February 9, 2000
Hemphill: Baptists want everyone
'saved' but want others to do it
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--Most Baptists want non-Christians to be brought to faith in Jesus, Ken Hemphill said, but they want someone else to do it.
___Speaking to the Texas Baptist Evangelists Conference, Hemphill charged that Christians today have "lost the compassion" necessary to witness and have become"functional universalists."
___The president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth illustrated his point by noting the great public outcries regarding the deaths of whales and dolphins in recent years.
___"How strange that the secular world would have such a concern for dying whales and dying dolphins and the church could be so unconcerned about the lost," he said.
___Hemphill told the evangelists that in 1976, the Southern Baptist Convention set a task of presenting the gospel to every person on earth by 2000.
___"We are farther behind than we were in 1976," he said. "Less than six out of every 100 Southern Baptists witness about Jesus Christ, and one in six Southern Baptist churches baptized no one last year."
___"The missing element today is compassion for the lost. Jesus had compassion for the lost, but I think we have discovered the hardness of the soil but have forgotten the power of the gospel," he said. "It is not just good news; it is the only news."
___A two-decade battle was fought over the Bible in the Southern Baptist Convention, and while it was "worth it" to sustain the "inerrancy of the word ... we seem to have forgotten the power of the word."
___Hemphill agreed that it is not "natural" to witness. "It is supernatural. I think it is important that Jesus taught the disciples how to pray before he taught them to witness."
___The conference of vocational evangelists brought out some of their best preachers and musicians for the four-hour meeting at the Radisson Hotel Jan. 31.
___Musicians who performed during the conference included Wes James from Millerview; the Randy Fair Family from Fairfield; Sherman and Tammy Aten from Granbury; Gary Newman from Garland; and the Calvary Singers from Plano.
___Voddie Baucham, an evangelist from Houston, told the vocational evangelists he came "to remind us of the task to which I--we--have been called," as he spoke on "The Resume of an Effective Evangelist."
___An effective evangelist is "one who is preoccupied with God's program and not his own," he declared. "We must focus on God's program and not on what has been effective for someone else."
___An effective evangelist is one who approaches the task with "fear and much trembling," he added. "I get worried when I stop being scared. I am not afraid of confrontation; I am afraid of messing up the job I have been given."
___An effective evangelist is one who understands that the task "is not about showmanship, ... not about manipulation ... but about the power of God ... unto salvation."
___The effective evangelist is one "who makes sure God gets all the praise. The effective evangelist is one who remembers his place (and) doesn't take credit for what the Masterhas done," Baucham added.
VOCATIONAL EVANGELISTS' officers are Randy Fair, Fairfield, assistant music director; Sherman Aten, Granbury, music director; Herman Cramer, Seguin, president; Rob Randall, McKinney, vice president; and Jonathan Hewett, Celina, secretary-treasurer. (Photo by Dan Martin/BGCT)
___John Karl Davis of Fort Worth told evangelists they must have the right logos (words), right ethos (motive) and pathos (passion) in their work.
___Jon Moore of Hurst preached on "Victory in Jesus" and said that "our victory is not achieved, but received."
___"Many times people ask, 'Why can't I have victory in family life ... with spouse ... with teenager ... in ministry? Why can't I have victory?' The problem is that personal pronoun, 'I'," Moore said. "We are looking for victory in ourselves. The victory is not our victory. It does not make any difference whether you are on a mountaintop or in a valley, your circumstances have no bearing on God's victory. You are carried along in the train of the triumph of Jesus Christ. It is his victory."
___The evangelists also introduced their officers for the coming year. All were re-elected from last year with the exception of Christi Newberry of Dallas, who retired after serving four years as secretary-treasurer. She was replaced by Jonathan Hewett of Celina.
___Other officers are Herman Cramer, Seguin, president; Rob Randall, McKinney, vice president; Sherman Aten, Granbury, music director; Randy Fair, Fairfield, assistant music director; and Riley Hamilton, Greenville, pastor-adviser.
___
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
