By Wes Kenney, currently a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

A proper understanding of the role of the individual Christian in the fulfillment of the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary to the well being of the church and to the faithful fulfillment of that commission. Essential to this understanding is the recognition of the church’s place within the biblical witness as the guardian of truth. With this understanding in place, this paper will argue that the Great Commission is not given for individuals to fulfill, but to the church. This distinction is an important one, and much error is avoided when it is understood and embraced.

“These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:14–15, NKJV). The Apostle Paul’s words make it clear that the church itself is the guardian of the revealed truth of God’s Word. The repeated Pauline commands to churches to guard against error strengthen this idea. The church has a responsibility to guard the truth, and the authority to speak definitively concerning what is true. A true church, seeking the will of God and the mind of Christ, will never lack an understanding of the truth, and cannot shirk its responsibility to defend it. This especially is true with regard to the Great Commission.

Baptists are generally united in the belief that the ordinances of Christ, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are commands given to the church to carry out. Though individuals and small groups sometimes seek to carry out these commands on their own, the consistent witness throughout church history has been that they are to be carried out within the church, and Baptist history has located this responsibility within local churches, and for good reason. Order is not maintained when individuals baptize converts outside the authority of the local church. The fellowship is not strengthened when small groups within the congregation observe the Lord’s Supper on their own, apart from the larger congregation. The eleventh chapter of First Corinthians makes this abundantly clear. It is just as important that the Great Commission commands to make disciples and to teach be closely associated with the authority and oversight of the local church.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:19–20, ESV). In this account of the Great Commission given in Matthew’s Gospel, baptism is integral. Disciple-making and teaching are presented on the same plane with this church ordinance, which is in itself a strong argument in favor of tying all these responsibilities to the local church. But this is not the only argument. In the complementary account of the Great Commission given in Luke, the disciples are not told to immediately get busy in making disciples, but rather they are to “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49, ESV).

The event for which Jesus commanded them to wait was, of course, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, widely regarded as the birth of the New Testament church. Had these commands within the Great Commission been intended for every individual to carry out on their own, they would not have needed to remain together to await this promised power. But these commands, the work of the Great Commission, are not given to individuals, they are given to the church.

The objection may be raised that this understanding of the nature of the commands relieves individuals of the responsibility to share their faith with the lost. That objection is understood, and rejected, for what is the church, if not individual, repentant, redeemed, and baptized sinners? No, the obligation remains upon all, but the local church must be at the center of all Great Commission activity.

Some may ask what harm may come from an individual carrying out this work apart from the local church. While many could be cited, two examples will suffice to demonstrate the great danger present when individuals carry out Great Commission activities, including disciple-making and teaching, apart from a relationship of accountability to a local church.

The first example offered is that of Joseph Smith. The founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints began his work with the contention that all churches then in existence were apostate, and that to him alone God had revealed the true gospel. His mission of “restoration” has led millions astray, but it could not have originated had he been accountable to a local congregation who could have disciplined him for his errant teaching.

A more modern example is that of Oklahoma rancher and television Bible teacher Les Feldick. This writer came in contact with the aberrant teaching of Mr. Feldick during the process of candidating for the pastorate of a local church. This church had members who had come under the influence of Mr. Feldick, and through them many were being led astray to a modern day version of the ancient heresy of Marcion. Mr. Feldick is very candid in expressing his appreciation for all churches and his connection to none of them. Again, this kind of pervasive error would be easily corrected were Mr. Feldick to come under the discipline of a local congregation. Absent that discipline, he is beyond correction.

It is because of our fallen, sinful nature that individuals need the church, and the accountability it provides, especially as we seek to be obedient to the Great Commission. Not only must baptism and the Lord’s Supper be carried out under the authority of the local church, but also our teaching, and even our disciple-making activities must submit themselves to this authority. Our fallen nature is prone to error, but the church, the “pillar and ground of the truth,” is able to guard us from error, allowing us to honor our Savior as we obey his commands.

Marilyn Stewart is a weekly religion events columnist in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and is a free-lance writer for the Louisiana Baptist Message and other publications.

*names in this article are changed to protect identities.

It’s only Wednesday night, but the strip clubs on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street are busy.

The crowded street is awash in neon light as tourists, some with children, snap souvenir pictures. Inside, tears stream down a dancer’s face when the women of Inward step into her dressing room. God has answered her prayer.

“I asked Jesus to send someone,” she said. Tricia* needed help in breaking free.

Inward, a ministry that is showing God’s love in a place where the need is great, began when women of New Orleans churches felt burdened for the women of Bourbon Street. Without a template and with few ministries to model, they started by simply taking gifts of chocolate to the dancers.

Two years in, Inward is making a difference.

“Our ladies have followed the footprints of Jesus to Bourbon Street and found people in need who want to hear and see God’s love,” said David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist New Orleans.

The ministry has hosted four breakfasts for workers in a room above a club in the early hours of the morning, after closing time. Attendance is growing.

“The word is spreading,” said Maggie Broussard. “People say to us, ‘Oh, you’re that group that does the breakfasts.’”

At the breakfasts, the women share the gospel as they talk to dancers, bartenders, and managers – both men and women. Across town, prayer partners gather at First Baptist New Orleans to pray as text-messaged updates about conversations come in.

Those who attend leave with Bibles, a gospel tract, or information on children’s events at various New Orleans churches in their hands.

“We celebrate the ministry of Inward each week at First Baptist as we hear the amazing testimonies of God’s activity among the people in this marginalized sector of our community,” said Crosby.

Staying grounded is key. The women prayed for three months before setting foot on Bourbon Street. They meet weekly with accountability partners. Two weeks are devoted to prayer for every one night on the street.

Inward is not the ministry of one church, but involves women from many churches in the New Orleans Baptist Association. Prayer partners from around the world support them.

To date, Inward has helped three women leave the sex industry. Two others are in process. Tricia was recently baptized.

It’s a choice, isn’t it?

The Inward women often say they assumed, at first, that those in the sex industry are there by choice, or because of certain life decisions. Soon that perception changed.

“Our hearts were broken in pieces,” Laeken Carter said after meeting Tricia. “I realized then how painful it is for these women.”

College co-eds are drawn in by easy money. One man is a laid-off engineer. A woman started dancing when stranded in New Orleans after her car broke down.

“Many are Moms. Some are wives,” Cole Gilbert said. “These are normal, everyday women. But once you’re swept into [this lifestyle], it’s hard to get out.”

Drugs and alcohol are part of the mix for some. Others, women who wouldn’t be pegged as a nightclub dancer outside the Bourbon St. context, dance as a second job.

“It may start with money,” Broussard said. “But when they realize it’s not what they expected it to be, they have to find some other way to justify it.”

The dancers’ perceptions are skewed, especially in regards to relationships, Broussard said. Some say they provide companionship by sitting at the bar and talking to customers.

“Most have had trauma in their lives – broken families, abuse,” Cole Gilbert said. “Yes, they choose, but is it really a choice when you look at their past and see what they’re dealing with?”

An urgent mission

They’re called “the church ladies.” Inward women have been laughed at, yelled at, and thrown out of clubs.

One manager told them that the dancers make fun of the makeup bags, hand lotion, and other gifts that Inward brings. “That’s okay,” Jennifer Best told him. “We’re not going to stop.”

