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Mark Dunn
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Ralph West
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Daniel Vestal
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Roland Lopez
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James Merritt
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Texas Baptists urged to 'pray for the lost' every day
___By Ferrell Foster, Ken Camp & Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANTONIO--Like a broken record that keeps repeating a phrase in a song, the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference kept one phrase before participants--"pray for the lost."
___Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship preached, but they stuck to the messages of Scripture and avoided any mention of the rift that exists among the Baptist groups.
___Throughout the conference Jan. 28-29 at Municipal
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THE ALTAR of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio fills with worshippers as evangelist Albert Mottesi appeals for commitments to faith in Jesus Christ. Mottesi preached at the Hispanic Evangelism Crusade sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and San Antonio Mexican Baptist Association. The Jan. 27 event preceded the annual Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference.
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Auditorium in San Antonio, pastors and evangelism leaders from the staff of the Baptist General Convention of Texas kept the prayer focus at the forefront. Three "Prayer for the Lost" segments were featured in each of the conference's three sessions.
___Rick Davis, director of the BGCT's Center for Strategic Evangelism, offered an "Exhortation to Prayer" in the final gathering. He called on every Baptist church in Texas, at every meeting, to pray specifically for people who do not know Jesus as Savior.
___"Every time we get together, ... we need to be praying," he said. "It is as important to talk to God about lost people as it is to talk to lost people about God."
___Davis asked Texas Baptists to pray for "this spiritual harvest," because, as every farmer knows, "you can lose a harvest" and "this harvest is the one that enables you to get to the next one."
___Silence and solitude were two of the greatest evangelistic tools used by Jesus, and he instructed his followers to pray for laborers for the harvest, Davis said.
___Texas Baptists need a sense of urgency about reaching those who do not know Christ, Davis said. Texas Baptists also need a "heart of compassion" and a "mindset of intentionality," he added.
___"Evangelism is you loving God and caring enough for people that you want to get them together,"
he said. "Get intentional, get focused."
___The best way to do that is to pray, he explained.
___Each session of the evangelism conference featured two speakers. Daniel Vestal, CBF coordinator, spoke the first night, while James Merritt, SBC president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., spoke the second.
___Other speakers were Freddie Gage, an evangelist from Euless; Mark Dunn, pastor of Crestview Baptist Church in Dallas; Roland López, pastor of Northwest Multi-Cultural Church in San Antonio; and Ralph West, pastor of Brookhollow Baptist Church in Houston.
___Merritt called on Texas Baptists to speak up for Christ.
___The Apostle Paul was not ashamed of the gospel regarding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, Merritt said. "Why should anybody be ashamed of good news?"
___The gospel contains the power to bring healing where there is hurting, heaven where there is hell, happiness where there is heartache and grace where there is guilt, he said. "The world still thinks a crucified Christ is ridiculous. You ought to have enough love for him to speak up for him."
___There are "all kinds of gospels out there" competing for people's attention, the Georgia pastor noted. He cited the social gospel, the health-and-wealth gospel, the name-it-and-claim-it gospel, the positive-thinking gospel and others. Those are not bad things, but "the world is depraved" and needs regeneration, which only comes from the gospel revealed in Scripture, he declared.
___God had a simple purpose in the gospel--to reveal his righteousness and bestow it on those who would believe, Merritt said. It is revealed by faith and received by faith. "Righteousness is not a work you do. It is a gift you receive."
___Vestal, a former Texas pastor, urged Texas Baptists to impact 21st century culture by "recovering the glory" of God.
___"My prayer is that we will recover the glory," he said. "When we do, people will be attracted to the gospel."
___God revealed to and through Israel his glory as the one God who is holy and righteous, Vestal said. And God revealed in Jesus Christ his glory as the creator who loves all people.
___"The glory of God as revealed in Jesus is that God loves every single person in the world," Vestal said. "We
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DURING the opening session of the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference, participants hold flags while the congregation sings about Christian faith and American heritage.
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would live in a different world if we saw every person as part of the body of Christ or as a potential part of the body of Christ."
___The light of God's glory shines through the lives of his children, particularly when they experience trials and tribulations, he added. "It is in your brokenness, in your woundedness, that the glory of God shines the brightest."
___Davis presented the BGCT's first lifetime achievement award for "harvest evangelism" to veteran evangelist Gage, whom the late W.A. Criswell once called a "bouncing ball of fire."
___"The bounce is about gone, but I've still got the fire," Gage quipped in accepting the award.
___Gage cited a long list of people whom he said influenced his life and ministry, ranging from independent fundamentalist Baptists Jack Hyles and John R. Rice to former BGCT presidents Dick Maples and Phil Lineberger and former Baptist Standard Editor Toby Druin.
___He particularly singled out the evangelist who led him to faith in Jesus--Dan Vestal, the father of Daniel Vestal.
___Gage said he spoke from a "wounded, broken heart" as he entreated Texas Baptists to reclaim their zeal for soul-winning and to become "fishers of men" as Christ commanded.
___"Wouldn't it be something if we all quit fighting and went to fishing?" he asked. "We've lost our focus as Baptists. We were born in revival fire. We're now living in the smoke."
___Meanwhile, Dunn called on Texas Baptists to be "attentive ministers" as he told and applied the biblical story of Peter and John healing the lame man on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem.
___The Dallas pastor encouraged participants to be attentive to God's presence, God's movement and God's voice in their lives.
___"If we are to be led by God, we must be attentive to God," he said. "We must be prepared. We must listen to God's voice."
___He told of a pet dog he had as a boy who sat at the front door and listened to the sounds on the street outside. "I know it sounds strange to learn from watching a dog, but we must learn to concentrate, to listen, to be attentive to the voice of God," he explained.
___Dunn also said attentiveness to God leads to relationship with God and a "progressive accumulation of experiences so we are able to respond to the situation."
___Lopez, the first full-time Hispanic Baptist pastor ever to preach at the Evangelism Conference, talked about the need for a spiritual harvest.
___"The fields are white unto harvest, but they are also brown unto harvest and black unto harvest," López said.
___The San Antonio pastor said the Bible is "God's newspaper, and the headline says, 'Jesus Saves.' We are God's newspaper boys, and our job is to deliver the newspaper to the porch. Not under the porch or on the roof, but on the porch. Our job is to deliver the message that Jesus saves."
___He testified that as a boy just out of reform school, he heard an evangelist present the gospel in a "very simple fashion" in a poolroom in Palacios.
___Through that message, Lopez said, he received a new life and a new heart made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
___López also presented vignettes of people in his church and community with whom he has shared the gospel message. He talked about the former newspaper editor, a communist and an atheist, who now teaches Sunday School and led a whole family to belief in Christ. He also told about the changed life of an alcoholic and an ex-convict.
___"The message we preach is not ethics, although it is very ethical, or a theology, although it is very theological," Lopez said. "The message we preach is about redemption."
___West drew on Luke 14:16-24 to speak about images of God as host of a feast. The biblical story tells of a man who wanted to throw a banquet to feed the people of his community, but the people had excuses for not coming. He then sent out his servants to bring in others to enjoy the feast.
___"Everything else seems to be more important than God," the Houston pastor said. "The master here got angry ... because they turned away from his generosity.
___"God has entrusted us with everything we need to win the world, and we have a tendency ... to lay it down, ... leave it behind," West said. "There's a banquet at the master's house, and ... all you have to do is be hungry."
___God is saying to Texas Baptists that he still has "room for some more" in his kingdom, West said: "I'll take whoever answers my call."
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