ALBA—In the fall of 2011, International Mission Board President Tom Elliff issued a challenge to the churches of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Presented with the statistics relating for unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPGs) across the globe and their need for the gospel, SBTC churches from across the state responded with enthusiasm.

Lake Fork Baptist Church in Alba answered that call. After becoming aware of the IMB’s Embrace initiative, Pastor Perry Crisp and Missions Pastor Bob Stephenson began praying to discern the direction the Lord was leading their church.

“We began to go to Embrace conferences and did a lot of online searches, looking at the IMB website to read about different UUPGs,” Stephenson said. “The unique thing about it was that as my pastor and I began to pray about it, we didn’t share any information with each other about where God was leading us. We just continued to pray.”

As the two sought direction from the Lord on Lake Fork’s budding missions initiative, a common theme began to emerge in each of their hearts: East Africa.

“One day the pastor came into staff meeting and wrote a people group number on the board,” Stephenson explained. “It was the Sonjo people of the Temi Valley in East Africa, the same people I had been praying about.”

At that point, the people of Lake Fork Baptist Church wholeheartedly embraced that UUPG, voting unanimously to adopt the Sonjo people in August of 2012 as a part of the IMB Embrace initiative and the broader gospel mission.

“Since that time, our missions giving has increased,” Stephenson said. “Our congregation has given over and above their usual tithes and offerings to help with material needs, travel and Bibles for the believers in the Temi Valley.”

Although the area was originally deemed too difficult to reach and the people considered too hostile, Stephenson said that they have found just the opposite to be true. While the trip to the Temi Valley is certainly arduous (consisting of a two-day flight and a 10-hour drive over unpaved roads), the people of the Sonjo tribe have responded overwhelmingly to the gospel.

“We got there and found out that they were a very loving people. We found some people of peace and had a great vision trip,” Stephenson said. “God gave us a harvest—more than we ever dreamed of. More than 1,000 people came to know Christ on our first trip.”

Thirteen members of Lake Fork Baptist Church have traveled to the Temi Valley so far over the course of four mission trips, and according to Stephenson, most of those people are awaiting another opportunity to return. The church’s fifth trip to East Africa will be this month.
“The spiritual growth of the Sonjo people has been amazing,” Stephenson explained. “They are studying the Word and applying it to their lives. On our last trip, six of them went with us to another village to do evangelistic work. God used them to lead many of their own to Christ. They have learned to tell the ‘Creation to Christ’ story, they are holding their own services, and each of the churches is increasing in numbers.”

In addition to significant numerical growth in the churches, Stephenson also notes the stories they have seen of individuals who have experienced the power of the gospel.

“On our very first trip and our very first day of evangelizing among the Sonjo, a young man named Joseph walked with one of our teams and translated the gospel into the language of his people,” Stephenson said. “Between huts Joseph asked questions. He had recently heard about Jesus and prayed to receive Jesus while on business outside of the Temi Valley, but he had not learned much about his new faith.

“While walking between huts that day, he asked, ‘What is Baptist?’ Our pastor gave a quick answer: ‘Baptists are people who believe the Bible, only the Bible and all of the Bible. And we believe baptism is by immersion for those who choose to follow Christ. It testifies to Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.’

“Joseph nodded and continued walking to the next hut. After translating and seeing another family pray to receive Jesus, we resumed our walk to the next hut and Joseph asked if he could be baptized,” Stephenson recalled. “Our pastor assured him that he could be baptized that very day. As they continued along the path, Joseph made a statement that answered our prayer.

“He said to our pastor, ‘We need a church. We need a pastor. I want to be that pastor.’”

Joseph was baptized that day in a river that was ankle deep in water. “Before our pastor could join him in the river, Joseph used his hands in the sandy bottom of that river to dig his own baptismal grave. When our pastor baptized Joseph, the water was still too shallow at Joseph’s head and his nose was still above water. Of his own accord, Joseph turned his head so that he was completely immersed. He is now the pastor of the very first Baptist church in the Temi Valley.”