Recently, a manager showed them civility for the first time, then turned on them in anger minutes later. The interim period gave them time to talk with a dancer. Christi Gibson, Inward director, said the incident was discouraging, yet affirming.

“God had a divine appointment for our girls with that girl, and he wanted us at the club at that moment,” Gibson said. “We don’t need to be liked or favored. We just need to be available. God will give us the access we need.”

While Inward prayed at the beginning for a club to host a breakfast, a woman they didn’t know was praying that God would send someone to her daughter. The club that opened its doors is the place where the daughter works.

Another mother called First Baptist for help without knowing about Inward or that Christi Gibson is the church’s Connections Minister. Inward found the woman’s daughter on Bourbon St. and eventually helped her leave the industry.

Gibson received a phone call one day from another woman who thanked Inward for “going into the ugly places” and showing her daughter love.

Inward starts relationships on Bourbon Street, but grows them outside. The husband of one Inward member recently performed the wedding ceremony for a dancer. The couple continues a friendship with the newlyweds and continues to share Christ.

“I’ve learned that you cannot see a person as a project,” Gibson said. “The girls we have seen come to know the Lord have not received Him during a ten-minute conversation in a club, or even during the three-hour breakfast in the middle of the night. Inward girls have invested time and numerous conversations away from Bourbon Street into these girls.”

Bourbon Street workers often talk of being religious, and even Christian. When one dancer mentioned that she needed to be “more spiritual,” Cole Gilbert said, “What you really need is Jesus.”

“Inward is increasing the dependency that these women [who minister] have on Christ, making them bolder in sharing the gospel in other relationships, including their own family members,” said Chad Gilbert, pastor of Edgewater Baptist Church, New Orleans.

The urgency, and danger, are real. On a recent “blitz,” where Inward carries gifts into a dozen clubs, the women also carried the picture of a fifteen-year old girl reportedly last seen on Bourbon Street.

The positive response is real, as well. Inward arrived for the third breakfast to find the room dirty and in disarray. When they arrived for the fourth breakfast, the room was cleaned and ready.

Justin*, a manager who once opposed them, now welcomes them in. When they thanked him for hosting the breakfast, he said, “You’re welcome here any time.”

The assistant manager told them Justin’s* change of heart was due to Inward’s non-abrasive manner.

“The Bible tells us the gospel may offend,” Cole Gilbert said. “We want to be sure that our manner of presenting the gospel doesn’t.”

The turnover on Bourbon Street is great, and women continue to be drawn in by its false promises.

“They’re not going to come to us. We have to go to them,” Cole Gilbert said. “This is what Jesus did.”

This article was originally published in the Louisiana Baptist Message, and is reposted here by permission.

Dr. Chuck Kelley is President and Professor of Evangelism at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary



This is the fourth of a four part series of articles taken from Dr. Kelley’s presentation on the New Methodists. In part one, he walked us through the history of evangelism in the SBC. In part two, he examined our current state of evangelism. In the third part, he explained where we’ve gone wrong. And in this final installment, Dr. Kelley presents a way to fix the problem.

Part 4: What Do We Have to Do to Fix Things?

What I have come to realize is that also included in our evangelistic process was a very aggressive discipleship process. Here is a snapshot of some of the elements of the discipleship process that were found in the typical Southern Baptist church of any size and location.

• A Sunday night program that included small group discipleship training for all ages of the church and an evening service.
• Each January there was a four to six day Bible conference teaching one book of the Bible to all ages.
• At least once and often more frequently there were special events called study courses to train every age group in some aspect of Baptist and church life.
• In addition there was a weekly missions training program for young boys and girls, along with youth camp and children’s camp in the summer. Plus more.

Though often criticized for overemphasizing conversion, in reality the opposite is true.

In the era of our greatest evangelistic growth, typical SBC churches had more discipleship activities than evangelistic activities. Aggressive evangelism was matched by aggressive discipleship. We were disciplistic. That is another one of my words. By it I mean an evangelistic discipleship that continually seeks to incorporate both evangelism and discipleship at the same time.

When did this emphasis on aggressive discipleship began to fade? During the late sixties.

When did our evangelistic fruitfulness began to fade? During the seventies.

When our baptismal numbers started to weaken, we intensified our focus on evangelistic strategies and methods. Hear this from one who is an evangelist by calling. We should have paid more attention to our discipleship process. Apparently the biblical worldview that unconsciously inspired doing church like a farm in SBC life is like the baton for the USA Men’s relay team in the Beijing Olympics.

You are looking at a picture of some the fastest sprinters we have ever had, but all their speed and talent meant nothing, because the baton fell between them.

Earlier Southern Baptists did not devise an intentional plan as a Convention on how to do church evangelistically in order to reach people.

Our churches worked out an evangelistic discipleship that wove the process of sowing and reaping, reaching and teaching into ordinary process of church life. As time went by and the world changed, that biblical worldview inspiring evangelistic discipleship dropped between SBC generations.  When we did make an SBC plan for evangelism, we planned to improve the harvest component of our Baptist farm, not the integrated process. As time has gone by, we neither maintained nor reinvented the process that made us so fruitful in earlier days. Time had its impact. Now others may be running the race, but we are still trying to get a fresh grip on the baton of a discipl-istic worldview.

To put it another way, we put so much emphasis on how our way of doing church affected the lost, we failed to notice how it was affecting the saved. Changes and innovations have been added to make the church more welcoming to the lost and unchurched in many of our churches, but little has been done to improve the way we inspire evangelistic discipleship and make it more desirable to believers in most of our churches.

Upon reflection, the most significant and influential death in the modern history of the Southern Baptist Convention was the death of our discipleship process. I am talking about the death of a discipleship process, not a particular discipleship training program. The defining characteristic of Southern Baptists at our best was being discipl-istic, having a passionate evangelistic discipleship. But we refused to let go of one in order to pursue the other. When we loosened our grip on one to strengthen the other, we ultimately weakened both dramatically.

Today, we do not know who we are. The world does not know who we are. Our lost friends and neighbors do not know who we are. In the New Testament world believers lived differently than their neighbors. That is how they came to be called Christians, which was a term of derision, not respect. Our problem is not that more of us don’t witness to our neighbors. Our problem is that more of us do not look like and live like Jesus.

If we do not produce children, youth, and adults who live out a biblical worldview, no strategy for doing church will make us salt and light in the world. Southern Baptists are not losing our voice. We are losing the distinctiveness of our voice in today’s culture. We are blending in more than we are standing out.

Here is the most important lesson. Aggressive evangelism without aggressive discipleship will eventually undo itself. The most crucial issue in SBC evangelism today is reinventing a process to bring our children, youth, and adults to spiritual maturity in an evangelistic way.

We need discipl-istic churches! Baptist believers must be taught how to be the distinctive presence of Christ in the culture. We must be the salt our neighbors cannot fail to taste; the light the world around us cannot fail to see. As Jesus Himself noted in Matthew 5:13-14, salt that is not salty is not good for anything but throwing out. Light that is under a bushel is useless.

Is there more to SBC problems than this? Yes! But there is at least this. We are becoming the New Methodists. In 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 we read, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” But don’t stop there.

Keep reading!

The Lord goes on to say, “But if you turn aside … Then I will pluck you up from my land … and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight ….”

