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CORPUS CHRISTI?Although Cooperative Program receipts were
$707,614 short of the budgeted pace for 2010 through the end of October,
under-spending of nearly $1.2 million, year-to-date, helped produce a net
operating income of $1,104,971 through October, SBTC Chief Financial Officer
Joe Davis said.

Addressing the SBTC Executive Board during its fall meeting
Nov. 17 in Corpus Christi, Davis added, “Most of your churches are feeling the
economy. We are feeling it as well.”

The convention continues to have approximately eight months
of operating reserve?$8,195.670?based on the 2010 in-state budget, Davis said.

Giving through the SBTC to mission offerings also is
slightly down from last year. Through 10 months of the Annie Armstrong Offering
year (Jan.-Dec.), giving through the SBTC of $2,113,02 was down $116,103 from
last year. Lottie Moon giving, through five months of the offering year
(June-May), of $590,539 was down $458,378 from the same period last year. The
Reach Texas Offering, through two months of the giving year (Sept.-Aug.),
tallied $287,442, off $35,425 from the same period last year.

Board chairman John Meador, pastor of First Baptist Church
of Euless, implored board members to pray for local churches and for the
convention and “to be champions for the causes they represent.”

“Churches are showing some real nerve, some real courage” in
the economic downturn by faithfully giving to gospel work through the SBTC,
Meador said.

The board reelected as officers, unopposed, Meador as
chairman; Hal Kinkeade of Spring, as vice chairman, and Barbara Smith of
Lindale, as secretary.

The board also approved $902,200 in surplus funds for a
variety of budgeted and special allocation ministries, including: $15,000 for
Cooperative Program promotion; $30,000 to supplement the budget for the SBTC
Hispanic Initiative and Ethnic Ministries area; $116,200 for a seminary extension
at Darrington Prison near Houston run by Southwestern Seminary’s Houston
campus; and a $300,000 grant to the SBTC Foundation, which is still in its
early growth.

The board also renewed an affiliation agreement with
Criswell College.

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The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is sponsoring a
college and young adult leadership retreat called Intersect, Jan. 13-15 in
Frisco.

Speakers for the retreat include Mark Dever, pastor of
Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; John Meador, pastor of First
Baptist Church of Euless; Tim Elmore of growingleaders.com; Wes Hamiliton,
speaker; and musician Matt Boswell.

The theme for the Intersect Retreat is “Signals,” which
plays off of traffic light signals of stop, caution and go.

“This conference is about developing the next generation of
leaders. It is for collegiate and young adult ministry leaders and their
leadership teams or those that they are developing to be leadership teams,”
said Lance Crowell, SBTC church ministries associate.

“This concept came from some of our leaders who said that
they could take their students to several different conferences around the
country, but there was really nothing that helped develop them to be the
leaders?spiritually and in ministry?that God has called them to be. We have two
tracks with some incredible leaders coming to encourage, challenge, and train.”

Registration covers two nights at the host site, the Embassy
Suites Frisco, based on four people to a room. Married couples will have their
own room.

Cost is $79 before Dec. 15 and $89 after for singles;
married couples are $139 before Dec. 15 and $149 after.

For more information or to register, visit
intersectretreat.com.

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Misiones Internacionales

Como Bautistas del Sur y como convención estatal SBTC
tenemos el gran privilegio de participar en misiones internacionales. Cada año
recogemos la ofrenda de navidad llamada: Lottie Moon. El único propósito de
esta ofrenda es de apoyar a las misiones internacionales.

La Junta de Misiones
Internacionales (IMB) es una agencia de la Convención Bautista del Sur, la
denominación evangélica más grande en los Estados Unidos, con más de 40,000
iglesias y unos 16 millones de miembros. A través de la IMB, su iglesia
sostiene a más de 5,000 obreros transculturales e impacta a 1,200 etnias. Recuerden que la IMB dedica cada
centavo de la ofrenda para apoyar y sostener a nuestros misioneros que están
sirviendo en todo el mundo.

