February 4, 2002

Evangelists not 'vanishing breed'
___SAN ANTONIO--Vocational evangelists are not a "vanishing breed," James Eaves told more than 100 participants in the annual Texas Baptist evangelists' luncheon.
___"But we are having a lot less revivals, and there are a lot less full time evangelists," said the former professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___There are many reasons for the decline, he said. "We are told that revivals won't work, ... that people won't attend, ... that they are too much effort for too little return, ... that they compete with the missions offerings, ... that you can't use old methods to reach new people.
___Eaves acknowledged Southern Baptists have seen a decline in baptisms, and he claimed a lessening emphasis on evangelism "has led to a loss of Christian emphasis on our society."
___He quoted from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians to diagnose the reason for the decline in evangelism among Christians.
___"Paul wrote to them about envy, strife and division, and we think that was the disease" that caused the problems in the church. "But they are not the disease; they are symptoms of the disease. The disease is that many people in the churches are carnal--they live on the level of the flesh rather than the level of the Spirit," he said.
___Eaves, who still teaches evangelism classes at the Fort Worth seminary, said carnality in the church prevents growth, causes strife and division, results in bad behavior on the part of Christians, brings about doctrinal heresy, hurts the witness of the church before the world and causes a lack of giving.
___A solution to the problems of carnality in the church also can be found in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he suggested.
___The cure begins when Christians start growing and "get in the word of God. The Bible is milk to newborns, bread to adolescents and meat the growing Christians."
___As churches become spiritual rather than carnal, they adopt a "right attitude toward pastors, who are the servants of God who plant and water the gospel seed," Eaves said.
___Another part of the cure is to "live in a consciousness of our accountability" that Christians will one day face God, he added.
___A final part is for Christians to understand who they are and appropriate their identity as "fellow workers with God."

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