Gps?

I'm a Southern Baptist.

 

Does this explain the little packet I found on my doorknob today?

It was from the large SBC church here in town. It was just like the ones I've seen elsware hear lately.

I'm Baptist but not the "Southern Baptist" denom.

(I know they say they arent a denom, but...c'mon.:smilewinkgrin

The packet was good. It was like a tract...with some extras added.

I hope the SBC has great success with this strategy.

 

Here in Kentucky we are calling it Find it here (www.findithere.com )... Supposedly every church in the state association is participating with the exception of two local associations who will be covered by 'missionary' teams.

I

 

I hadn't heard about it. I don't know if our pastor has or not.

I checked out the site. I like the plan and what all it has to say. I doubt our church will be a part of it, at least not for a while. Our pastor is working on building a biblical foundation within the congregation; to say that most are babes in Christ would be an understatement. We have a lot of very old members who are still in diapers spiritually, and that trend continues on down through the various age groups.

 

You know the Western Recorder,, I'm on their facebook, and apparently churches have been reporting slavations so far with the find it here.

 

we had a lot of this at our old church, people who were christians 40 years and stil living in the first year. I wondered how often this happens, I guess it does.

 

Thats cool Donna...


As for 'babes in christ' or ever how your comfortable wording it.. I think the modern churches have totaly failed at Making Disciples. I find my biblical knowledge and my Christian walk lacking in so many ways its painful, but most in my church regard me as one of the A#1 Bible Guys. Its scary, especially when you consider most have them have claimed faith longer than I have been alive, quite a few of them longer than my mother and father have been alive.

 

Doing what?

 

Jon-Marc..

Click the "GPS" link provided in the opening post.

*Hint*...its in the text. :wavey:

 

We don't usually use SBC programs like this. It is strange because the last I had heard they were using Faith or NET or something like that.

The whole constant change in the SBC evangelism program has been disconcerting to say the least.

We use our own program that integrates principles and lessons from Just Walk Across the Room with what to do once you made it to the other side.

 

It wouldn't let me see whatever it is. I was told my media player is outdated. I don't see why that should matter.

 

Jon-Mark...

Hmmm. That is weird. I dont know why that would matter, either.

Here is some text that explains what is going on...




GPS rally cry will unite Southern Baptists around Great Commission


Posted on May 5, 2009 | by Geoff Hammond
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--When the North American Mission Board began discussing a new denomination-wide evangelism initiative with our state and local partners back in 2006, we had no idea what the world would be like in the days leading up to the launch of the emphasis. Back in 2006, jobs were plentiful, credit was flowing, mortgages were easy to get and the bull market seemed like it would never end.

What a difference three years can make. Today we live in a world of uncertainty. Corporate icons have been toppled. State and local governments are grappling with severe budget shortfalls. Homeowners who once thought return on their investment was a guarantee are learning otherwise. And government leaders are faced with a mounting national debt that may take generations to retire.

I don't believe it's just by mere chance or coincidence that all of these realities are playing out before our eyes simultaneously. I truly believe God is giving Southern Baptists an opportunity to step into the darkness and uncertainty of these times with the light of the Gospel. That light will grow brighter as individual Christians, churches, associations and state conventions re-commitment to sowing down the Gospel neighbor by neighbor and community by community.

There's no doubt in my mind that God was orchestrating events three years ago when NAMB prayerfully started working with its partners to develop GPS ("God's Plan for Sharing") for its 2010 launch. God knew the economic turmoil and uncertainty we would be facing. Of course, these events have impacted Southern Baptists as well. Many of our church members are losing jobs and livelihoods. Some churches have cut back on ministries and staff positions. Our state convention partners are getting by on less, and some have cut staff and initiatives. I've directed our staff at NAMB to cut spending by 10 percent although we are still commissioning missionaries and have maintained our commitment to all of our missionaries and mission partners.

Our convention faces tough decisions about priorities in times like these. Do we curtail missions, evangelism and church planting efforts geared toward reaching the three out of four lost people living in North America? Do we allow, as I have said before, this economic recession to become an evangelism recession? I pray we do not and I don't believe Southern Baptists will allow that to happen.

Recently, in preparation for the 2010 launch of GPS, NAMB partnered with state conventions and associations in Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania and California to conduct evangelistic outreaches in those states. These efforts included radio, television, print, outdoor and Internet advertising, but most importantly they involved individual churches and individual Southern Baptists reaching their neighbors for Christ. The results were encouraging.

In Philadelphia, an estimated 90,000 homes were touched with the Gospel. Vietnamese, Anglo, Russian, Haitian churches and more all joined arms in reaching out to their communities in this effort. The results were almost immediate. Two women in one neighborhood where a church had been distributing Gospel brochures walked into the church and gloriously accepted Christ that day!

In Lubbock, director of missions Ed Sena of the Lubbock Area Baptist Association wrote this: "I was moved to tears when I learned that a 94-year-old saint took her walker and distributed Gospel literature in her neighborhood. In addition, a young mother had her 4-year-old assist her in leaving a Gospel presentation on neighborhood doorknobs. From ages 4 to 94, it brought great joy to our people to be involved in such a simultaneous effort." About two-thirds of the congregations in the Lubbock association -- more than 75 churches -- were committed to the outreach.

As participants rallied around the Great Commission, churches and individual believers who never before had prayer-walked their neighborhoods or distributed evangelistic brochures took to the streets before Easter in these efforts. We will now evaluate and make adjustments to the initiative before it launches next year. But I believe these pilots prove that Southern Baptists want to and will reach out to their community if given the leadership, resources and impetus for doing so.