¿Cuál es el lema de esta ofrenda para el 2010?

El lema es: ¿Hemos Llegado Ya? La respuesta obviamente es, no
hemos llegado. Tenemos mucho trabajo por delante. Hay muchas almas para ganar.
Aún vivimos en un mundo de tinieblas pero la luz de Cristo sigue brillando. El
lema que hemos adoptado nos llama a la atención del progreso que hemos hecho en
la tarea de alcanzar a las etnias. Cada año avanzamos, iniciando obras nuevas
entre estos grupos. De las 6,426 etnias que restan, por primera vez en la
historia podemos identificarlas. ¡Podemos llegar a ellas en nuestra generación,
gloria al Señor!

Los Hispanos Bautistas jugamos un papel muy importante en
las misiones internacionales. Primero hay que dar sacrificialmente. Propóngase
una meta y pásela, el Señor le va a bendicir mucho dando a esta ofrenda Lottie
Moon. También podemos ir; puede ser que el Señor le está llamando para ir como
uno de nuestros misioneros. De momento contamos con más de 100 misioneros
bautistas hispanos en todas las regiones del mundo.

Podemos llegar a la meta trabando y orando juntos.

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LUFKIN?The Baptist Missionary Association of Texas (BMAT)
overwhelmingly approved in its annual session on Nov. 10 a “working ministry
relationship” between BMAT and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Calling the relationship “historic and monumental,” Vernon
Lee, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, made the motion for the
vote after summarizing the agreement drafted by a BMAT task force along with
representatives from the SBTC.

Noting shared conservative theology and a gracious dialogue
over five years, Lee said in a statement to the TEXAN: “I am very pleased with
the overwhelming support we have received from the churches of the BMAT, and
especially with the tremendous vote of the messengers at our recent annual
state meeting approving the agreement.”

“This relationship will enable us to expand our efforts to
work together here in Texas, to further our commitment to evangelizing our
state and serving our Lord through our cooperative ministries. It is my hope
that this official relationship is just the beginning of greater things to
come?. I am excitedly optimistic and confident that the manifold benefits will
be eternally beneficial.”

Tom Campbell, SBTC director of facilitating ministries, told
those at the BMAT annual session: “I appreciate all the time that I’ve been
able to spend with the task force?. I love the fellowship that you have. I look
forward to many years together in a relationship and I just thank God for this
historic moment.”

Over the summer, the BMAT task force and SBTC
representatives developed the proposed agreement, spelling out that it is “one
of cooperation with neither party having control over the other’s ministry
activities. This does not create a partnership as that term is used in the
Texas Business Organizations Code. Nor is either party the legal agent of the
other.”

The related ministry agreement proposal is patterned after
one the SBTC holds with the Korean Baptist Fellowship. Both groups will remain
independent bodies but will cooperate on several levels of mission.

At last year’s BMAT annual session, a task force was named
to continue dialogue with the SBTC on shared ministry. Two BMAT institutions,
the two-year Jacksonville College and the Texas Baptist Home, based in
Waxahachie, are ministry affiliates of the SBTC and receive budgeted funding.

“The purpose of this agreement is to establish guidelines
and parameters for a working ministry relationship between the BMAT and SBTC,”
the agreement states.

In it, both parties endeavor to:

?”continued affirmation of a high view of Scripture and
basic Baptist distinctives”;

?joint ministry opportunities;

?freely share information about each respective group with
interested churches;

?cooperation between the two groups’ flagship publications,
the Baptist Progress and the Southern Baptist TEXAN;

?Reciprocal linking of the SBTC and BMAT websites;

?Reciprocal exhibits at each group’s annual meetings;

Additionally, BMAT will provide the SBTC Facilitating
Ministries Committee an annual report of BMAT ministry activities, and in turn
the SBTC will provide the BMAT Administrative Committee with its annual Book of
Reports.

