June 3, 2002
Prepare for spiritual 'baby boom,' North Texas churches admonished
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___FORT WORTH--God will deliver a spiritual "baby boom" around the middle of October, and North Texas churches better get ready, Art Bailey has advised Christian leaders across the area.
___The mechanism of delivery will be evangelist Billy Graham's Metroplex Mission, to be held Oct. 17-20 in Texas Stadium.
___Bailey, director of counseling and follow-up for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, helped church leaders begin preparations for the event at 10 training sessions across the Metroplex.
___The coming months will be like the period leading up to childbirth, Bailey said, drawing a parallel to his preparation for the birth of his first child.
___For months, his wife had him picking out paint and baby beds and doing countless deeds to prepare their nursery for their child, he recalled. Similarly, Metroplex churches need to get ready for an influx of new Christians who will make spiritual decisions during the October event.
___"Nothing excites a family like a new child, and I believe we're getting ready for the birth of a whole lot of new children of God," Bailey said. "When those babies come, the work has just begun. But before then, preparation has to be made."
___Congregations need to prepare for a host of new arrivals, who may dress differently than most church members, take long-time members' parking spaces and, even worse, sit in their favorite pews, he said.
___One thing all these new arrivals will need, however, is people to establish relationships with them, Bailey said, predicting if relationships are not developed, they won't stay.
___Churches also may have to change the way they do their spiritual feeding, he cautioned. "Not all babies can eat the same thing. Not all may want a Bible study or discipleship (course) right off. Some just may want a friend, but that friendship may eventually lead to a desire for Bible study."
___Just as young children need to be loved and protected, new Christians need love and protection, he cautioned.
___For example, he compared a letter that might be sent to a new Christian who makes a commitment to Christ at the Graham meeting, giving directions to the church building, to a note telling a baby where to find his cereal.
___"You can't send a letter telling him where the food is if he wants it," Bailey stressed. "You're going to have to go to his house and take him by the hand and help him be fed."
___The secret to preparing for the arrival of spiritual babies, however, is developing relationships with them in the months leading up to the Graham meeting.
___"If your church is going to have babies, you're going to have to develop friendships--that's where babies come from," he said.
___Churches need to develop their Metroplex Mission follow-up plans soon, he cautioned, warning that merely keeping the formula the church already uses to process new converts will not be adequate.
___One of the primary reasons for advance preparation is the sheer number of people who may come to a church after Graham's meeting, he claimed. "Church follow-up plans are geared to deal with 52 small bites of new converts. You may get as many names in a week as you usually get in a year."
___Churches also may receive the names of many prospective members who have no previous church experience or relationships with Christians, he said.
___Because these people do not come to the church through conventional means, their needs may be different from what a church is accustomed to encountering, Bailey said.
___The increased volume of prospective members will require a greater number of church volunteers, more space, more discipleship materials and a greater congregational effort.
___"In most cases, we've got 5 percent of the people doing 95 percent of the work," Bailey noted. "With the large numbers you're going to see, that group of people is going to have to expand some."
___Planning now is the key to success later, he emphasized. "You're going to need a plan. If you don't have guidelines to follow, timelines to follow, you're going to find it very hard to accomplish your task."
___In addition to planning, prayer is crucial, he added, suggesting, "Pray like it all depends on God, and work like it all depends on you."
___North Texas is home to 2 million evangelical Christians, the largest concentration of like-minded believers of any site where Graham has preached in more than five decades of ministry.
___However, that still leaves 4 million other North Texans, Bailey said.
___"We could possibly see 30,000 people make decisions through this mission," he predicted. "That would be the largest number to ever make decisions during a Billy Graham mission. That only leaves 3,970,000 who need to know Christ. How are we going to reach them? That's where the multiplication of those 30,000 who made decisions comes in. That's where the importance of their discipleship comes in."
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