RICHMOND — During this week's annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, there will be an emphasis on reaching the estimated 4.5 million people in Virginia who may not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Borrowing the “H.O.W.” acronym from this year's theme, I would like to tell Virginia Baptists that indeed help is on the way to reach the lost. One of the ways Virginia Baptists plan to respond to this vastness of lostness will be through a five-year statewide evangelism strategy called 670. 670 is more than just a number — it's about Virginia Baptists participating in a movement of God! What follows is the story behind 670.
In September 2006, I attended a week-long training conference in Dallas called the Great Commission Initiative (GCI). GCI came into existence in 2002 when 15 associational leaders and state-level strategists from around North America spent two and a half weeks outside of London, England, in order to examine how God was causing great Christian movements in certain people groups across various parts of the world. One of the main questions that came out of this gathering was “What must we do in order for God to move like that in North America?” When I became aware of this group of Christian leaders who were seeking answers to this type of question, I immediately wanted to be involved with GCI.
During my week-long training conference in Dallas, a great desire began to grow in my spirit. This desire was for God to cause a great Christian movement to occur across Virginia. I learned that a Christian movement was a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches within a given people group, affinity or population segment. With this definition, several challenging questions began to prick my heart. Why wasn't God causing similar movements to happen in the Virginia mission field? Who are the people groups living in our neighborhoods and in our communities? What are some of the cultural or spiritual barriers that are hindering the hearing and acceptance of the gospel?
In what I would consider as an “ah hah” moment, I started to become keenly aware of the fact that people-group and worldview-oriented approaches could greatly improve the chances of persons authentically receiving the gospel and applying it to their daily lives. GCI taught me that it was through these approaches that the gospel seemed to be able to successfully answer persistent ethnic, cultural and worldview questions of lost neighbors, family members, critics and persecutors. It is believed that it is this divine tension that the Holy Spirit uses to draw lost people to Christ and into fellowship with his church. By the end of the training conference, I left wrestling with the question, “What can Virginia Baptists do differently in our mission field to maximize the spread of the gospel among all the people groups?”
Upon my return to Richmond, one of the first things that GCI challenged me to do differently was to change was my understanding of the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:18-19, Jesus told his disciples, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Therefore, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
In Luke 24: 45-49, Jesus opened his disciples' understanding of the Scriptures by saying to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer; and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And, behold I send the promise of my Father upon you: but you wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
In Acts 1:7-9, Jesus said to his disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power. But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It was during the exegesis process of Matthew 28, Luke 24 and Acts 1:8 that I discovered that Jesus was placing “going” and “engaging” all nations as a priority in the life of every believer. “All nations” in the Greek is panta ta ethne, which literally means “all tribes” or “all people groups.” Therefore, the Great Commission's panta ta ethne mandate is to engage every people group in the world in their heart language. This is because Christ wants us to engage people at the level of their worldview belief and practices.
Acts 1:8's geographical implications (actual or symbolic) related to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost” are secondary to the Great Commission's panta ta ethne. This new revelation compelled me to seriously begin looking at how Virginia Baptists could begin reaching the panta ta ethne in Virginia. Combining this newfound passion to reach the panta ta ethne with Luke 19:10 where Jesus says, “I have come to seek and to save people who are lost,” the Spirit of God started me on a journey that caused me to focus on what was taking place in the Virginia context.
According to the 2000 U.S. census, the population in Virginia was 7,078,515. Based on data retrieved from SCAN US, the estimated population in Virginia increased to 7,635,526 in 2006. Forecasters predict that within the next five years, the population in Virginia will exceed 8,000,000.
In September 2002, a report called “Religious Congregations & Memberships in the United States” was released by the Glenmary Research Center (www.glenmary.com). This report provides the most comprehensive statistical data available on U.S. religious affiliation. It is conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) every 10 years at the same time as the U.S. census. According to this report, 58.4 percent of the 7,078,515 people in Virginia had no religious affiliation in 2000.
Applying this same percentage to the 2006 estimated population indicates that there are approximately 4,459,147 people in Virginia that have no religious affiliation.
Whether we use the terminology “people with no religious affiliation” or the terminology “people who are lost,” it is evident in the gospels that saving this segment of our population is a priority for Jesus. As followers of Christ, shouldn't “lost people” be a priority for Virginia Baptist as well? Luke 15:7 indicates that “there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one person repents and turns to him.”
The 2005 Annual Church Profile (ACP) indicated that the 1,408 churches associated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia baptized 7,909 people. At this annual baptism rate, it would take BGAV churches close to 559 years to reach this vastness of lostness currently being experienced in Virginia. This helped me to understand that we can not afford to continue to “do business as usual.”
This same report indicated that there were 443,239 Virginia Baptists. This means that Virginia Baptists make up 14 percent of the 3.1 million who indicated that they had a religious affiliation. Since Virginia Baptists make up 14 percent of the religious population, shouldn't we be responsible for reaching at least 14 percent of the estimated 4.5 million people in Virginia that could potentially be lost? That's approximately 622,239 people. What if, God, through the Virginia Baptist family, brought 623,100 people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ over the next five years? Did you know that it would take only 670 Virginia Baptists with a passion for lost people to make this happen?
How does 670 work? As in Acts 6, we would like to begin looking among the 443,239 Virginia Baptists in order to discover 670 Virginia Baptists who have a passion for lost people. Secondly, we would like to recruit and train these 670 Virginia Baptists to reach 30 lost people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, we would like to help disciple two people out of each of the original 670 groups of 30 to separately reach another 30 lost people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Finally, we would like to repeat the Year 2 process for each subsequent year, with two people from each new group separately reaching another 30 lost people.
As a result, 670 Virginia Baptists can together set in motion a cumulative process through which 623,100 lost people can be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ over a five year period. Like a stone tossed into a pond, their work will create results that radiate and expand through the work of others sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says, in Romans 1:16, “for I have complete confidence in the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes.”
I am excited to be a part of this God-sized vision.
Wayne Faison is team leader of the Mission Board's courageous churches team.