When Lake Fork first began their Embrace initiative with the Sonjo people, there were a reported 3,800 UUPGs across the globe; according to the most recent statistics, however, that number is down to around 3,030.

“The three main ingredients for embracing a people group are prayer, prayer and prayer,” Stephenson said. “God is still in the business of reaching out to those unreached people groups, and our prayer is that other churches would catch the vision.”

No one escapes religion; the most he can do is trade one for another.

The first few centuries of Christianity were marked by a progression in the attitude of church leaders toward military service. That attitude was affected by the government’s deadly persecution of Christians in some eras, by the systemic idolatry and immorality in other times, by the barbarian threat and by the later acceptance of Christianity as an acceptable, even preferred, religion. These arguments were messy, clearly moved by the changing context within the Roman empire; but one thing was true throughout—a Christian’s conscience must remain inviolate if he is to serve the government. A believing soldier must be able to live according to the precepts of his God, not merely believe but actually practice his faith, if he is going to continue to be a soldier. This is a place where some compromises are unacceptable. Asking a man to compromise his faith in the pursuit of any career is asking him to trade one religion for another. It is also a mild form of persecution, but it is persecution and unworthy of the term “religious liberty.”

So what do we make of our current American context? The end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the U.S. military followed a path familiar when upstart dogma is forced on citizens by their magistrate. It fits an ideological or political need so is deemed necessary. Necessity is equated with established truth. Unforeseen consequences arise. The magistrate cannot budge without seeming a failure. A “benign” political faith statement becomes a flail to discourage dissent, or punish dissenters. The historical examples of this process usually involve the establishment or suppression of a religious faith. We are somewhere in the late “unforeseen consequences” stage of our current drama. 

Perhaps you’ve read the TEXAN stories on Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Philip Monk. Sergeant Monk found himself caught between his commander, a lesbian, and his conscience. Understand that Monk was not asked do something he found unacceptable but was asked his opinion on marriage by a superior who strongly believed in same-sex marriage. His unwillingness to answer as she wished resulted in his dismissal and reassignment. Are Sergeant Monk’s potentially career-ending troubles an unintended consequence of our government’s current definition of tolerance?  

The repeal of DADT also puts our military chaplains in an awkward place. Our North American Mission Board is an endorsing agency for Southern Baptist military chaplains. The guidelines released by NAMB indicated that Southern Baptist chaplains should not perform or even attend marriage-like ceremonies for same-sex couples. In a setting where such households are being forcibly normalized, a commissioned military officer puts his ministry at risk if he even appears to have doubts about the current program. I’m not saying he should put career above conviction; I’m saying that the loss of evangelical chaplains may be another unintended consequence of this social experiment. As Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler pointed out in his column on the subject, it could also mean the loss of Muslim and Jewish chaplains who believe the clear teachings of their own holy books. Although military chaplains still have the explicitly stated right to decline personal participation in services in conflict with the teaching of their endorsing faith, the end of DADT will create unimagined complications for chaplains who believe that God has created only two sexes and only one definition of marriage. I also see the possibility of evangelical chaplains being subtly edged to the margins of military life, unpromotable and destined for short careers. The problem is this draconian effort to normalize what most do not consider normal; but the view from the top will be that dissenters are grit in the social engineering gears.

I don’t think anyone in the administration or the Pentagon intends for evangelical Christian (or practicing Muslim and Jewish) personnel to have no chaplains for their tradition. I do believe they are incapable of understanding the difference between religious affiliation and life-changing faith. Someone who believes that God has spoken and that he must act on what God has said will live his faith. That faith will impact what he will and won’t do, what he can and can’t affirm. That has been true of Christian military personnel for as long as there have been Christian military personnel. Those who consider religious liberty something that ends Sunday morning at 12:00 or Saturday night at sundown cannot understand a transformed life.

