the Lottie Moon offering shortfall — hurts morale.

“It’s time for a gut check. Are we serious about reaching the world or not?” he says. “I’ve got a list as long as I am tall of things I need them (the Shepards) to be doing.”

Though it’s a serious inconvenience and fraught with logistical nightmares, the Shepards say the delay hasn’t subdued their passion for reaching Asia. In fact, they’re so committed to their calling to be Southern Baptist missionaries they’re considering moving to Asia on their own dime so they can start learning the language and be more prepared when they begin their assignment.

“Communism has destroyed souls of the people — there’s no hope,” Audrey says. “We want to be a part of sharing Christ where there are so many who are dying without Him.”

The Shepards say that if their delay, and the delay of 67 others in going to the mission field, helps Southern Baptists realize the importance of lost souls overseas, “so be it.

“I’m happy if that’s what will come of this,” Audrey says. “That people wake up and realize that they need to give their money to support missions.”

*Names changed

Don Graham is a writer with IMB.

Missionaries On Hold

2009-08-14T04:21:00.000-07:00