The picture you are seeing is the Western Wall of the temple mount in Jerusalem, also called the wailing wall. The large stones at the base of the wall are all that is left of God’s temple during the time of Jesus. The crowds you see are there every day. Jews and pilgrims from all over the world come to see and weep over what was lost and pray that one day all will be restored.

Here is what we know stated as simply as I know how to state it.

In times past God has worked through our Southern Baptist churches in a mighty way. In times present God is not working in a mighty way through our churches. How are you going to respond to this? How am I going to respond to this? If we as a people do not repent now, only one question remains: To what wall will our children return to weep and remember the glory that was the SBC?

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, Cartoonist, Pastor, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

Evangelism and spiritual harvesting are not for everyone calling themselves followers of Jesus. Fruitbearing is for the obedient. Believers aiming to obey the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-10) should not miss one huge fact: No one not living as a faithful disciple himself can make someone else a disciple of Jesus Christ. Only disciples make disciples. Only the faithful can bear fruit. Put another way: No one can teach others to “obey all the things I have commanded you” who is not obeying those things himself.

The church which is rebellious or wayward or chronically immature or systemically sick has no business trying to convert outsiders to what they are doing and how they are living. (Note: “Systemically” is not “systematically.” When the sickness is throughout the body, we say it is “systemic.” The problem is not with one person or two, but throughout the body.)

The sick church should get well first and then it will be able to help others.

Here are several churches that have no business sending soul-winning/visitation teams into their community or hosting evangelistic crusades.

1. Until Clearview Church leaders and members stop fighting and learn to love one another, they need to cancel all outreach.

I saw Clearview Church run off a pastor and half its members. They then proceeded to call a new preacher who walked in, saw all those empty pews and announced, “We need an evangelism program around here.” They scheduled a meeting, brought in an evangelist, papered the town with posters, and held their gatherings. All to no avail. Even if the new preacher did not know the character of his congregation, the community did. They wanted none of what that bunch had to offer.

Jesus prayed, “I pray not for these (disciples) alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21).

The Savior who redeemed us and reigns now as Lord has laid down a fundamental law here: if we expect people to believe in Him, we must live in love and unity.

No wonder our efforts fall pitifully short.

2. Until Park Ridge Church stands up and deals with a few cancerous leaders, they need to call off all evangelism plans.

Few things kill the spirit of love within a congregation and the spontaneous atmosphere necessary for outsiders to respond to the invitation to step forward and follow Jesus more quickly than a few strong-willed leaders who keep their thumb on everything within the body lest it erupt into something they might not be able to control. One thing we know: The Holy Spirit will not be controlled by anyone. (See John 3:8).

Until there is freedom and liberty within the fellowship, God’s Spirit is going to be inhibited from doing any work and sending any blessing. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). No liberty, no Spirit — and no Spirit, no evangelism, no harvest, no births.

What part of that do we not understand?

3. Until Causeway Church clears up its terrible reputation in the community, their evangelism efforts will be fruitless.

The members of Causeway Church, most of whom joined in the last couple of years, do not understand why the citizens in their town seem completely unmoved by their good works, their impressive growth, and their attempts at recruitment.

Let them ask around; they’ll find out soon enough.

Sometime in the past–last year, last decade–that church was a cancer in the community. Its leaders were sick, its ministries self-serving and harsh, and its bills unpaid. When the pastor ventured out into the community, it was only to berate the city commission over its failures or the school board for their wickedness.

God got rid of that pastor and some of its worst troublemakers died or moved away. But the reputation lingers. The memory of that ugly little congregation made a lasting impression.

I heard a woman pastor ask for prayer for her church one day. “We have found that we are located over a toxic site. Underneath, there are poisons that were buried in the soil a long time ago. We are going to have to deal with it–which we can’t afford–or move.”

Causeway Church needs to dig down and locate the source of the toxins and deal with them. There are groups and businesses and individuals in the town who need an apology and then evidence of repentance. Furthermore, they will need time. Causeway Church leaders need to humble themselves before their community and find what it means to become servants. In time, if they remain faithful, God will send them a harvest. But it will be in His time. The question remains whether they will be patient and steadfast in their works.

4. Until North Howard Church opens its doors to everyone, they do not need to be inviting anyone.

North Howard’s sign is lying. The two feet by four feet board out front says “Everyone Welcome.” They aren’t.

Certain minority groups are not welcome at North Howard Church. The leadership first, and eventually the membership, has shown a prejudice against African-Americans, Latinos, the homeless, illegal aliens, and the chronically poor. Don’t miss this: it’s not just non-whites they reject; they are suspicious of anyone not like themselves.

We may rejoice that the Holy Spirit will not be sending converts to this bunch. The last thing the world needs is more like them.

5. Until Chateau Boulevard Church begins a foundational work of ministry which will legitimize its evangelism, they need to hold off.

A church has to earn the right to be heard in the community when it speaks of spiritual things.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe when I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12). What we do and say in the earthly realm lays the groundwork for us to be heard regarding the spiritual.

This week, a woman I know who is highly critical of what she calls fundamental Christians (people I call “Bible-believers”) posted on Facebook a photo of a preacher handing out Bibles to children in Haiti. She lambasted him for not giving them food and clothing. In the comments which followed, some of her “friends” resorted to profanity to condemn such misguided ministries.

I’m usually conflicted as to whether to risk posting a comment into such an atmosphere. What I said was, “No doubt from your comments you are heavily involved in feeding and clothing Haitians.” (I hoped she would get a feel for her own hypocrisy. Not very likely, I know.) What I wanted to say and didn’t was that no one knows all that evangelist may have done to feed and clothe those children of Haiti. All the article showed was him distributing Bibles. I’ll tell you this, Christian groups have fed and clothed a thousand Haitians for everyone helped by skeptics and hostiles.

We feed and clothe for a hundred reasons: it’s the right thing to do, it meets a genuine need, it’s basic compassion, Jesus would have done it, the Spirit within us commands it, and so forth. And, let us not hesitate to admit that one reason we show our concern for their welfare is that afterwards we’re usually given a hearing to present the gospel. Even if we’re not given such a hearing, however, we still hand out food and water and our love. That’s the Christian way.

Got time for a quick story?

I was in my first church after seminary, Emmanuel Baptist in Greenville, Mississippi. This collection of members had come in from other churches, I had been told, and many were unhappy and disgruntled. Being young, idealistic, and ignorant, I scheduled a revival and invited Don Womack of Memphis to preach a weeklong meeting.

The meeting was awful. Our attendance grew weaker and weaker. Wednesday night, one child responded to the invitation and joined the church. Other than that, nothing.

At the same time, there was bickering among members, and rumors were flying about their new young preacher (me!) trying to stir up racial strife in the community, and such as that.

Following the final sermon and the fruitless invitation time, Evangelist Womack handed the service back to me.

I remember what I said like it was last week.

“People, I don’t know what to do. Brother Don and I have worked so hard this week. But you have not supported this meeting with your attendance and support. I’m looking around at quite a few people who have told me you intend to join this church and several of you who need to walk this aisle and give your life to Christ. But you did nothing today.

“And I just want to say, I don’t blame you.

“I wouldn’t join this church either.

“There is a bad spirit in this congregation. And God is not going to send revival until we get our hearts right with each other and then make things right with one another.

“Folks, the Bible says ‘It is time for judgment to begin at the House of God’ (I Peter 4:17).”

