HOUSTON—Offering a series of “What if?” questions with obviously affirmative answers, Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett challenged Texas Baptists to make sure the doctrines they believe make a radical impact on their lives—and the lives of their neighbors.

“What if the Bible really is the word of God?” Everett asked during his report to the BGCT annual meeting in Texas. Assuming a positive response to the question, he used that belief as a springboard for developing his challenge to Texas Baptists to embrace the vision of Texas Hope 2010.

Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett asks a series of questions to challenge Texas Baptists to embrace the vision and goals of Texas Hope 2010. (PHOTO/BGCT)

Texas Hope 2010 is an initiative of Texas Baptists to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter Sunday, 2010. 

Stating his firm belief that Scripture is God-breathed and standing as authority over all of creation, Everett suggested making such a claim should radically alter the life of the individual Christian and the work of the church.

“If this is the word of God, why don’t we let it fashion our values and our lives in all things?”

Everett continued by stating some of the major claims of the Bible, namely the nature and ministry of Jesus Christ. If Jesus really was the Son of God, and God really did raise Jesus from the dead, then why should Texas Baptists remain silent on this glorious truth?

“When we see Jesus on the cross, God in the flesh taking our place on the cross, we say our sin must be horrible, and God’s love must be indescribable,” Everett said.

This love must be the motivating factor that drives Texas Baptists to mission, he said. Everett pointed out the needs of the mission field in Texas.

“What if half of all Texans did not know Christ?” Everett asked. “When we walk down the streets of Houston, every-other person would be someone who did not know Jesus.”

“What if 3 million Texans go to bed hungry?” he continued. Among these 3 million hungry, many are children who have no ability to feed themselves. 

Everett told various stories of ways Texas Baptists already are reaching toward fulfilling the Texas Hope 2010 vision.

At Dallas Baptist University, more than 500 international students come from around the world.  One-third arrive already having accepted Jesus as Lord, and of those remaining, one-third become a Christian while attending the school, he noted.

“Over 100 students at DBU are from China,” Everett stated. “Imagine those who are now being sent back to China for Jesus Christ.”

At Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, chaplains led 900 individuals to faith in Christ the past three years.

Baylor University’s School of Social Work is sponsoring a conference with leaders from around the nation coming to discuss ways in to address the problem of world hunger.

Hundreds of children every year are cared for by Texas Baptist children’s homes. These children, Everett stated, “would have been abandoned otherwise.”

Through Baptist Student Ministries on 120 college campuses, through 561 endorsed chaplains, through nine universities, through five hospital systems, and through numerous other institutional partners, the hope of Christ is being shared, he reported.

However, the charge to share the hope is not left to the institutions.

“What if every Texas Baptist church, our 5,600 churches around the state, said, ‘By God’s grace we are going to share the hope of Christ with everyone in Texas’?” he asked.

Everett urged each church to set aside Jan. 31, 2010, as a day of prayer for hope in the state.

He continued by challenging each church to develop an Acts 1:8 strategy, taking the gospel to their immediate communities, their surrounding regions and the farthest reaches of the globe.

He citied the example of Baptists in El Paso, where churches are working to pass out Texas Hope 2010 CDs to every household in the city. The Texas Hope 2010 multimedia CDs provides listeners with the Gospel of John, as well as testimonies from Texas Baptists and information on accepting salvation through Jesus Christ.

Moving beyond El Paso, the churches continued in their Acts 1:8 strategy by reaching out to the city of Juarez, Mexico.Rampant violence in that city has led to the deaths of more than 1,700 people. Through the work of El Paso Baptists, Texas Hope 2010 CDs are being distributed by churches in Juarez.

“Pastors are using the CDs and inviting unchurched friends, sharing Christ with a world that is devastated, dark, dangerous and lost,” Everett stated.

In closing, Everett reiterated the challenge of Texas Hope 2010, asking Texas Baptists to take the charge of the Bible seriously and, “say ‘yes’ to God’s kingdom assignment.”

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