March 19, 2001
TOGETHER:
Though population booms, there's room at the cross
___We knew Texas was growing. We just didn't know how much. In the last five years, churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas started 1,451 new churches in our state. We needed every one of them --and more.
___The Bible says of Jesus, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them."
___We knew about 10 million Texans were unchurched, and Texas Baptists felt a personalresponsibility to do all we could to reach out to the mission field that has come to Texas. In the past 16 months, I often have said I am praying we can get our arms around Texas and hug our state up close to God. And even as I spoke, the state was getting bigger. Our arms need to be longer, our sympathies more Christ-like, our message more urgent, our lives more in touch with people who don't know God.
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___"They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
___Ten years ago, the Texas population was 16,986,510. In the 2000 census, it was 20,851,820. That is a 22.8 percent growth--3,865,310 more people. That is more people than live in Oklahoma, New Mexico or Arkansas. But it is not too many more than live in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso.
___Growth was concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth. One non-metropolitan county had a growth rate of 52.4 percent: Hartley in the Panhandle, where Dalhart is located, grew from 3,634 to 5,537. Sixty-eight counties lost population, while 37 counties grew by 30 percent or more. Harris County added 582,379 people; Dallas, 366,089; Tarrant, 276,116; Travis, 235,873; Collin, 227,639; Bexar, 207,537.
___Forty-one percent of the total population--8.5 million people--live in the four counties of Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Bexar. Add Travis and El Paso counties, and that means 50 percent of the total Texas population live in six counties.
___"Then he said, '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 9:36-38.
___The BGCT Strategic Planning Committee will present its recommendations to the Executive Board in May. The committee is taking into consideration the great challenge these population statistics represent.
___Census analysis is available to any church in our convention that wants to plan strategies for reaching people in its area. Contact Clay Price at price@bgct.org or (214) 828-5138.
___But even now, will you allow God to draw you into a regular pattern of prayer for these dear people? Will you begin to look around you for someone you could see as a real person, one for whom Christ died, and invite that person to church with you this Sunday? Thoughtfully consider your list of friends. Are there any who need the Lord? Do you pray for specific people who need Christ and his church?
___Population statistics can numb us. But people we know, or will make a point to get to know, energize us as the Holy Spirit uses one of us to reach out in love to each one of them.
___There is room at the cross for us all. Is there room in your church for one more--the one God is placing on your heart?
___We are loved.
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