February 9, 2000
Change comes with a
little FAITH, pastors say
___By Ken Camp & Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--FAITH teaches Christians to look beyond themselves toward a spiritually lost world, a Metroplex pastor told Texas Baptists at the statewide Evangelism Conference.
___"FAITH taught our people to see lost people," said Brent Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church in Carrollton. "Pastors, too often we don't see people. We see numbers."
___LifeWay Christian Resources and Southern Baptists' North American Mission Boardlaunched the FAITH strategy two years ago. FAITH stands for five key words in a presentation of the Christian plan of salvation: forgiveness, available, impossible, turn and heaven.
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas is promoting the strategy as part of its Texas 2000 emphasis on sharing the gospel with every Texan by the end of this year.
___The process taught members of the Carollton church to "see lost people just as they are--sinners in need of a Savior," Taylor said. "When the burden of sin is removed, a new burden is placed on our shoulders--a burden for lost people."
___Tim Brown of Maud projected that if every Southern Baptist led one person to Christ this year, there would be 32 million Southern Baptist Christians next year. And if every one of those led one person to Christ, there would be 64 million Southern Baptists the year after that.
___"At that rate, it would take nine years to present the gospel to every person in the United States," he said. "But there are a lot of people who are not leading anyone to Christ."
___Brown became pastor of First Baptist Church of Maud, a town of 1,000 in Northeast Texas, about five years ago.
___"The church was running 70 to 90 in Sunday School, but there was no vision, no excitement. In 1997-98, three people were baptized, and less than 10 showed up on any given week for visitation," he said.
___In 1998, Brown took eight of the church members to a FAITH clinic. Since then, he said, 150 people have professed faith in Christ as savior, and 51 people are actively involved in witnessing.
___"I have baptized 77 people. The sad thing is that that is considered good," he said.
___Brown challenged participants in the Evangelism Conference to "do something" to reach out to their communities.
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