February 25, 2002
Texas Baptists called to prepare for Billy Graham's Metroplex Mission
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___DALLAS--Preparation for the Metroplex Mission with Billy Graham began in earnest last week as church leaders attended information seminars throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
___Fifteen identical meetings were held to give pastors and church leaders information to begin preparations for the Oct. 17-20 event at Texas Stadium in Irving. The seminars outlined upcoming ministries and opportunities for involvement.
___Pastors were asked to assemble a leadership team consisting of a congregational leader, a children's leader, a counseling and follow-up leader, a mission project leader and a student leader.
___While Billy Graham has preached in Texas more times than any other state except California, this will be his first major project in the Metroplex since 1971, when a Billy Graham crusade opened Texas Stadium.
SCOTT LENNING (left) and Wayne Shuffield discuss plans for evangelist Billy Graham's Metroplex Mission later this year. Lenning is mission director for the effort. Shuffield is an evangelism consultant with the BGCT.
___Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas was the site of the first of the information meetings. Park Cities Pastor Jim Denison, who led a delegation to Fresno, Calif., last year to formally request that Graham come to North Texas, opened the meeting by calling the fall event one of great significance. He also praised the advance team that will lead in preparation.
___"We are in the presence of people God has used around the world, and now God has brought them to us," Denison said.
___Rick Marshall, director of evangelism for Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said the Metroplex is pregnant with spiritual babies who will be birthed in October.
___Marshall compared Graham to an obstetrician who will be there at the birth and area pastors as pediatricians who will have prolonged contact, giving guidance to spiritual health. "But it is mothers and fathers that we need most to do the work of adopting these babies," he said, alluding to the need for disciplers.
___The success of the mission will not be measured during the four days of the meetings, Marshall said, but years later.
___"This is not about the end, but the beginning," he declared. "Four days will not save Dallas, but it is a starting point. Success will be measured by where those who respond are five to 10 years from now."
___Graham spent a great deal of time in prayer before agreeing to come back to Texas, since he had been here so many times before, Marshall reported. Finally, Graham said, "God has laid Dallas/Fort Worth on my heart. We have to go."
___"We're here tonight because God has opened here a door no one can close," Marshall said.
___One of those helping to hold the door open was Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He told crusade organizers to pick any date they wanted during the fall, and he would make sure the stadium was available. If he had to, he would make sure the Cowboys had a bye that weekend.
___"We had never heard that before in an NFL city," Marshall said.
___Rich Dalrymple, Cowboys' public relations director, told the Baptist Standard Jones made the offer out of a sense of the event's importance.
___"Mr. Jones feels strongly that this is something that should come to the community and something the Dallas Cowboys should be involved in," he said.
___Volunteers should "work like it all depends on us, but know it all depends on God," Marshall said.
___For the mission to be successful, Christians in the area must become more active in developing relationships with people outside the church, he said. "The greatest challenge we face in this mission is that believers are confined in relationships that are void of the lost and hurting."
___He stressed, however, that hard work will not be enough to make the event a success.
___"The three most important things for the success of this mission are No. 1, prayer, No. 2, prayer and No. 3, prayer," Marshall emphasized.
___Between 15,000 and 25,000 volunteers will be needed, and "those people will not come from any one denomination or any one church," he said. Four thousand area churches are on the mailing list used to solicit support, and about 1,000 are expected to participate.
___Five meetings will be held during the four days of the crusade. Saturday morning, a special event aimed at children will be held, with Saturday night pinpointed at youth.
___Many more meetings will be held to prepare for the mission. April will be the time for outreach seminars designed for pastors and their leadership teams, while May will focus on training for follow-up discipleship. A Christian life and witness course offered in August and September will help Christians revitalize their faith and prepare them to share it with others.
___A Christian social ministry component and special events for men, women, youth and children also will be mapped out soon.
___The important thing is that church volunteers be recruited soon, Marshall said. For more information, call (817) 695-1880 or e-mail info@MetroplexMission.org.
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