EL PASO, Texas (ABP) — Baptists in El Paso, Texas, distributed nearly 250,000 CDs containing selected Scripture passages and Christian testimonies in a pilot launch of a campaign to share the gospel with every un-churched person in the state by Easter 2010.
Texas Hope 2010 is the brainchild of Randel Everett, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The project aims to put bilingual multimedia discs into all of the state's 8.8 million homes.
"We want to make sure every person in Texas has an opportunity to respond to the gospel of Christ, regardless of their ethnicity, language or socioeconomic status," Everett said.
Each disc includes the Gospel of John in English and Spanish that can be played on either a CD player or a computer. Those with computers can watch video testimonies of individuals describing the difference Christ makes in their lives. With Internet access, they can link to a website where they can download the New Testament in any of more than 350 languages and a 24/7 live online chat about becoming a Christian.
Baptists in El Paso are distributing CDs through churches, which hand them out door-to-door or by mail to every household in their community. The project goes statewide in January, along with statewide discipleship follow-up to continue through 2010.
The Bible distribution effort is just one part of Texas Hope 2010. It also urges Texas Baptists to pray daily and to raise $1 million for the state's hungry in each of the next two years.
Texas has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation. More than 3.1 million people in the state don't know where they will get their next meal, and nearly a quarter of the state's children live in food insecure households.
"One in 10 people in Texas is a Texas Baptist," Everett said. "With those kinds of resources, if one person in this state goes to bed hungry, it's our fault."
Everett acknowledged that sharing the gospel with 11 million people might seem daunting, but he noted there are 2.3 million members of churches affiliated with the BGCT. That means each Texas Baptist would need to share his or her faith with six un-churched people by April 4, 2010, which Everett believes is possible.
Everett, elected as executive director in February 2008, launched Texas Hope 2010 in a staff meeting in May 2008.
The program will be implemented by an 82-member iHope Activation Team made up of a cross section of Texas Baptist associational directors of missions, ministers and laypeople from across the state. It is broken into smaller groups with specific expertise and passion about an area such as prayer, caring outreach and evangelism.
"We're just casting a vision for what it would look like if the followers of Jesus engaged in His model of prayer, care and share for the community," said Gary Singleton, pastor of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson and co-chair of the activation team.
Everett says the key to the effort is for all Texas Baptists to follow God's calling upon their lives and to cooperate with the other Texas Baptists for maximum impact. If that happens, he said, the state could be radically changed.
"I pray that church attendance, baptisms and giving will go up," he said. "I hope crime will go down. I hope legislation is passed to help the children in need in our state. I hope it makes a transformational impact on the state. I think it will if we can do this."
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This story was compiled from news releases by John Hall, news director for the BGCT. Bob Allen also contributed.