November 10, 1999
CONVENTION SERMON:
'Rebuild the walls'
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___EL PASO--Christians must rebuild the walls of morality and righteousness in America, bivocational pastor David Keith stressed during the 1999 annual sermon of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Keith is pastor of Carlton Baptist Church in Carlton and a staff member at Tarleton State University in Stephenville. He compared Christians' task in America today to the challenges facing Nehemiah, who led the ancient Hebrew people from slavery in Babylon to rebuild the walls of their homeland capital, Jerusalem.
___"Many of us today feel that in America, the walls of morality and spirituality are down, and the gates have been burned," Keith reported. "Much of the security we felt in times past has eroded as we see morality erode in our country.
___"The 'walls' of morality and spirituality need to be rebuilt in our country today every bit as badly as did the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's day," he declared.
___Christians today, particularly Texas Baptists, can learn several lessons from Nehemiah's experience, Keith said:
___Utilize available resources, including human resources.
___Like Keith and many Texas Baptists, Nehemiah was a bivocational leader--an employee who was willing also to serve as a spiritual leader.
___"We must come to the point where our concern for the spiritual welfare of our families, friends and neighbors moves us deeply," he stressed. "We need to be concerned enough about them to be willing to take drastic measures."
___One of those measures may be willingness to serve as a bivocational minister or for a church to utilize a bivocational pastor, he said. Bivocational ministry offers numerous advantages, including financial stability for small churches and ministers' families, he explained. "All of us know about, and some of us have served, churches that just starve the pastor's family to death, churches that ought to be bivocational and are not."
___Bivocational ministers also are adept at putting, "God's word to work in the workplace," he said, echoing the 1999 convention theme, "Putting God's Word to Work."
___"In my work on a university campus, I have had more opportunities to present the gospel, and many more counseling sessions in my office at the university, than I have in the study of my rural church," he said.
___He urged Texas Baptists to make the resource of bivocational ministers more available. "What we must have is our young people hearing from their pastors in their churches that there is another model of ministry that is God-called and God-approved," he said.
___Furthermore, Texas Baptists must let bivocational ministers know about the resources available to them and listen responsively to their needs, he said.
___"They will find a listening ear and a ready heart to help them," he added. "The sensitivity and provision of resources for the needs of smaller-church/bivocational ministers is rapidly improving and increasing in the BGCT."
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___"It is imperative that we continue to challenge Texas Baptists with the goals of Texas 2000 (the BGCT's evangelism/ministry/church-starting campaign), even though the year 2000 is upon us," Keith said. "Although much has been done, much remains to really reach Texas with the saving message of the gospel. …
___"The vast majority of Texas Baptists will respond to the challenge of restoring and maintaining morality and spiritual power in our society. … When confronted with the realization that we really can make a difference in this society, I believe they will rise to the occasion."
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___The Hebrew people's enemies tried to stop them from rebuilding the Jerusalem wall, Keith said, noting similar opposition arises today.
___"There will be many who will be used of Satan to bring this same kind of opposition to what we want to accomplish in putting God's word to work," he predicted. "When we get serious about serving the Lord, that is when the devil gets serious about opposition. …
___"As Texas Baptists have stood for the principles of the Baptist faith and practice, stood for the priesthood of the believer, stood for the autonomy of the local church and many other distinctives, we have been attacked."
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___All the people, laity and clergy alike, must work to achieve God's goals, he said. "No one is too important to put his or her hand to the hard task of rebuilding. Every leader must look to the area of influence they have and put God's word to work there."
___That means refusing to let gender be a barrier for work, Keith stressed.
___"Everyone, including women, is called to the task when the stakes are so high," he said. "We have been a little reluctant in our denomination to come to grips with the issue of women in various ministry tasks. We are in too great a spiritual peril to allow those controversial verses of culturally oriented guidelines given by (the Apostle) Paul to troubled first century churches to hold anyone back from putting God's word to work."
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___While God calls some Christians to be missionaries and they are to be commended, "each one of us has a mission field right where we live," he pointed out. "It is not necessary to look very far to see needs, both spiritual and material, all around us that we can meet."
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___"We must remember that what we need is not self-confidence, but confidence in God," he said. "I am not reliant on my own strength and ability, but on the provision of God and my obedience to his call on my life."
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___"Our families, our country, the Lord's kingdom may all be at risk if we neglect our section of 'the wall,'" he warned. "We may sometimes think our little church or corner of the world is just a speck in the overall scheme of things, but if even one section of the wall is not finished, all is for naught."
___The challenge demands the best of all Texas Baptists, Keith declared.
___"Today, we look at an intimidating task in rebuilding the spiritual and moral walls of our culture, but we know that we have tremendous assets to draw upon," he said. "Every church in the BGCT, regardless of size or location, has a section of the wall to focus on. It will require the best effort of every church to move into the year 2000 and the next century with a vibrant and living witness of the power of God to change lives.
___"We can do it. God has assigned us the task. We can put God's word to work."
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