As a fellow Southern Baptist, I obviously have conflicting feelings on the matter, but I would say that we should have that attitude of Expecting Great Things From God and Attempting Great Things for God (William Carey anybody?). We ought to be expecting God to bring in the Bacon cause Christ is the Church's husband and He will provide, just as was so eloquintly and inspirationally shown in George Mueller's life and others, as it is being shown in work such as that being done by the House Churches in S. E. Asia, but that in no way means we can sit on our buts like Hyper-Calvinist and not go out and tell people and get people involved. I'll take the SBC party line this once and say that if we believe that we are the church closest to New Testament theology and practice then it is only logical that we get people to come to our church and barring that for some reason then we make certain they get involved with some other Bible believing church.

I do notice that we use the analogy of the Shepard for Pastors, and the Flock as the church body, and let me point out to you that part of the shepard's duty is to count at the end of his shift and make certain that none have been stolen away. " What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." (Matthew 18:12-13 (RSV)). Sounds like having a full body who functions one member fit and joined together with another is pretty important to the smooth running of the church.

As our dear former pastor said on many occaisions, If it is a New Testament Church, founded on Christ and the Word (the Bible) then even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, but if it fails, then somewhere along the way it has become something other than a New Testament Church.


Think of evangelism like you think of prayer, God ordained it, you willingly do it, and if you pray according to the Father's will, He uses your prayers as a means to accomplish His will, and you get to be a part of God's work. God has ordained that we evangelize the world, teaching and making disciples etc, and He has also ordained the number which is to be added daily to the church.

Preach the Word . . . sometimes it'll be in season, sometimes not, sometimes the flock is bigger, sometimes not, but you shepard just the same cause the sheep belong to your employer.

-Bro. Luke