The agreement specifies that a “high view of Scripture
includes but is not limited to the position that the Bible is factual in
character and historicity in such matters as: 1) the supernatural character of
the biblical miracles which occurred as factual events in time and space, 2)
the historical accuracy of biblical narratives which occurred precisely as the
text of Scripture indicates, and 3) the actual authorship of biblical writings
as attributed by Scripture itself.”

The agreement is for the 2011 calendar year.

In addition to the Korean Baptist Fellowship, the SBTC has related
ministry agreements with Houston Baptist University and Baptist Credit Union.

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Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright
challenged “Southern Baptist Christians and churches to return to their first
love of Jesus” and to “become much more passionate about the Great Commission.”

He also called for a historic Lottie Moon Christmas
Offering, more ethnic diversity among SBC leadership and a “radical
reprioritization of our denominational mission funds beginning with the
Cooperative Program.”

Wright?pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta,
Ga.?delivered his remarks after a dinner hosted for pastors and laymen at the
SBTC’s offices in Grapevine on Nov. 2.

Such challenges are needed, Wright said, because “culture
has influenced the church more than we have been a transforming agent for
culture.”

One such influence is materialism, which “is the number one
idol in the church,” Wright said. “The majority of our church members rob God
every single week. It’s a testimony that we love money more than we love
Jesus.”

“Hedonism, workaholism, technology obsession?all these kinds
of things can take the place of that relationship with Jesus. So wherever I go,
I want to challenge Southern Baptist Christians to return to their first love
of Jesus. Nothing is more important than that,” he said, adding that love for
Jesus engenders “a greater love for the lost.”

Regarding non-believers, Wright said they’re created in
God’s image and “have gone astray just like all of us have gone astray. But we
want to be in the business of pointing them to Jesus. If we have that spirit of
Jesus, we’re going to have a passionate desire to see lost people reached.”

“I hope Southern Baptists become much more passionate about
the Great Commission than we have ever been in all of our history,” he added.
“We are at our best when the Great Commission is front and center of what God
wants us to do.”

Saying the SBC has “gotten sidetracked” regarding the Great
Commission, Wright believes that part of getting back on track includes “a
radical reprioritization of our denominational mission funds beginning with the
Cooperative Program.”

Wright lauded the SBTC for sending more CP funds out of
state than are kept. The current CP split for the SBTC is 55 percent for
national and international SBC ministries and 45 percent for in-state ministry.

“That’s an incredible model. I’d love to see it happening in
every state,” Wright said.

Members at Johnson Ferry changed their CP giving plan,
Wright said, when they discovered that only 16 cents of every dollar the church
gave through its state convention CP plan made it to the international mission
field.

Wright said church members “wanted the majority of our
Southern Baptist mission dollars winding up on the international mission field.
That’s just a passion we have.”

The church gives 5 percent directly through the
International Mission Board’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and 5 percent
through the CP “because we still want to support state missions and the
seminaries and home missions. But we wanted most of our funds to go to
international missions.”

“We’d much rather give the full 10 percent through CP?much
rather. But there needs to be a radical change in priorities in how we do our
missions giving,” Wright said. “And [the SBTC] is certainly a great model in
that regard.”

Asking pastors to challenge their churches “to have the
largest Lottie Moon offering in the history of the church,” Wright implored his
listeners to “do something that is God-sized.”

Noting that members of Johnson Ferry have completed numerous
mission trips, Wright said, “It’s really on my heart that every church go on at
least one mission trip each year…. There’s no way I could overestimate the
spiritual impact mission trips have had on the life of Johnson Ferry.”

During a question-and-answer session, Wright responded to a
question regarding how to reprioritize CP giving, saying that many state
leaders have asked, “‘What do you want us to cut?’ And the answer to that is
very simple: ‘That is n

CORPUS CHRISTI?The SBTC’s Crossover evangelistic effort in Corpus Christi resulted in 696 salvation decisions recorded following a strength and power exhibition and gospel presentation by Team Impact, a Coppell-based ministry.