And, little by little, day by day, God broke through that log jam and sent a spirit of revival to that church. People who belonged to Emmanuel Baptist Church in 1968-70 still talk about it.

This little writing goes forth with the prayer and hope that you find something here that will help your church.

This article was posted earlier from joemckeever.com, and is reposted here by permission of the author.

Dr. Chuck Kelley is President and Professor of Evangelism at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary



This is the third of a four part series of articles taken from Dr. Kelley’s presentation on the New Methodists. In part one, he walked us through the history of evangelism in the SBC. In part two, he examined our current state of evangelism. In this third part, he explains where we’ve gone wrong. And in the final installment, Dr. Kelley will present a way to fix the problem.

Part 3: What Has Gone Wrong?

Discipleship is the crucial issue. The spiritual state of the farmer (our churches and leadership), not the abundance of the harvest is the root of problems in SBC evangelism. At the end of the day, this is the hard truth staring at me. The best question then, is: What is wrong with us?

First, We are not anointed. The conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. The stirring of a church and community in revival and awakening is a work of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these works of the Spirit are typical in SBC churches today. We are not anointed – that “we” would be you, me and all of us at work in places with little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit. We are so not anointed we have come to accept not being anointed as normal.

Second, we have been “atom”ized. Scientists tell us that what looks like a solid wood pulpit is actually a composition of small particles called atoms. Those atoms are actually composed of even smaller particles, which are composed of even smaller particles. Thinking about atomic particles can make one forget that whatever its composition, this pulpit does function as a single large and rather solid-feeling piece of wood. At the end of the day it is a pulpit, after all.

Many have become so focused on discovering a method that works; they fail to realize an integrated process is far more important than any one method that is a part of that process. You cannot separate sowing and reaping. One is never more important than the other. To focus on particular methods rather than an integrated process is a dead end.

More importantly, Southern Baptists are becoming the new Methodists.

I love Methodists! They played a key role in the First and Second Great Awakenings. Their concept of a circuit riding preacher was a brilliant strategy for the circumstances of the day. With it they were able to multiply church starts faster than they multiplied church pastors, enabling them to evangelize the American Frontier in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They made holy living a core value and were called Methodists because they went about it so systematically and methodically.

Much of what Southern Baptists know about evangelistic harvesting we learned from Methodists. Many have observed Methodists and Baptists and noticed their kinship. I love what a Presbyterian minister in the movie “A River Runs Through It” would tell his sons about Methodists: “Methodists are just Baptists who can read.”

The Methodists of today, however, have changed much through the years. Their efforts in evangelism and missions have greatly diminished. The passion for holy living has been replaced by behavior blending with the culture. One of their greatest theological fights is over the normalcy of homosexuality. Most surprising, they have set new records for the fastest loss of membership in the history of the church in America. Having observed these changes in Methodism, I find myself admitting today that we are following in their footsteps. Southern Baptists are the New Methodists.

In what ways are we similar?

Universalism is settling into our pews as more and more Southern Baptists believe and behave as though they believe a personal relationship with Christ is not necessary for one to be right with God.

Tolerance is beginning to overtake conviction as growing numbers, particularly of younger Southern Baptists, are less comfortable with taking a firm stance on moral or doctrinal issues.

More importantly, our behavior, the way we live our lives, is blending more and more with our culture. We are growing ever less distinct and recognizable in the crowd of our nation’s population.

It is becoming as easy to get drunk at a Baptist wedding as any other kind of wedding. We go to the same movies, watch the same TV shows, and get comfortable using the same coarse language our neighbors use. It is as likely for a Baptist kid to choose a school or community soccer tournament over church as any other kid in the neighborhood.

It is not a coincidence that we are also moving from growth to plateau to decline in the membership of our churches. Since 1983 I have been saying seventy percent of our churches are plateaued or declining. If we apply the traditional measurement of growth to the 2007 SBC church statistics, the number of growing churches is about the same as it has been for a long time, the number of plateaued churches is smaller, and the number of declining churches is larger.

If we add minimal evangelistic standards to the way we measure church growth, the shift is even more dramatic. The most recent study of SBC churches . . . recording a ten percent or more increase of membership over a five year period indicates 30.3 percent of our churches are growing. If we add the requirement of at least one baptism in the first and fifth year of the study to those 30.3 percent of growing churches, only 23.5 percent would still qualify as growing. If we add an additional requirement for growing churches to have a ratio of at least one baptism per 35 members, the percentage of growing churches drops to only 11.9 percent. By comparison, from 1945 to 1955 the ratio of baptisms per member for the whole SBC was in the twenties.

To summarize, using minimal evangelistic standards instead of membership growth alone reveals only 11.9  percent of SBC churches are growing today. To quote a different ancient Hebrew expression: Uh Oh!

What can we do to address this reproach? We will look at this in the last installment, part 4.

This presentation was originally made in the Chapel of NOBTS in March of 2009. For a video version of the original presentation by Dr. Kelley, click this link. If you want to skip by the singing part of the service and go directly to the “New Methodists” presentation by Dr. Kelley, skip to the 7:35 point in the video.

Dr. Chuck Kelley is President and Professor of Evangelism at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary



This is the second of a four part series of articles taken from Dr. Kelley’s presentation on the New Methodists. In part one, he walked us through the history of evangelism in the SBC. In this second part, he examines our current state of evangelism. In the third part, he will explain where we’ve gone wrong. And in the final installment, Dr. Kelley will present a way to fix the problem.

Part 2: The Current State of Evangelism in the SBC

It is important that we understand the true nature of the genius of Southern Baptist evangelism.

It was not the individual methods used that produced such an incredible harvest. Rather, the interaction of those methods with each other created an integrated process described in the New Testament as sowing and reaping. Wheels alone can generate power. But if you add cogs to those wheels so that they form a gear, you multiply the power those wheels produce.

The SBC way of doing church embodied the biblical process of sowing and reaping (see for example 1 Cor. 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase”), but these particular interactive methods were not the result of a search for a way to embody that process in churches. The lack of comment on the way these individual methods became an integrated process characteristic of SBC churches is one of the more astounding discoveries of my research. We will come back to this later.

Let’s go back to those baptism statistics that I mentioned in part 1. In 1945 the SBC baptized about 257,000 people. In 1955 the SBC baptized about 417,000 people. But since 1955 the SBC never yet reached the mark of 450,000 baptisms. We doubled in baptisms in ten years, but then could not increase 35,000 in more than 50 years. What happened to the harvest? What happened to the farm?

For many years I said: “Southern Baptists are a harvest -oriented denomination living in the midst of an unseeded generation.” We reduced planting, neglected cultivation, and not surprisingly have found the harvest coming up short. But I now realize something more is going on. Today I say: We are more like gardeners working the window boxes than farmers working the fields. “We are the grandchildren of farmers keeping harvest stories alive over coffee and dessert at family reunions.”

The most important question facing the SBC today is: Why? The methods we use are not the crucial issue. The Bible speaks little of methods. An open fire, an oven, or a microwave will all accomplish the same purpose. Tasks will always outlive methods. By the way, this applies to whatever better way of doing things some of you might develop as well!

