February 9, 2000

EVANGELISM CONFERENCE speaker Robert Jeffress. (BGCT photos by Melody Loggins)

Weep for souls and sow
seeds of faith, speakers urge
___By Ken Camp &
___Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--"Following Jesus into the 21st Century" means weeping for lost souls, sowing the seeds of the gospel, harvesting new converts and joining the angels in rejoicing over new citizens entering God's kingdom, speakers told Texas Baptists at their statewide evangelism conference in Fort Worth Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
___Kie Bowman, pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, challenged Texas Baptists to have the kind of "heart for the harvest" of souls that Jesus had.
___"A heart for the harvest anticipates a plentiful harvest," he said. "Jesus had a harvest mindset."
___A believer with a "heart for the harvest" recognizes the problem of a field needing work and too few people willing to work. And a Christian with a Christ-like heart will "agonize in prayer" for those who are spiritually lost, he said.
___"There is something about prayer that changes you and me. If you pray that God will send out workers into the harvest, he may send you," Bowman observed.
___A harvest-minded Christian accepts God's plan of forgiveness based on repentance and faith rather sugar-coating the gospel, trying to make the message "easier and easier" for the world to accept, he said.

KIE BOWMAN

___"We're not the sugar of the world. We are the salt of the earth," Bowman said. "Are we posing, posturing and politicking but not penetrating?"
___Chris Simmons, bivocational pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in what he called the "war zone" of inner-city Dallas, said society does not have the answer for the city's ills because society is often too "messed up" to help.
___"When those who are messed up try to help messed-up people, those who are messed up end up even more messed up than ever," he said, pointing to the millions poured into programs to end drugs, violence, hunger, gangs and homelessness.
___"There are more hungry folks than ever, more gangs, more drugs, more violence. Those who are commissioned to help messed-up people don't have the answers."
___Simmons used the parable of the sower from Matthew 13 to note that the religious leaders didn't have the answers in Jesus' day either.
___"The religious leaders were so tied up in their religious system that they missed out on having a true fellowship with the Creator," he said. "The religious leaders had an agenda, but it was not a kingdom agenda. They had an ulterior purpose. I wonder if Jesus were here today, would he tell Texas Baptists that our agenda is not a kingdom agenda? Would

DUANE BROOKS

he tell us that we who are arguing and fighting among ourselves really are not hearing ... seeing what he wants us to see and hear?"
___Simmons told a story of two big dogs fighting over a piece of meat while a little poodle came up and got it. "Could it be that we are involved in a dogfight and Satan has moved in and taken souls?" he asked.
___The parable of the sower shows of the work of Cornerstone Church, which sows seeds through computer literacy classes, through "teaching little children how to read and telling them how much God loves them," through "putting our arms around the homeless and letting them know how much Jesus loves them," Simmons said.
___"We are called to sow as we go because we never know when the seed of the gospel will fall on good soil. But we will never produce a crop in Texas as long as we keep the seed in our pocket," he said. "We must sow as we go so the world will know."
___Simmons also noted that "God can transform even a life that is messed up because God is the master transformer who specializes in fixin' messed-up folks."
___God wants Texas Baptists to make a commitment to Christ that is public, pre-eminent and purposeful, said Duane Brooks, pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston
___Challenging believers not to be "crypto-Christians" or "secret disciples" of Jesus, Brooks said public faith helps followers of Jesus keep accountability.
___"Until you go public with your faith, there are dead zones in your life in which you are not accountable to anybody," he said.
___When Christ is pre-eminent, faith is seen as authentic. And when commitment is purposeful, God grants the believer authority to minister in his name, Brooks added.

CHRIS SIMMONS

___Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, talked of "life's most important question," and said Job in the Old Testament posed it this way, "How can a person be right with God?"
___"Man is more interested in sex and sports than in salvation," he said, adding that Romans 3:21-31 are "the most important 11 verses in the Bible because they answer life's most important question."
___The answer, he said, is that a sinful human cannot become right with God alone because "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and must receive God's own gift of salvation through Jesus Christ."
___The Scriptures emphasize there is no Plan B for those who have not heard of Jesus, or for the pagan, the moralist, or even the sincere religious person, he added.
___The two-day evangelism conference marked a transition in leadership for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its Executive Board staff. Bill Pinson retired on Jan. 31, and Charles Wade assumed the executive director's post on Feb. 1.
___Pinson expressed "great gratitude" to Texas Baptists for the opportunities of service and said he had "great confidence" in their future.
___Wade pledged to help Texas Baptist churches in their efforts to "be the presence of Jesus" in their communities and to share the gospel through word and deed. Just as the angels rejoice over one lost soul who repents and believes, Christians can share in the joy of spreading the good news, he said.
___"If you've ever led anyone to Jesus, you know what the angels feel," Wade said.
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