More than 5,000 people filled the American Bank Center exhibition hall on Nov. 13 preceding the SBTC Bible Conference and Annual Meeting for the annual Crossover event. In the week prior, Team Impact combined its power and strength feats with character talks in dozens of Corpus Christi area schools, inviting students and their families to the Team Impact event.

Jack Harris, SBTC associate for personal and event evangelism, said Southern Baptist churches in the Corpus Christi area would be following up on those who made decisions.

Initially, 493 salvation decisions were reported, but additional decision cards were turned in later. Harris estimated that about 1,500 people stood to signify they had prayed a prayer of salvation, but 696 decision cards were registered.

“God knows who made decisions and who didn’t,” Harris said, “but the gospel was shared very clearly with the 5,082 who were here.”

CORPUS CHRISTI?”We’re not there yet. We’ve seen God do incredible things, but we are not there yet,” Odessa pastor Byron McWilliams said Nov. 15 in his address to messengers at the SBTC Annual Meeting in Corpus Christi.

Like Paul, writing in Philippians 3, the churches of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention must forget what is behind and press forward “what God has in the future,” McWilliams said.

The SBTC has been blessed with “amazing and explosive growth since 1998” and unlike many state convention is “not playing catch up with the CP.” Holding true to what has already been attained, “we must always remember that we have not arrived, Southern Baptists of Texas.”

Paul in Philippians 3:12-13 is looking toward a future resurrection, which makes any present suffering or affliction bearable, McWilliams noted.
With God’s blessing, “you better be aware that Satan is out there seeing it also” and “wants to bring division into this convention,” McWilliams warned.

To stay on course, he said, the SBTC must remember that “we have not arrived,” to “put our whole heart in the race” and run it with “single-minded focus,” and “honor our namesake in all we do.”

“We must never cease to put our whole heart in the race,” said McWilliams, adding that Paul took a stand against “autopilot Christianity” and “cruise control Christianity.”

“I am praying that in my lifetime we can see a great awakening occur such that occurred during the time of those magnificent preachers of years ago,” McWilliams said. “And they lifted up Jesus Christ. They didn’t come in and model hipster Christianity. And they didn’t come in and try to be cool, because cool was not important to them. What they did was they came in and opened up the Word of God and preached a message about Jesus Christ because Jesus and Jesus Christ alone is the one who does the saving.”

Saying he came under conviction about this in his own life, McWilliams stated, “When you lift Jesus up people come to know him.”

Striving toward the goal of God’s upward calling, Paul modeled a “sanctified ambition for God” and “to be all God wants and nothing less.”

“I pray to God that he would raise a host of young men and young women with a sanctified ambition?. We need those with a sanctified ambition to go out and serve God.”

Finally, “Paul’s big goal was to live up to his namesake” and Southern Baptists in Texas must do the same, McWilliams said.

Noting that God’s blessing on the SBTC is evidenced by its growth from about 120 founding churches and a $900,000 budget in 1998 to more than 2,280 churches and a $25.4 million budget today, “we’re not there yet.”

“Our goal is to honor our namesake, the Lord Jesus Christ, in everything we do.”

DALLAS?Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Chairman Roger Spradlin reminded the Criswell College homecoming audience of the priority of preaching that reflects the Great Commission.

“We as Baptists and evangelicals are Great Commission people. But even though that’s the underpinning of so much of what we believe and do, it’s easy to neglect preaching on the Great Commission,” said Spradlin, co-pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif., and one of two featured speakers at the 40th anniversary of the school’s founding on Oct. 5.

Preaching from Matthew 28:18-20, Spradlin said: “Great Commission preaching emphasizes both evangelism and missions.” The Bible commands believers to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” or literally, Spradlin added, to the 1.7 billion people from among “clans, tribes, ethnicities and people groups” without a gospel witness.

