Congratulations to David Platt on his election as president of our most important SBC ministry. Others have spoken jubilantly about the election of a young man to the job and SWBTS President Paige Patterson has suggested in a blogpost what Southern Baptists should do for its new missions leader. Let me humbly suggest a few things that Dr. Platt will need to do, and perhaps a couple of challenges he faces as he takes the reins in Richmond.

—Spend his influence wisely—It has been rightly emphasized that Dr. Platt has a good hearing among younger Southern Baptists. That’s great and can be leveraged for the glory of God’s kingdom. It’s important what he does with this influence. He’ll need to highlight things that he knows now but didn’t quite so well when he was a pastor—the crucial part cooperative giving plays in reaching the nations for Christ, for example. It’s not going to be enough to get younger leaders to our meetings or even engaged in the mission unless they become committed to the principles (not methodology, necessarily) that have brought us to the position of strength we currently hold. Yes, I said “strength.” Our decline in giving, attendance and baptisms is ominous and undeniable but we still have remarkable resources for the advance of the gospel. We can’t disregard them.

—Build bridges with existing leaders—There are some constituencies that have concerns about the comments and theological statements Dr. Platt has made as a popular speaker and writer—nothing unorthodox but pretty Calvinistic at times. Additionally, his approach to missions giving has caused some to wonder about his commitment to our thorough missionary enterprise. I’ve heard him address these issues and you’ll find some of those explanations in this issue of the TEXAN, but he’s going to have to tell the story to those people who currently pastor our churches, lead our state conventions and support SBC missions. Many of them are 10 to 30 years older than him. These folks are the present tense of the SBC rather than just its heritage, and they are ardent fans of the IMB. Connecting with them will be more work than connecting with his own age group but the work can bear much fruit.

—Develop a strategy that fits the times—Neither hope nor urgency will reverse the decline in SBC numbers. We have a big task and amazing opportunities in the 21st century. The strategy of an earlier time will not suffice. I believe that individuals, churches and state conventions should give more beyond their own borders—many believe that—but that conviction is not a strategy and it is not a financial plan. Dr. Platt is positioned temperamentally and historically to help us find a new way of using our resources to reach people with the gospel. Strategy is perhaps the most important thing he’ll need to develop and winsomely communicate to our convention.

—Develop a strategy that fits our churches—Some SBC churches are capable of sending missionaries and starting churches from their own resources; most are not. In a way, approaching megachurches with the challenge is the gathering of low-hanging fruit. We should keep doing that but the reality is that we are still a convention of smaller churches. I’ve heard some suggest that larger churches should develop their own missions strategies and others should give through the Cooperative Program. That’s a thoughtless attitude and I don’t perceive David Platt to be that kind of leader. But how will churches of 50 or 100 or even 200 be part of a new strategy that flows up from the churches? Perhaps the trend of our people clustering in large churches will continue until that is about all we are but that day is not here. Smaller churches are the present makeup of the Southern Baptist Convention. A good mission strategy must bring them into more significant engagement without undermining the CP.

On this subject, let me suggest something that some wise SBC leaders have made a practice. Southern Baptist missions has advocates, major fans really, in places I know like Newburg, Ind., and O’Brien, Texas. Those churches will not likely call the president of the IMB this week to speak to their people six months or a year down the road. One friend told me of his practice of keeping a Sunday each month open for last-minute preaching invitations, thinking that smaller churches are more likely to make “last-minute” invitations. That allowed him to keep in touch with people and churches he’d never know otherwise. I think this kind of engagement with people who don’t come to big meetings would make a difference in how Dr. Platt leads our mission board. Maybe there are other ways to keep in touch, but regularly giving attention to small congregations of Southern Baptists in out-of-the-way places sounds like an edifying discipline. 

My space is nearly used up but I’ll close by saying that the SBC and the kingdom of God can be strengthened as God blesses David Platt’s ministry. I pray for that to happen and encourage you to join me in that prayer. There are other ways we might have opportunities to encourage him and to join him in his work and we will do that. The work of our IMB is important in every era and I think every generation that the Lord tarries will find the urgency of the work more apparent. For our day, Southern Baptists need our IMB and its new leader to prosper in worldwide gospel ministry.

The August 20 edition of the Texan Digital highlights a couple of churches making intentional moves toward greater multicultural fellowship, both within a congregation and between congregations. It sounds elementary, but such efforts have a lot of moving parts, just as the people involved have a lot of moving parts.

Perhaps this is well-illustrated as the nation watches the St. Louis-area community of Ferguson torture itself nearly to death over racial disharmony. I know there have been a series of provocations in this story, but the misunderstanding between communities is at the root of this sprawling event. I mention Ferguson because here we see in an extreme form the pattern of race relations in our nation. For a while it seems like we understand each other better than we do, and then something happens that highlights our differences in assumptions, expectations and experience.