The amount of money available to spend on evangelism is not the crucial issue. In 1906 W. W. Hamilton created the first department of evangelism for the SBC. With no budget allocation at all, he found a way for the department to make a great impact and grow to include more than 20 evangelists. After a tragic embezzlement by the treasurer of the Home Mission Board, the Board was nearly bankrupted and had to shut down the evangelism department for a decade. In 1936 Roland Q. Leavell was asked to re-launch the department with only one staff member – himself! With little money and no assistance he laid the groundwork for the greatest period of fruitfulness in the history of the SBC. During that legendary period of 1945 to 1955, when we doubled in baptisms, the staff of the evangelism department never grew larger than 3 people, including a secretary. Money is important, even very important, but it is not the crucial issue reducing our fruitfulness. Having more money will not turn things around.

The gospel’s power is not the crucial issue. Our message has the same power to transform any human life today that it had in the first century of the church. The penitentiary in Angola, LA is the only maximum security prison in the state. With more than 5,000 prisoners, it houses the largest collection of violent people in the United States and has long been known as the bloodiest prison in America. More than 90 percent of the men have prison sentences, so long they will die and be buried in prison. Most would agree these men must be terrible prospects for salvation, much less for a call to the ministry.

Fifteen years ago we began a program of training for ministry in the Angola prison, teaching a small group of prisoners whom God had touched the same curriculum we teach in the Seminary’s Leavell College. The results have been stunning. We have about 150 graduates to date, and upon completion of their studies each man becomes a pastor in some part of the prison. Call it a cell church movement! Violence has dropped dramatically. The prison has become a different place, amazing people in the justice system all over the United States. The impact of these prison preachers has been so great they are now being sent out two by two into other prisons to teach there what they learned in Angola.

There is that ancient Hebrew expression again. Wow! The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of incredible power still today!

What then is wrong? To this question, we turn in part 3 in the next article.

This presentation was originally made in the Chapel of NOBTS in March of 2009. For a video version of the original presentation by Dr. Kelley, click this link. If you want to skip by the singing part of the service and go directly to the “New Methodists” presentation by Dr. Kelley, skip to the 7:35 point in the video.

Dr. Chuck Kelley is President and Professor of Evangelism at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

This is the first of a four part series of articles taken from Dr. Kelley’s presentation on how Southern Baptists could become the “New Methodists.” In this first part, he walks us through the history of evangelism in the SBC. In part two, he will examine the current state of evangelism in the SBC. In the third part, he will explain where we’ve gone wrong. And in the final installment, Dr. Kelley will present a way to fix the problem.

Part 1: The History of Evangelism in the SBC

For the last several years, following the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, I have been immersed heart and soul in the recovery and restoration of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. An invitation to address the SBC evangelism directors at a recent meeting in New Orleans came as a breath of fresh air, giving me a reason to return to the passion of my adult life: the study of Southern Baptist evangelism. I used the opportunity to take a deep look around and for some time have been digesting what I saw. I have drawn some conclusions I feel I must share. Along the way, the preparation of this presentation became the preparation of my soul for seeking a stirring of God’s Spirit in my heart and across the Southern Baptist Convention. May it be so for you as well.

The road we will walk begins with the amazing story of how Southern Baptists became the largest non-Catholic religious body in America.

The best snap shot is this. In 1945 Southern Baptists baptized approximately 257,000 people into their churches. In 1955, only ten years later, they baptized approximately 417,000 people, almost doubling in just ten years. To quote an ancient Hebrew expression: Wow! That is amazing, phenomenal growth. How did we do it?

The easiest way to explain it is this: Old McBaptist had a farm! Southern Baptists developed a way of doing church very similar to the way a farmer raises crops. For instance, farmers need land in order to produce a harvest. Southern Baptists realized they needed a permanent presence in a community in order to reach that community, and so from their earliest beginnings they emphasized church planting. They knew starting churches would give them a continuing presence in the place where prospects lived.

Farmers know the crop they want to grow must match the climate they have. You can grow cotton in Mississippi, but it doesn’t do well in northern Canada. To have evangelistic results churches needed a climate continually affirming for the congregation the importance of sharing Christ with the lost.

Southern Baptists used decisional preaching, that preaching which calls for an immediate and public response, to help create and maintain a climate emphasizing evangelism in the worship services of our churches. In many ways the format of evangelistic crusades and revival meetings was absorbed into the normal style of worship for Southern Baptist churches. The invitation following every sermon was a weekly reminder that no one was right with God until they made a personal response to Christ. This was a constant reminder of why evangelism must be a priority in the programs and ministries of the church.

Farmers know they cannot get a harvest without planting seed in the soil. Southern Baptists realized that most of the unconverted did not come to church. They knew they had to get the gospel outside the walls of the church, and they did so with personal evangelism throughout the community. For example, the typical Baptist church would devote at least one night a week to evangelistic visitation, going out to the families in the community for the specific purpose of sharing the gospel with them. Evangelism was not limited to pastors in the pulpit. It also involved the people of the church in face-to-face conversations with people they knew and did not know in the community.

Farmers know that planting seed will not in and of itself produce a crop. Once planted, seed must be cultivated. It needs enough water, but not too much. Bugs and disease must be kept at bay. Southern Baptists knew that sharing the gospel one time with a lost person would usually not result in conversion. A process of cultivation was necessary for those who heard the gospel but did not respond immediately.

Sunday School became the cultivation strategy for SBC churches. It was the only thing you could join in an SBC church without being a member. Churches expected most Sunday school classes to have lost and unchurched people present on a regular basis.

Why Sunday School? It was an efficient way to harness the power of “Biblelationships.” That is my word to describe the combination of Bible teaching and relationship building at the heart of the Southern Baptist approach to Sunday School. All ages were involved in Sunday School. Those who came would hear the Bible, promoting better understanding of the gospel, and they would form meaningful relationships with Christians in the class. Sunday school classes taught the Bible and had ice cream fellowships. There were devotionals and hymns, but they also sent members to visit classmates in the hospital and prepare massive amounts of food for those who lost loved ones.

The Biblelationship combination of teaching Scripture and nurturing relationships was a powerful tool for cultivation, often used by the Holy Spirit to draw closer those from all age groups who had heard the gospel but had not yet responded.

In part 2, we will look at the current state of evangelism in the Southern Baptist Convention.

This presentation was originally made in the Chapel of NOBTS in March of 2009. For a video version of the original presentation by Dr. Kelley, click this link. If you want to skip by the singing part of the service and go directly to the “New Methodists” presentation by Dr. Kelley, skip to the 7:35 point in the video.

By Keith Taylor,
NAMB Evangelism Response Center Intern,
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

“What is the ERC?” That is the question I have the opportunity to answer every time I mention the Evangelism Response Center (ERC) to pastors and students. Despite being in existence for several years, many Southern Baptists have not heard of the ERC. They are not familiar with how regular Southern Baptists are using technology to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The ERC ministry is the twenty-first-century evangelism tool.

What is the ERC?

The Evangelism Response Center is a ministry of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) funded through Cooperative Program giving and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering of Southern Baptists. Dr. N.S.R.K. Ravi is the ERC Coordinator. According to him, the idea had been around for some time. “In 2006 the ERC developed new strategies to help Southern Baptist churches, associations, state conventions and agencies by providing a 24/7/365 evangelism tool to lead callers to Jesus Christ by the SBC volunteers from their own homes. Callers use toll free numbers for spiritual help and prayer needs.”

How does the ERC work?