“Taking the gospel to the nations, to the people groups?that involves what we would call missions. But it also involves evangelism, because God doesn’t save people groups, he saves individuals.”

“There’s something of a generational divide in understanding the Great Commission,” Spradlin said. “In the past, some have talked about the Great Commission purely in terms of evangelism. It would seem the goal simply is to populate heaven with as many born-again people as we can. Yet, some now interpret the Great Commission solely in terms of missions?taking the gospel to various people groups. The fact is, it is both: Evangelism is reaching individuals with the gospel, and missions is taking the gospel to the people groups.”

“Great Commission preaching emphasizes all of the biblical revelation [because it] permeates the whole of the Word of God,” said Spradlin, who traced from Genesis to Revelation multiple verses that reveal the salvific intent of God and its results among the nations.

“We tend to dilute the Great Commission. We make the message simply about witnessing … but it’s more than that. It is also missions; it is God’s grand plan for his kingdom as seen throughout the Old and New Testaments.”

Also, Spradlin also said believers are “conditioned to think of salvation in terms of us. We say sometimes that if we were the only one on earth, then Jesus would have died for us.” Though true, Spradlin characterized the notion as “egocentric theology,” which he said “misses the big picture. What is the big picture? The big picture is what God is doing among the nations, the people groups of the earth.”

“Many in our churches, when they think of the Great Commission, they think the command is to go. Actually, the only imperative is to make disciples,” he said.

“The goal isn’t a participle; it’s as we go?plural?that puts responsibility on us,” he said. “God has the power but we have the responsibility.”
“Great Commission preaching also emphasizes the significance of baptism,” Spradlin said, noting that baptism is a means of identifying with Christ and the people of God. “Some want to devalue and deemphasize baptism. But we should not deemphasize what Christ has emphasized in the Great Commission.”

Finally, “Great Commission preaching emphasizes obedience as well as knowledge and discipleship,” Spradlin said.

“We’ve developed a kind of Gnostic Christianity. We’re so proud of theological knowledge that we think the one who knows the most Bible verses is the most spiritual. What we do in our churches is fill the room with people, and then we fill their heads with Bible facts and we call that discipleship. But true discipleship is obedience based,” he said. “Discipleship means a Christian is a learner of, and follower of Jesus.”

The responsibility to spread the gospel “creates a crisis in our thinking,” Spradlin continued. “Do we really believe that people without Jesus are lost and without hope? It’s so easy in our culture to think that faith is a matter of taste rather than truth.”

Spradlin related an anecdote about the famed missionary to China, Adonirum Judson, who was asked if the main requirement to be a missionary is it to love souls. According to Spradlin, Judson said, “No.” The main requirement “is to love God.”

“When you love God, you’ll love souls,” Spradlin said. “A heart for the nations is born in a heart that belongs to God.”

The Muslim looked at his Christian friend and asked, “If this salvation gift is so important, why did you wait six years to tell me about it?”

Chad Vandiver, SBTC’s missions strategies associate, related that anecdote in explaining the People Group Champions Project (PGCP) he directs.

“The PGCP represents our efforts to help churches embrace and reach for Christ the ethno-linguistic people groups in their city who may be Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists,” Vandiver said. “The project provides training and coaching so church members can serve as missionaries to these people groups.

“During the training, we lead students by taking them to the people group’s places of worship, and to their restaurants and grocery stores so we can model what’s being taught,” he said. “We never want to teach theory only. We find opportunities for the church to get engaged.”

The project is designed for participation at differing levels of involvement, Vandiver explained: “the praying church, the adopting church and the transforming church.” The ultimate goal is for each church to progress into “a modeling church.”

The modeling church is one that has successfully completed and is implementing all phases of the PGCP, and is also training other churches via the PGCP curriculum. Training includes recognizing and/or fostering a church planting movement among the people group.

