January 20, 1999

'Like never before':
Evangelism Conference
highlights need to tell
___By Ken Camp &
___Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--Texas Baptists must commit themselves to sharing the gospel message "like never before" if they want to make real the Texas 2000 vision of telling everyone in the state about Jesus by the start of the new millennium.
___That was the theme speakers continually echoed at the 1999 Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference Jan. 10-12 in Fort Worth.
___To bring non-believers into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, Christians must make the commitment to "do church like never before," according to Ed Young Jr., pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine.
___"Because you are made in the image of the Creator, you are creative," Young said. But creativity is the missing element in the lives of most Christians and in the ministry of most churches, he maintained.
___"God invented it. Jesus modeled it. People need

INTERCESSORY PRAYER was one element of the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference in Fort Worth last week. Partici-pants also heard speakers address the theme of "Like Never Before." (Photo by Melody Loggins)

it. We are gifted to do it," he said. "So do it."
___Even so, creativity takes effort. The church must "take action to unleash it," Young said. "Creativity and work are inseparably linked. They are the chips and hot sauce of the Bible."
___Young offered three suggestions for enhancing creativity:
___ Connect with creative people. Creative thinking sparks more creative thinking.
___ Build creative time into your schedule. "For me, that is time spent driving my pickup truck listening to DC Talk and Jars of Clay," Young said.
___ Install the confusion principle into your life and your church. Just as muscles develop best when an exercise regimen is varied, creativity develops when routines are altered.
___Texas Baptists need a worldwide vision of reaching a spirit-ually lost world, international evangelist Luis Palau and Korean Baptist pastor Billy Kim later told the conference.
___"Besides the USA, there are another 5 billion people out there who need creativity in having the gospel presented to them," Palau said. "We are called like never before to reach a lost world."
___The Christian message in the United States is hindered by the reputation of American Christians, Palau said. "Evangelical Christians in America are known more for what we are against rather than what we are for."
___Referring repeatedly to the testimony of worship leader Dennis Jernigan, who said God delivered him from a homosexual lifestyle, Palau reflected on his own experience ministering to a nephew who died of AIDS.
___"We need compassion for those who do not have the life we have in Jesus Christ," Palau

CONFERENCE LEADERS Ed Young Jr. (left) and Dennis Jernigan visit between sessions of the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference last week in Fort Worth. (Photo by Melody Loggins)

said. "Compassion is the mark of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the compassion of Jesus Christ take over. Make a choice to be compassionate."
___Billy Kim, senior pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, Korea, described the explosive growth of Korean Christianity, which is growing four times faster than the population. He noted the largest Presbyterian, Methodist and Assembly of God churches in the world are not in Scotland, England or the United States, but in Korea.
___"If you want to see revival, you will have to pray like never before, preach like never before, be purified (holy) like never before, learn to praise God in all circumstances. If it takes persecution, then do whatever it takes to see revival."
___Kim noted that Coca Cola has a goal that by 2000, everyone in the world will have a chance to taste the soft drink. "They have a vision of taking Coca Cola to the world; we have no plan, no vision, no motto to let the entire world know of Jesus Christ and to taste of him. We need renewal like never before, and we must preach the gospel to people who so desperately need it. We must preach it as never before if we expect to see revival and renewal."
___Telling others about the "living water" of Christ is a greater need than telling the world about a soft drink, added Pepper Puryear, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mt. Vernon.
___Puryear interpreted the conference theme by telling about a pastor who visited Israel a number of times. He always asked for the same Bedouin guide, to whom he witnessed. When the guide asked him why, the preacher said he could not be comfortable knowing he had not witnessed to the best of his ability.
___The guide responded that he believed the preacher did not want to commit the "sin of the desert" which is to know where there is water but refuse to tell others.
___Puryear drew a parallel between that concept and the conviction of Terry Nichols for involvement in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Nichols was convicted even though there was no evidence that he made, planted or detonated the bomb.
___"He was found guilty because he had the information and he chose not to tell," Puryear said.
___That theme was picked up by Ellis Orozco, pastor of Corpus Christi Baptist Church. "There are some things that simply knowing them carries the inherent responsibility of telling," he said.
___Christians can penetrate the 21st century with the gospel message "like never before" if they remember God's promises, his proclamation and his presence, Orozco said.
___"Standing at the brink of a new millennium, staring across the great divide, it is time for us to go, to do and to become," he said. "It will require impulsive action, creative courage and quixotic extravagance."
___David Mahfouz, pastor of First Baptist Church in Port Neches, urged participants to return to the "fundamental things" of the Christian faith.
___"If we are to reach Texas, we cannot lose sight of the vision that God has given us to go tell Ö teach and show people that Jesus loves us. We must get back to the point where our heartbeat is evangelism, where we tell people that this is what Jesus did for us."
___"Like never before, let us do the fundamental thing of evangelism," he said. If Texas Baptists fix their eyes on God, "we will see things happen as never before."
___John Hatch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lake Jackson, told a story of going fishing and losing the key to the bass boat he was using. "We had $30,000 worth of bass boat all loaded up with gadgets, live wells and equipment, but without the key we were dead in the water."
___He noted that churches have state-of-the-art sound systems, parking lots, wonderful buildings, seminary-trained ministers, convention-sanctioned materials. Yet "why aren't we catching more fish?" he asked. "Could it be that we have lost the key?"
___The key, he said, is to return to the Great Commission.
___Frank Pollard, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., preached on John the Baptist and asked why John was described by Jesus as "the greatest man ever born of woman."
___"What does it take to be great in the eyes of Christ?" Pollard asked. "John was great because he knew where he came from, he knew what he came for, and he knew who to point to."
___"Christians have good news in a world that hears so little of it. We have good news to share. Let's tell it with joy and with gladness. Paul never went into a town telling them what was wrong with them. He always went in telling them, 'Look who has come to us!'."
___God has called Christians to be "good news casters" as we tell the people that Jesus Christ is Lord.
___

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