The National Defense Authorization of Act for fiscal 2013, signed in January by President Obama, includes Section 533, “Protection of Rights of Conscience of Members of the Armed Forces and Chaplains of Such Members.” The intent of this section, which the president criticized after signing the bill, is to clarify that military personnel and their chaplains are still free to hold religiously based opinions. Chaplains cannot be required to “perform any rite…contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain.” Neither can chaplains face “adverse personnel action…including denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment,” as a result of such refusal. The president’s response: “My Administration remains fully committed to continuing the successful implementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and to protecting the rights of gay and lesbian service members; Section 533 will not alter that.” It was the president who implied, calling Section 533 “ill-advised,” that the religious freedom of military personnel is incompatible with current policy. 

Our culture is changing, but not as quickly as some would wish. Our military personnel still reflect our culture as it is today, even leaning to the more conservative end of the spectrum. To push a progressive social agenda upon our service people from the more liberal top will be disruptive and more negative to morale and order than any dissenter could be. Christian soldiers will leave and Christian families will hesitate to send their sons and daughters into a context that persecutes their faith or guarantees short and rocky careers.

Historian Roland Bainton, in his survey of early Christian opinions of military service, notes a late third century persecution in which Christians were violently purged from the Roman legions. In an effort to determine how many Christians may have been serving during the early Christian era, Bainton cites another historian as guessing that Christians were relatively few because “no sovereign would readily deprive himself of a tenth or even of a twentieth of his military power.” Christians, evangelical Christians and Catholics, represent far more than a few of our current military personnel. Is our “sovereign” so committed to dogma that he will deprive himself of their service?

We are having an earlier than usual time for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting. When we go out west we have a late October time mainly because we don’t want to get caught in the first snow of the fall. When we are in the Gulf area we want to have the meeting as late in November as possible because we want to avoid the threat of a hurricane. Calendaring around weather is not a bad strategy. Any strategy is better than no strategy. Planning under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is essential for the future of ministry.

November 14 the SBTC in partnership with the North American Mission Board will be hosting a church revitalization conference at the North Richland Hills Baptist Church. The purpose of the conference is to get churches to evaluate the effectiveness of their current ministry strategies. While remaining biblically faithful we must stretch ourselves to reach people for Jesus. I don’t have to recount the dismal statistics about Southern Baptist churches in decline. A committee has been established to study the downward trend in baptisms among SBC churches. The obvious solution is to tell people about Jesus and his power to save. When pastors and churches are intentionally evangelistic baptisms will follow. It is the law of sowing and reaping.

New churches baptize more people than older churches. The SBTC and SBC emphasize the need to start new churches. The resources are available to start twice the current number of funded church plants. Texas needs qualified church planters. Spanish language planters are being trained in several locations across our state. I’m optimistic we are about to see a church planting movement among Hispanics. While the number of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic background people continue to grow in Texas they remain a small part of the overall population. Your gracious gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Reach Texas Offering make it possible for the SBTC to have people group specialists to assist in penetrating lostness in these communities. With shifting population trends traditional and contemporary style Anglo church starts are needed in the suburbs and inner cities where gentrification has taken place. Pray about being a part of the strategy of reaching Texas with a church start that has your church’s DNA.

The 2014 Empower Evangelism Conference will be February 23-26 at Sagemont in Houston. Be ready for a number of exciting changes. Training events will be added to the usual powerful preaching lineup. Praise and worship music is to have a greater part of the program. The location itself gives us an opportunity to hold the gathering in the beautiful new sanctuary of Sagemont as well as be in the Houston area. New approaches without abandoning the biblical plan of telling the old, old story are necessary to reach the next generation. 

Strategies come and go. The Word of God never changes. Our vision must be his vision for us. Placing ourselves before him to find his plan for our lives and the church is vital not just for our survival but to put us in a position to give glory to God. As 2013 comes to a close and we look toward another year should the Lord Jesus not come before, let me encourage you to find God’s direction in how you can be strategic in reaching people for the glory of God.

This year’s SBTC Annual Meeting theme says it all, “So others may live”. Psalm 102:18, “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” Let’s live for the glory of God so others may have eternal life!