“We teach students to recognize the global networks of the people group and how to utilize them so immigrants returning to their homeland may take the gospel with them,” Vandiver said. “We ask the question: ‘How can the local network tap into the global network for the sake of the gospel.'”

Each phase of the training “is critical because it teaches the best ways to intelligently engage people groups,” Vandiver said.

The “praying church” option raises a congregation’s awareness to people groups in their area, teaching their basic culture and ultimately leading the church to prayer-walk where the prospects live and work.

“This classification is for churches not yet ready to personally engage people groups, but willing to pray for them and for opportunities to reach them,” Vandiver said.

The “adopting church” training option introduces students to the worldview of certain people groups. It also prepares students for long-term relationships with the prospects in their communities, and to look for ministry and evangelistic opportunities among them.

“It gives students biblical methods of implementing contextualized evangelism among the people group,” Vandiver said. “Though it’s limited to the pastor, certain staff members, and select spiritual leaders in the church, once a passion for the people group takes over, the church is ready to move to the next stage of training?becoming a transforming church.”

The transforming church training option is available to all church members. It instructs students how to develop meaningful, cross-cultural relationships, and teaches biblical passages for use in leading members of the people group to faith in Jesus Christ. The training prepares the student for all aspects of relationship evangelism.

“We provide students with the people group’s history and other significant cultural information so they can become the ‘Jesus expert’ among the people group,” Vandiver said.

“There’s a missions movement happening in the U.S. with multiple people groups coming and living among us,” he added. “We either decide to join in or we don’t.”

A Transformed Church
First Baptist Church of Euless?now a “transforming church”?has joined the PGCP and trained many of its members for the purpose of reaching the thousands of Muslims in the area.

“The PGCP is a great resource for encouraging believers to begin seeing Muslims through the lens of the cross and empowers the local church to make an eternal impact,” said Greg Love, evangelism pastor at FBC Euless. “Simply put, the program moves believers from awareness to action.”

However, “Cultivating this response is a challenge due to the negative emotions of most American church members toward Muslims,” Love said. “This is why the PGCP is so helpful. It serves as a catalyst for transforming fear into awareness and action.”

An additional motivation, Love said, is that the birthrate among Muslim families is four times greater than most other ethnic groups. “This is why First Euless seeks to offer the PGCP training throughout the church. Our desire is to be positioned for kingdom impact,” Love noted.

FBC Euless members have prayer-walked Muslim neighborhoods, visited local mosques and shared fellowship meals, frequented Muslim-owned businesses, and established “first-name” relationships with many local Muslims for the purpose of sharing Christ. Future efforts include offering English classes within mosques.

“Our desire is to impact our community with the gospel,” Love said.

The PGCP training has motivated a broad spectrum of First Euless members, Love said. Retirees are visiting mosques to meet people and prayer-walk. One member built a relationship with a Muslim woman, visited her home and was able to converse about salvation through Christ. Later, this same Muslim woman visited worship services while her children visited Kidopolis, the children’s ministry of First Euless.

“She’s not a believer yet,” Love said. “But, she’s heard the truth about Christ.”

Another FBC member is considering moving into an apartment complex concentrated with Muslims to establish relationships and share the gospel. This single woman “became so incredibly burdened for Muslim women trapped in darkness that she began equipping others in her sphere of influence to reach Muslim women for Christ,” Love said.

For Love, the PGCP is far more than just a method to reach local Muslims: “This resource helps church members develop a heart for all the nations.”

“The people groups are here,” Vandiver added. “And I believe God has called us to be missionaries to them. He has given us the Great Commission, and it’s a command, not a suggestion. We need to be reaching these people groups in our communities and overseas. We cannot neglect either field.”

For more information on how your church can become a PGCP church, contact Chad Vandiver toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC) or e-mail him at cvandiver@sbtexas.com.