People seeking spiritual help call 1-888-JESUS-2011 and other associated numbers. They may get this number from a variety of sources. It is used by SBC related ministries on TV, radio, print ads and articles, billboards, subway signs, tracts, t-shirts, handouts, church bulletins, and many other places that groups and churches have come up with to advertise the number. Many of the callers I have talked with do not even remember exactly how or where they got the number.

When respondents call the toll free number, they are connected to a trained volunteer Telephone Encourager (TE). This is where the technology comes into play. TEs log into the system from home or anywhere they want to receive calls and incoming calls are automatically forwarded to them on a rotating basis. The technology even allows callers to select to speak to someone in either English or Spanish. These TEs share the gospel with callers and pray with them.

The process does not stop with the end of the conversation. If a caller makes a decision to receive Jesus, their contact information is recorded and forwarded to the ERC, who then connects the new believer to a local congregation called a Covenant Church. These Covenant Churches across the nation agree to make contact with new believers within 72 hours and report back to the ERC. If no Covenant Churches exist in the vicinity of the caller, the information is forwarded to either the local Baptist Association or the state Baptist Convention. The ERCs goal is not simply to share the gospel, but to connect new believers to local congregations that can encourage and support them in their new faith.

According to Dr. Ravi, the ERC received almost 17,000 calls in 2010, resulting in approximately 1,900 decisions for Christ and 1,400 referrals to Covenant Churches. The potential exists to reach many more through this ministry and the ERC has established and maintained several relationships in an effort to do so. One such relationship is with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. This partnership provides the ability to meet high call volume demands during certain events. Another partnership is with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts. Long after relief workers have returned home, the ERC remains ready to pray and answer questions for many people who are trying to rebuild their lives. Finally, the ERC maintains a faculty contact and student intern at each of the Southern Baptist seminaries to promote this useful evangelism tool among current and future church leaders.

Is ERC available online?

At its annual meeting in September, the ERC unveiled an exciting new means of sharing the gospel – internet chat. The premise is still the same, only instead of talking over the phone, respondents and encouragers communicate via an online chat room. Churches, associations, organizations, and even individuals can place the link to this chat on their websites. The link can even be shared over social media such as Facebook. Smart-phone technology further allows Internet Encouragers to share with others via chat from anywhere they can receive a cell phone signal.

How does ERC bring lost people and churches together?

The ERC is another example of how Southern Baptists can accomplish much more when we cooperate. The ERC provides churches, associations, and convention entities with a resource for personal follow-up that is available 24-hours a day, something that would severely strain a local church’s resources.

The anonymous nature of the service is also a tremendous advantage. Many people who seek help over the phone or internet do so because they either do not know where else to find help, or are nervous about even speaking to someone about Jesus. This is especially true of those from other religious backgrounds. I have had the incredible privilege personally of answering questions about the Bible and Jesus to a Jew over the phone, and listening as he prayed to the “God of Abraham and Isaac” to profess his need for Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Many other volunteers have testified to similar experiences from other religious affiliations as well.

“We need to use technology to reach people for Christ. The tragedy of the church today is that evangelicals are biblical but not contemporary in technology. The world uses contemporary technology more than us. We need both faithfulness to the Word and sensitivity to the modern world,” Dr. Ravi said.

How can the ERC help your church?

There are a number of ways the ERC can help local congregations. Southern Baptist churches that desire to do so can make the commitment and become Covenant Churches. They will then be able to receive the contact information of those that make professions of faith in their local area. These new believers are potential new members that need discipleship and fellowship.

Secondly, any Southern Baptist entity may use the number 1-888 JESUS 2000. This means your church can publish it on materials you hand out such as Bibles or tracts, for outreach or evangelistic events, even on your church website. At times of the day when someone calling your church may get only a voice mailbox, they will actually be able to talk to a volunteer at the ERC.

The ERC is a fantastic tool to use alongside an evangelism emphasis in your church. It provides the opportunity to promote an evangelistic lifestyle. It also provides an opportunity to train your people in evangelism. Finally, it helps encourage people to become more comfortable sharing their faith with others through real experiences doing so.

How can you get involved?

Get the word out. The methods of doing so are limited only by your imagination. The technology, volunteers, and covenant churches are of no use if the lost do not have access to them. As already mentioned, the toll free number and chat link are available for you to use. They are not intended to take the place of sharing Jesus with others personally, but rather are tools available to help support and supplement your efforts.

Become a Telephone/Internet Encourager. Although about 6,000 volunteers have been trained, only 2,000 of those are active and of those, only about 500 volunteers are regulars. This may sound like a lot, but consider that volunteers are needed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year. The ERC needs volunteers like you to make sure that every caller talks to a real person who can pray and share the gospel with them. Of particular need are Spanish-speaking volunteers.

Become a Covenant Church. If all we do is share the gospel with others, then we are not fulfilling the great commission. Disciple-making involves much more. The ERC needs committed churches to come along side and help nurture new believers at a time when they are most vulnerable. The ERC presents Covenant Churches with the incredible potential to receive new members and perhaps even connect to areas of their community previously unreached.

While there is nothing new about sharing Jesus over the phone or internet, the ERC uses technology in a unique way to allow people to connect from their own home, their office, or even their car. While I live in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to pray with a young lady that called from Oklahoma. The ERC provides another tool as we seek to share the gospel with this generation, one that increasingly communicates and exchanges ideas using mobile devices and the internet. Now that you know what the ERC is, what is preventing you from getting involved?

Contact:

Keith Taylor, ERC Intern, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
kwt.glider@gmail.com

or

Linda Trambley, Ministry Assistant, Evangelism Response Center
770-410-6383 – Voice
678-624-3389 – Fax
www.erconline.net

By Michael Edens, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Theology and Islamic Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Edens served as an IMB missionary in the Arab world for 26 years.

A friend of this blog recently wrote, “I was wondering if you could have someone write an article for the SBC Today on what Muslims believe about witnessing.” The reader continued, “I have a . . . friend who is Muslim. When I write things on my blog about God, she writes that she likes what I say, but is always talking about no one knowing about the unseen.” At the time Dr. Lemke sent those comments to my email account, I was leading a seminar among Indonesian Christians on the subject of witness for Christ with Muslim neighbors.

So, what I think our reader is asking is, “What are the pitfalls in trying to be a Christian witness? What are some things to do or be in sharing a witness with Muslim neighbors?” As to what the Muslim lady means by, “no one knowing about the unseen,” I will take an educated guess about what she meant.

Motivational Pitfalls

“What are the pitfalls in trying to be a Christian witness?” These pitfalls are in two groups: motivational and conceptual. Concerning motivations or the abstract pitfalls, you will notice that I am not talking about witness “to” Muslims but “with” Muslim neighbors. There is much witness “to” Muslims. Witness “to” Muslims can take many shapes and forms and be valid. “With Muslim neighbors” is governed and framed. I use “with” to signify several things. The attitude of “with” is coming alongside: caring, compassionate, and understanding. We who by grace have heard and committed to the matchless Savior, Jesus Christ, NEED to be with or alongside of those who have not heard the truth or know it is personified in Him.