Any simple explanations of the unrest in Ferguson—and there have been many—are reductionist and useless. In the same way, any simple explanation of misunderstandings between neighboring people groups elude us.

Among people of good will and great similarities—Christian folk—there is still a great diversity of style, language, culture and experiences. And these things sometimes divide us. In America we have the luxury of indulging that diversity; here in Texas I get to choose from among a variety of churches within 10 minutes of my home. If I prefer contemporary or traditional or gospel or Tejano music on Sunday morning, those options are right at hand. I can also pick from different preaching styles and doctrinal emphases just among the SBTC churches close to my home. These options give me the ability to worship with just the folks I prefer and in just the style I prefer. That privilege is rare in history and rare in the world. Perhaps it’s something that even we Texans should not take for granted.

Twenty-five years ago, I lived in one Midwestern town in a metro area of over a million but with exactly one Southern Baptist church within a 10-minute radius of my home. Expanding the circle to 20 minutes garnered two more small and struggling churches. I worshipped with the folks who were there and in the style of their tradition.

Other places in our country have fewer even evangelical churches sprinkled across the map. In Russia, a country with a long Christian heritage, we walked and rode busses for nearly two hours to get to the only Baptist church in a city of 2 million. Many of the Orthodox churches we walked past were closed, by the way. Some of you could tell similar stories in places where you’ve lived. Will hardships narrow our choices and eventually drive us to worship with people we don’t understand as well? It’s happened to other believers, and we can’t assume it won’t happen here.

There’s another thing that has helped believers in other nations look past ethnic and cultural preferences—persecution. In the past five years, I’ve heard more talk about persecution in the U.S. from serious people than in the previous 20 years. Perhaps more disturbing is that serious people less sympathetic with Christianity are suggesting limitations to religious liberty. We can now imagine a day when some churches will be taxed out of existence, when pastors will be penalized for preaching an unpopular gospel, and when believers will be more focused on what we have in common than on what we don’t. Is persecution what it will take for us to sincerely embrace those we know to be our brothers and sisters? 

Our convention’s Look Like Heaven emphasis is not radical. We’re not suggesting that churches merge but rather that they fellowship together and find ways to minister side by side. My mostly Anglo church has congregations of Black, Hispanic and Asian Southern Baptists nearly in sight of its parking lot. We share a community already, a common ministry field. When our church visits in our own neighborhood, we often find folks who prefer to speak Spanish or Vietnamese who will not likely worship with us, even if they are believers. A dynamic partnership with our sister churches will assist our ministries and be a provocative example to the community we’re trying to reach together with the same gospel.

Of course we know that heaven is going to be filled with the redeemed of all people. Nothing that formerly divided us will be worthy of notice in the presence of our Lord. But Christians begin to experience a taste of heaven in this life through our fellowship with the Lord and with his people. Consider what we’re missing if that fellowship is limited by our own imaginations and background. I just wonder if there are good things God intends us to experience and share with the world but that we are missing because we keep to ourselves. Wouldn’t it be pretty easy to find out?

Recently I received a copy of “Firefall 2.0,” a revision of the classic book “Firefall” by SBC professors Malcolm McDow and Alvin Reid. This incredible book traces how God has shaped history through revivals. As I survey these pages my heart weeps for more than just a book knowledge of revival. Personally, I felt the latter winds of the Jesus Movement (a specialized awakening among the young people from the late 1960s through the early ‘70s), I have soaked in the radiance of God’s glory during special seasons of revival in my churches and I have had personal revivals of God’s presence in my life. Very few things have I yearned for more than widespread revival and awakening; however, a regional or national awakening remains elusive. 

Some of our more experienced pastors and people remember the Mid-Century Awakening among evangelicals during the 1940s and ’50s, but I am afraid that we are about to outrun those lengthening shadows. Recently, a pastor from a Messianic congregation in Dallas shared with our church that most of the leadership of the Messianic movement were converted during the Jesus Movement, but there were few young men stepping into ministry roles today. Unless they experience a fresh touch from God, they will outrun their shadow of awakening as well. How desperately we all need a fresh touch from the Lord. 

I encourage you to get a copy of “Firefall 2.0.” As you read it, you will be greatly encouraged to pray and thirst for awakening in our day. Might the spark for awakening be struck in our Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Our Bible Conference and our convention meetings this November will be a convocation geared toward crying out to God for spiritual awakening. Perhaps by the time our convention meetings arrive, God’s Spirit will have already broken out upon us in revival. May the fire fall.

Jesus is everything!