June 19, 2000
Patterson calls Baptists to be ambassadors for Christ
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___ORLANDO--Southern Baptists must remain true to their God-given assignment to be ambassadors for Christ, Paige Patterson insisted June 13, during his presidential address to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
___"Above all else, we are ambassadors for Christ," Patterson proclaimed, citing the Apostle Paul's advice to Christians in the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. Pattersonconcluded his second one-year term as SBC president during the meeting in Orlando.
PAIGE PATTERSON, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, presents the president's address during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. (BP photo)
___Patterson, who is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., has been shaped by the notion of Christian ambassadorship since he was 9 years old. The convention's missions program for boys, Royal Ambassadors, "stamped my life forever," he recalled, eventually leading to "my appointment as a heavenly ambassador to an alien world."
___In the New Testament, the word "ambassador" reflected virtues of nobility and honor, he described. And the passage he quoted even reflects a verb form, meaning "we are ambassadorizing."
___"In other words, 'ambassador' is not merely a title of honor but an activity," he said. "The title 'ambassador' identifies both who we are and what we do. Consequently, the behavior of the ambassador ought to be such that neither the credibility of his message nor the reputation of the Sovereign he represents should be diminished by his actions."
___Christian ambassadors should be challenged by "three distinct motivations," he said. They are:
___Inevitable accountability. Every Christian eventually will stand before the "judgment seat" of God to give an account for that person's life and actions, he said.
___"Ambassadorship makes us responsible for many things," he added. "For example, we are concerned about worldwide religious liberty, which is appropriately defined as the open marketplace of religious discussion in which everyone is entitled to follow his conscience, even if that means a changing of the mind. In that kind of open marketplace of ideas, Christianity will inevitably triumph."
___Religious liberty supports the SBC's right to evangelize non-Christians, even people who adhere to other world religions, he pointed out. Specifically, he cited criticism the convention's International Mission Board has received for "targeting" members of other faith groups for evangelistic outreach.
___"We need never apologize for such accountability to our missionary assignment," he stressed.
___Similarly, Southern Baptists must support the Christian school movement and its effort to educate children in home schools and faith-based schools, he said. And they must "be discriminating in our entertainment," he added, referencing the convention's 2-year-old boycott of the Walt Disney Co. for what Southern Baptists have described as its failure to maintain consistent family-supportive standards.
___Emphasizing the accountability theme, Patterson declared his support for proposed revisions to the Baptist Faith & Message, the convention's doctrinal statement, which were presented the following day.
___"For more than 20 years now, you have attended these conventions and voted to return to the faith of our fathers and to be bound only by the authority of Christ and the God-breathed word of our Lord," he said. "Now let us tell the world in a succinct confession those truths most widely believed among us."
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___Through the sacrifice of Christ and the forgiveness of human sin, Christians have been compelled to love and serve God, he said. "Whereas human forgiveness has its limits and its inabilities, divine forgiveness is limited only by the man who refuses to accept it. We cannot help but say, 'The love of Christ compels us in a way that can never, ever fail.'"
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___"For that reason, I stand before you today ... and admonish all of us together to devote ourselves as never before to getting the saving gospel of Jesus Christ to all 6 billion people on the face of this globe. This is the missionary task to which we now must devote ourselves with renewed vigor. ... This missionary task is what the Bible is all about."
___Patterson illustrated the importance of Christian ambassadorship through conversations with four actors who portrayed famous Baptist missionaries.
___Lottie Moon, an early missionary who died of starvation in China in 1912 and for whom the SBC's international missions offering is named, cautioned against the practice of "surrogate missions."
___"When will your parents offer their children to God as missionaries rather than just sending their money?" she asked. "Do they ever intend to go themselves to a mission assignment? ... Can I ask you, What is it that you have sacrificed for the lost of the world?"
___Adoniram Judson, with his wife, Ann, pioneered Baptist foreign missions in Burma. Ann Judson and their children died on the mission field.
___"While I buried so many of my children in Burmese soil, it seems that ... you are not even willing to bury your own selfishness and to give of yourselves and your money and your prayers for the sake of getting the gospel to the world," he said.
___"Bury your materialism like I buried my children. Will you sleep less comfortably in order to get the word of God to the nations? Can Jesus count on you to persevere even when the task seems impossible?"
___Bill Wallace, a missionary physician to China who died in a comunist prison camp after World War II, expressed doubt that today's Southern Baptists possess the commitment and courage necessary to proclaim the gospel to the whole world.
___"I am certain that you do not have the courage to stay when persecution and difficulty become severe," he said. "And, frankly, even if you do have Baptist missionaries willing to stay and to sacrifice, I especially have my questions about you folks at home."
___Bertha Smith, another former missionary to China, emphasized the necessity for depending upon Christ for the completion of the ambassador's task.
___"It is not programs but prayer that God honors," she said.
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