In addition, you can expect that a neighbor and person alongside might want to share with you also. “With” assumes and welcomes that sharing for two reasons. First, persons need to be seen and heard. Listening is a good activity for neighbors. Second, the varieties of Muslims are as plentiful as Christians. A witness with a neighbor must be informed as to who that neighbor is. Through this, I have assumed that we are committed to being a neighbor and recognizing a Muslim as a neighbor. In saying these things, I am seeking to define the abstract pitfalls of relating a Christian witness to our Muslim neighbors. Another way to think about this is to examine our motives. I have had friends and team members who were in some way against the Islamic religion or culture, and that was a major motive for their witness. They needed to settle a score or win a competition. “Witness with” is to be more about faith and the transformation that the cross of Christ brings into a human life than religion or culture. If our motivation for witness is that the matchless love of God, personified in Jesus Christ, has gripped us, and He died for our neighbor also, we will overcome obstacles to witness.

Conceptual Pitfalls

The second group of pitfalls are conceptual. For one thing, the concept of gender-specific witness is hard for most Westerners to accept. If your Muslim neighbor is a first or second generation immigrant or a visitor from overseas and of the opposite gender, consider your task to be light seed sowing and introducing that neighbor to a committed Christian of the same sex as your neighbor. Your role then is prayer partner. Don’t desert your neighbor after that introduction.

This leads to the second concept — we are part of God’s outreach to this neighbor. God has been working in our neighbor; join Him along with your Christian friends. Involve others with your neighbor. Trust God to have other contacts for the Gospel with our neighbor. Do and be your part in God’s network drawing our neighbor to Himself in Christ. The third concept relates to the first two. We do not need to “tear down” Islam or Islamic ideas or persons to share Christ and what He has done in our lives. Part of being “with” our neighbors is giving them the freedom to ask probing questions, like: “Have you considered leaving Christianity” (sometimes phrased “Why don’t you become a Muslim?”) or “What do you think of the Qur’an and/or Muhammad?” If we are tempted to give an angry, dismissive, or flippant response, we need to reconsider those first pitfalls again. We need to be able to answer these questions personally and respectfully. For instance, I continue to follow Jesus and trust my life into His hands in part because His love has touched me in every part of my person, and He continues to call me to a closer, more intimate relationship with God; His love forgives, encourages, and transforms me. We have many reasons our neighbor needs to hear.

“What are some things to do or be in sharing a witness with Muslim neighbors?” From all I have written before, it should be obvious we MUST be loving and open. Openly confess you are a follower of Christ or one of the “people of the Book” which the Qur’an mentions. If you identify yourself as a Christian be sure that you qualify the term as one who is committed to constant obedience of God through Jesus Christ. For many Muslims “Christian” just refers to Western culture. Open your family to your Muslim neighbor. Neighbors eventually know us warts, flaws and all. Trust that in our weaknesses they will see God’s mercy and grace. Quote and allude from your Bible appropriately. Few Muslims have any confidence in our Bible being God’s Word. You will learn what they have been taught. When you do, thank God that He brought a neighbor to you so you could live and speak out your respect for the Bible. You do not need to defend it. Just demonstrate that the Bible is your manual for life. Over time your neighbor’s respect for you as a person will be extended to the Book which anchors your life.

Varieties within Islam

As to what the Muslim lady meant by, “no one knowing about the unseen,” I will take an educated guess about what she meant. This Muslim lady is from one of the countries I have lived in; however, in that land several distinct versions of Islam co-exist, which may have much to do with her statement. But I think she is addressing one of the huge problems of witness with Muslims. One if not the central purpose of the biblical God in revealing the Bible, inspiring its translation, and preserving it for us is to reveal Himself. God’s love for lost humanity is a dominant storyline of the Bible. The Qur’an reveals things about deity and conveys decrees for humanity. God (Allah) is spirit, unseen and unapproachable in a relational way. I think this is her conceptual problem. We are talking as if we know God and walk in Him and actually belong to Him. If it were not His gracious gift it could not be; but how is she to know unless she observes a life so lived.

By Joe McKeever, Preacher, former Pastor of seven churches, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

In the summer of 1964, I arrived on campus at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to work on a degree that would train me to pastor a church. Among the unexpected delights of that multifaceted experience (which would last three years, with another 2 years in the early 70s) was the chapel services. The seminary brought in various outstanding (and a few average) speakers to address the faculty and student body.

That’s where I first heard H. L. Hunt of the oil fortune, Pastor R. G. Lee, Evangelist Eddie Lieberman, Missionary statesman Baker James Cauthen, and Mitsuo Fuchida.

For these forty-plus years, that name has held an honored place in my mind, even though I remember absolutely nothing he said that day. It was who he was that carved out a special spot inside this young preacher’s heart.

Mitsuo Fuchida was a bomber pilot for Japan in the Second World War. In fact, he led the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Once the planes were off the aircraft carriers and in the air headed for their destination, Fuchida was in charge. He became a great hero to his people and was active in practically every phase of that conflict.

Not long ago, while reading about Fuchida online (thank you, Wikipedia), I discovered several books tell his story and are available. I ordered “God’s Samurai” by Gordon Prange (published in 1990, so it can be bought used for a pittance) for one reason: I wanted to see what God did to capture such a prize convert for His glory.

Brother, did I find out. The story of how this warrior and Shinto-worshiper came to Jesus Christ is one for the ages. It may be one of the best testimonies of God at work in a man’s life I have ever read.

The first thing that hits you the reader is the numerous close calls Fuchida had. Clearly God was saving this man for something special.

Consider that he led numerous dangerous raids against the U.S. forces and survived them all. He was at Hiroshima on the eve of the atomic bomb being dropped and left town just in time. A day or two after the bombing, he went back into Hiroshima with an investigative team and was exposed to deadly radiation. All other members of the team died; Fuchida was pronounced to be in perfect health.

At the Battle of Midway, the ship on which he was recuperating from an appendectomy was hit and sunk. Fuchida received two broken legs and was rescued.

At other times, a raid that would have been suicidal for him was canceled at the last moment.

So, what did God do to reach this man? Bear in mind that at that time Christianity was associated with the hated United States. General Douglas MacArthur, appointed to govern the defeated Japan, urged Christian missionaries to come in large numbers to reach the Japanese.

Fuchida hated MacArthur for his arrogance.

And yet, within two or three years, Mitsuo Fuchida embraced the message of Jesus Christ with such a passion that he ended up traveling the world as an ambassador of the gospel for the rest of his life. What changed his mind?

The answer is in several parts: 1) Fuchida thought deeply and asked questions. 2) He watched God at work in nature. 3) He heard of an 18-year-old volunteer hospital worker whose story changed him forever. 4) One of the members of the Doolittle Raid had a role in reaching him.

Fuchida thought deeply and asked questions. At the surrender ceremony on the U.S.S. Missouri, which Fuchida attended, MacArthur talked of “freedom, tolerance, and justice.” Mitsuo thought to himself, “Whose justice? The Japanese thought they had justice on their side, too. Japanese justice collided with American justice and neither of them won–superior power won” (p. 176). MacArthur ended his message with, “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.” Fuchida listened skeptically. He had doubted his own emperor when he spoke of everlasting peace, and he didn’t believe the general now. No, he thought, you are wrong, MacArthur. Peace isn’t coming to the world. More trouble is coming. All Fuchida knew from history was self-serving nations looking out for their own interests. War must always result, he concluded. There was no other way.

