August 28, 2000

TOGETHER:
Texas Baptists care about
the bottom line: Saved people
___When you come to the bottom line in a business, you want to see a profit. As many new businesses are discovering, you can go only so long before potential must become reality, an investment must produce a return. At some critical point, you have to bring in enough money to pay the bills.
___What is the bottom line for Baptists? Enough money? Don't minimize the importance

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

of money. It can help a church do a great deal of good in a community. Ministries are started, people are helped, students educated, the sick are cared for, Bible studies begun, churches started, properties purchased, houses built, buildings become delivery centers for the goodness and grace of God, and out of all this people are saved and discipled. As Texas Baptists begin to receive the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions, we will see again how the offerings of God's people provide help to churches and mission ministries as they reach out to people all around them in Jesus' name.
___The bottom line for Baptists is not money. It is this: Are people being saved?
___If people are not being saved, then all the theological education in the world falls useless to the ground. If people are not being given the Best Gift we have to give, then all the other good things we might do for them are limited and superficial. If people do not walk out of our buildings having been brought to God and prepared to live and share the good news of his saving power, then our buildings might as well be empty or never even built. We can have big budgets and money at the end of the month, but if people are not being saved, what is the point?
___An American lady was with a group touring the famous sites of London. The guide had carefully explained the history of several beautiful church buildings, pointed out the burial places of famous people and interpreted the meaning of the marvelous stained glass windows. Finally, with some impatience in her voice, she interrupted, "Young man, how long has it been since someone was saved in these buildings?" I hope she was a Baptist.
___"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field'" (Matthew 9:35-38).
___Over the last three years, our Texas Baptist churches have baptized 204,923 people, more than in any three-year period of our history. During Texas 2000, we have started almost 1,500 new churches in the past five years. As Jesus cared about the sick and needy, so have you. Last year, our Baptist people treated over 36,000 patients in 200 clinics along the Rio Grande. Our hospitals treated almost 60,000 charity patients, providing $208 billion in health care. There were more than 250 people making professions of faith in our hospitals, childcare and aging ministries.
___Texas Baptists are seeking to be about the bottom line. We do many good things for people and for our communities, but the best gift we will always have to give is Jesus.
___We are loved.

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