According to figures used by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, four-and-a-half million Virginians have never declared their belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. What are Virginia Baptists going to do about it? Let's get specific. What are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it?
For two years, former Southern Baptist Convention president Bobby Welch challenged Baptists to reach a million of their countrymen (and women) for Christ. We
didn't just fall short. In truth, we fell dismally, embarrassingly short. We have become people of the Great Omission rather than the Great Commission. Has anyone asked “Why?” I will.
Jim White
So why did Southern Baptists fail so utterly? Why are Virginia Baptists not reaching their neighbors? Our effectiveness in evangelism is not only measured in the number of baptisms but in the number of Baptists it takes to reach one person for Christ. Called the church member to baptism ratio, this figure has risen steadily for decades.
For years we have focused on witnessing methods as if what was keeping us from sharing our faith was simply that we didn't know how. Consequently, pastors and church lay leaders attended conferences in which the method du jour was unveiled like new models in the showroom. I no longer believe that we are not evangelizing because we don't know how. The truth is, love finds a way.
What then? Do we just not care about people? Judging from the response of Virginia Baptists to the needs of our more southern neighbors in the aftermath of Katrina, and our international efforts on behalf of tsunami victims two years ago, there is no lack of love. I have seen amazing displays of sacrificial giving from God's people called Virginia Baptists.
Are we simply afraid to share our faith? Many say so. They cite the fear of appearing narrow-minded and judgmental by others as a deterrent. Or they are afraid of offending someone by suggesting that he or she needs salvation. But, if that's the reason, it doesn't speak well of our character. Think about it.
What would our attitude be of a person who could have pushed a friend from the path of a speeding car, but didn't because he was afraid his friend would take offense at being pushed? Letting another be killed for fear of offending him hardly seems like a moral position. Letting another spend eternity in hell because we couldn't conquer our fears is cowardice of the foulest kind.
Or maybe it is the fear of exposure as a hypocrite that seals our lips. It is understandable that one whose life is no different than any else's might be bashful when it comes to proclaiming the abundance of life in Christ. If it is our fear that paralyzes our evangelism efforts, we (and the 4.5 million lost) are in desperate need of repentance or of something to in-courage us. Can it be that the descendents of those brave Baptists who endured beatings, unreasonable fines and even imprisonment because they could not be silenced are now so timid that they won't open their mouths? Before we paint a yellow stripe down each other's backs, I have another cause, albeit an even more disturbing one, to suggest.
I suspect that it isn't our courage that has waned but our belief that the lost are really lost.
It is so much easier on the conscience to believe that somehow God allows post-mortem conversions, or that hell isn't all that bad or that it isn't forever. If we can somehow shake the belief (as many seem to have done) that conversion to Christ is necessary, and accept, instead, a vague, “I'm OK with God, You're OK with God,” evangelism becomes unnecessary. The Great Commission becomes the Great Why Bother?
That's one way to take the discomfort out of evangelism. Make it moot. Is it an antiquated notion to believe that hell exists and that after they die the unredeemed will actually go there? Perhaps some Baptists don't really believe that anymore. Perhaps that is why so many have become lackadaisical about evangelism.
There is, of course, a major problem with this idea. The Bible says otherwise. Although culturally the notion is not in vogue, the Bible is not bashful in declaring that those who are separated from God because of their sin will spend eternity in hell. And although there may be some room for interpretation about what exactly hell will be like, I know enough to know that I don't want to go there. In fact, I don't want anybody to go there!
Interestingly, it is what we do (or in this case what we don't do) not what we say that reveals what we believe about the Bible. We can proclaim in dogmatic declarations at every annual gathering that we believe every word of the Bible, but if we ignore what the Bible teaches, we are only noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.
Shamefully, in our times most Baptists preach that the Bible is true and simultaneously proclaim through their inattentiveness to the doctrine that what the Bible teaches about evangelism can be ignored. We even teach that evangelism is essential and ignore it. Both can't be true. We have not yet become impaled on the horns of this dilemma, but if we don't change something soon, we will be.
Perhaps some have attempted to slip between the horns of the dilemma by attempting to choose a middle ground. They have decided to believe what they want to believe about the Bible. They attempt to make it all relative. Truth becomes a moving target. If math were relative, I could avoid overdraft charges at the bank.
Virginia Baptists (and other kinds as well) must decide—and soon—if they really believe the Bible. Every day lost Virginians die and are thrust into eternity without God. Do I sound like a fundamentalist? Fine. Call me a liberal fundamentalist. But, if I can choose a moniker, I hope to be known as an evangelist.