Fuchida watched God at work in nature. After the war, finding no other way to earn a living for his family, Mitsuo Fuchida bought a parcel of land and became a farmer. He studied books and learned how to construct a house. He watched things grow, and he was impressed. He had never been spiritual, although by no means was he a pugnacious atheist. He simply had accepted the universe of which he was a part without wondering what made it tick. Now as he looked into the bright night sky and saw the North Star, “so steady, so beautiful, so useful,” he began to see the workings of a supreme intelligence. “That night, there on my farm, God began to come into my heart,” Fuchida said reverently (P. 187).

As he continued reflecting on such things, he thought of how God had protected him during the war. The slow recurrence of the seasons, the plants springing to life, the birth of the baby chicks, all the complex workings of creation wove themselves into the fabric of his consciousness….

As one season passed into another, from “the miracle of spring” to “the patience of winter,” he experienced a revelation: “I began to realize slowly that all things were dependent upon a divine Creator, and that I was living under the grace of God. I could sow the seeds; I could plant the saplings; I could draw water with my hands, but they all came from the benevolence of a kind and far-seeing Creator”(p. 189).

All these insights worked to make Fuchida ashamed of his old independence and self-reliance. He began to see that just as the plant and animal world, he too owed his very existence to the Creator. “As he worked on the farm, he reflected, ‘Ah, the Creator–He is so wonderful’“ (p. 190).

Fuchida discovered the greatest proof of the reality of Christ: a genuine Christian.

Without any evidence to support his prejudice, Fuchida knew beyond any doubt that the Japanese who had been held prisoner by the Allies had been treated equally as horribly as Japan had treated its prisoners. One by one, as he interviewed returning POWs, he discovered his mistake. Some returning prisoners had even fallen in love with the United States. To his astonishment, many returned with amazing tales of kindnesses done to them while in the custody of the American military. Several spoke of one young woman in particular.

Margaret “Peggy” Covell was her name. She was 18 years old and worked in a POW camp as a volunteer social worker. Her story was passed on to Fuchida by a friend who had been touched by her in a prison camp.

The man said, “Something happened at my camp which made it possible for all of us interned there to stop nursing our resentments and to return to Japan with lightened hearts.”

He had Fuchida’s undivided attention.

Peggy Covell, they all called her. She ministered to the POWs with tireless energy and grace. “If you’re uncomfortable or need anything,” she would say, “let me know. I’ll do anything I can to help you.”

Three weeks into her work, finally some of the prisoners could stand it no more. They asked, “Why are you so kind to us?”

They were not prepared for her answer. “Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents.”

Reverend and Mrs. Covell had been missionaries teaching at a school in Yokohama. Before hostilities broke out, all the workers relocated to Manila. Eventually, the Japanese came there too, and captured them. They discovered in the Covell’s belongings a small portable radio which they were convinced was a secret communications device.

The Covells were tried as spies and beheaded.

Peggy, who had been living in the states, did not learn of their fate until near the end of the war. At first, she was filled with bitter hatred for the Japanese. Then, as she thought of her parents and the sacrificial service they had given to bring the gospel to that nation, she became convinced that they would have forgiven their captors before they were executed.

She would have to do the same.

Fuchida was greatly affected by her story. “This beautiful story overwhelmed me and made me ashamed,” he reflected. He had come to Uraga with hate in his heart. What he found was goodness that he could scarcely comprehend.

He began talking to every POW who had known Margaret “Peggy” Covell. In time, he found the members of the military who had executed her parents. What he wanted to know, Fuchida asked, was what exactly the Covells had said or prayed before they were beheaded.

The Japanese considered revenge a beautiful moral. A man captured and awaiting death never forgave his captors. He prayed to be born again seven times, and to exact revenge in each life. And his sons and daughters to avenge him. The Japanese word for revenge, ‘katakiuchi,’ means literally ‘attack enemy.’ Steeped in Japanese history and culture, Fuchida fervently believed in the principle of ‘katakiuchi.’ Now he heard a story of unjust suffering and death, and a daughter left to continue the bloodline. But the tale featured no vow of vengeance from either the dying or the survivor.

In time, as Fuchida began reading the Bible, he came upon the 23rd chapter of Luke’s Gospel. There he found his answer. Hanging on the cross, as Jesus’ life was ebbing away, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24).

Surely these words were the source of the love that . . . Peggy Covell had shown. It came to Fuchida that, as they knelt to die, Peggy’s parents had prayed just such words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Tears sprang to Fuchida’s eyes; he had reached the end of his “long, long, wondering.”

By the time he had finished reading Luke, Mitsuo Fuchida recognized Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. At this time, he had no Christian friends, no one to help him; no one to share his new experience.

God sent Fuchida an angel: one of the Doolittle Raiders.

After the April 18, 1942, bombing of Tokyo, Jacob DeShazer and his crew had to bail out over China due to a malfunctioning plane. There they were captured and sent to Shanghai. Three officers were executed; the others spent the duration of the war in prison camps in China. Beatings and starvations were commonplace.

As DeShazer reflected on his hatred of his captors, it almost drove him crazy. Little by little, he began thinking about the source of so much hatred in the world. That’s when he remembered truths taught by his Christian parents years earlier. One day, he was given the use of a Bible for a short time. In that prison camp, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and promised to return to Japan as a missionary.

Sometime in October 1948, in downtown Tokyo, Mitsuo Fuchida was handed a leaflet by an American man. “I was a prisoner of Japan” was the heading. The four pages, written by Jacob DeShazer, whetted Fuchida’s appetite. Eventually, he located a full-length book DeShazer had written and devoured its contents.

The former Japanese pilot was impressed by the force of DeShazer’s testimony. In time, Fuchida and DeShazer became friends and the former Doolittle Raider helped him learn to stand before crowds and give his story. DeShazer told him that until the day they met, he had concluded that his Japanese ministry had been a failure. In fact, the day the two ex-warriors connected, DeShazer was in the middle of a fasting and prayer vigil during which he was pleading with God to send some evidence that He was using their work. Fuchida was the answer.

Mitsuo Fuchida died in 1976. For the final 25 years of his life, he told crowds all over the world of Jesus Christ who had protected his life and sought him out and saved him. Large numbers of people, especially in Japan, turned to Christ as a result.

Anyone familiar with how these things work will not be surprised to learn that as soon as news of his conversion spread, religious and political groups tried to get a hand-hold on his life and use him for their purposes. Two stories in particular are interesting.

The Catholic Church of Japan tried to get him to join their church. They would help him write his story and he would make much money for their causes. It took this Samurai only a short time to see through this. He was turned off by the wealthy, showy displays of the church’s elaborate and ornate cathedrals at a time when the Japanese people were starving.

The Communists wanted to use him. They recognized that with his great fame in that country, he would be an important spokesman. When the leader of the Japanese communists invited him to investigate Lenin-Marxism to see for himself, Fuchida answered:

I acknowledge your most cordial letter. As you have surmised, this is my first step in searching the Bible. In my forty-seven years of life, I have learned that a dose of hydrocyanic acid, if taken internally, will lead to death, yet I have never seen this poison. Therefore, I have not the faintest idea of its form, color, or odor. But if someone should hand me this deadly poison, it would be ridiculous for me to experiment by taking it just to see if it was poison or not! To me, Lenin-Marxism is like hydrocyanic acid. Thank you.

What a privilege to be serving on the same team as this champion warrior. How I wish I had paid better attention in 1964 when he visited New Orleans. But then, I shall see him again . . . and the questions I plan to ask him then!

This article was posted earlier from joemckeever.com, and is reposted here by permission of the author.