NAMB's strength is that it is your strategic missions partner. We don't do anything alone. In fact, the great majority of offering dollars that come to our entity through the Cooperative Program and the annual Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions are returned directly to the mission field through salaries or resources for our missionaries, money for church plants or funding we send to state convention partners for use in their ministry priorities. Many state Baptist conventions in states in the West or in the North receive the majority of their annual budgets through NAMB. And we do it all with efficiency and effectiveness which stacks up impressively when compared to most ministries, charities and nonprofits.

There's an old saying that says, "The light that shines farthest shines brightest nearest home." I believe as Southern Baptists keep the light of the Gospel shining brightly on North America, the result will be a refocusing on the Great Commission throughout our convention. It will naturally happen as we together pray for our neighbors, engage with them, sow the Gospel in their lives and celebrate a harvest that is promised in Scripture. As I interact personally with Southern Baptists throughout North America, I am certain they are ready for such a day.

 

The gospel never changes...... and the commission to carry it and tell it to others never changes. These 'programs' such as GPS, are often a way of reviving the great commission with a current activity which focuses on awareness of the lost in the world and that Jesus said 'so send I you'. I'm for it as it often attracts Christians, whether new babes or old coggers, who have not been involved in personal evangelism in the past. It also helps to return our focus on the impact and the necessity of the gospel of Jesus Christ which has the power to save...... and helps us separate from those personal self indulgences and favorite arguments we are so inclined to get into ......like politics or doctrine disputes.... and keep our focus on Jesus and the message of salvation to the lost around us.

In the past the church has courted the passivity of its membership to agree with the authorities within the church leadership. Often times, the same stories which were taught to pre-school and young children..... were repeated in the adult literature and the preaching. It was like the focus was limited on certain portions of the Bible, which become almost too familiar, and the rest of the Bible was seldom used.

Jesus and the writers of the NT emphasized the gospel but also took care to give importance to the whole word. In fact, in the sermons we have recorded in the Bible, we see very little dwelling, if any mention at all, of the familiar stories of children.... like David and Golliath, or Joseph's jealous brothers and the exile from Egypt, or Jesus and his miracles.

The NT focus is on Jesus is Savior and Lord, and from that point, development of doctrine and Christian conduct. The OT contains far more than beautiful poetry and praise and colorful historic accounts. But the major and lessor prophets are harder to understand and requires more effort to expound upon or make application. The Wisdom or Proverbs, which has much practical application, is repetitive in its themes, and restates itself: and, often the mirror it holds up to us to see our own weaknesses may be such an ugly reflection, when we recongize ourselves in these matters of practical application, that we choose not to hear. A level of difficulty arises in group discussion when our individual conscience is pricked over matters of neglect while so much distraction and attention seems to be demanded of us in this world wherein we dwell.

I think you are right, sad to say.

The world that I lived in 40 and 50 years ago, was a world which had come out of war, wanted to secure itself and live in peace, was tired of the struggles which its generation and elders had participated in, wanted to relax and enjoy life, and considered that the church was alive and well within our own borders and would perpetuate itself without little involvement. :tear

We entertained the spirit of laziness, passive participation and self interest.... in ourselves and tolerated it in our leadership. We heard the evolution message and witnessed the various translations of Bible which had come on the scene, and many were shakened in their faith. Leadership became involved in disputes of inerrancy with various translations, science vs scripture, and social activism. Some in the church had supported the racial intolerances and injustices passed down in their communities rather than take a Biblical view, and the 'mission' of the church seemed to take on the purpose of a closed social club which encouraged the prosperity and recognition of its own within the community but was lazy in its concerns for the great commission and associated opportunities for ministring to the needs or addressing the moral problems within the community. God is love merged with the world view that love is blind.... and tolerance or permissiveness was substituted for mercy and grace. And, after all, social security would take care of retired old people, and government bought commodities, which subsidized farmers, were distributed to feed the poor, so the church took pleasure in its rest and enjoyed the new entertainment of televised occupation of the mind. There was too much to do and too many excuses for not reading the Bible. Besides, the regular feeding of pablum did not develop the spiritual intestinal fortitude to take on and digest the meat. :tear:

We were oblivious to persecutions taking place elsewhere. We were shocked by the dedication of people like Jim Elliot who would take the gospel to an uncivilized group of people who'd never heard of Jesus, and applaud his dedication to Christ as heroism while discouraging our own children from expressing such similar desires for Christian service. :tear:

If someone in the community never visited or opened a conversation without mentioning the name of Jesus....or expressed concerns over the creeping humanistic indoctrination into our universities and schools, or divided their time with their family to lead child evangelism fellowship classes for children who weren't regularly 'churched', even those in the 'Christian' community would point their fingers in judgement of one's areas of personal neglect while doing nothing to lift the burden or give support, and call them 'fanatics' behind their back and question their sanity.:tear:

In so much of what I see in the protestant denominations which used to be great with the message of the gospel..... appears to be dead wood. :tear: For a while I thought the Baptist Church was headed in that direction and I still tremble to think it doesn't take much to turn people back. I just thank God for every message I hear preached or taught which has plenty of scripture and a meat offering with the gospel. I just pray that God keeps the boldness in His people, and the faith and courage to employ the faith, talents and energy in our youth and support their faith in the adventure and direction God has for each.... and prospers us all to be lively stones for the building of his kingdom.

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Course, something can be said for a few of the very old and infirm, with long years living in the grace of the Lord.... some might have been great in their depth of faith and understanding and application of scripture.... but now are too feeble in mind to exercise the fullness in imparting to others the things they once knew and shared, and limited in their ability to comprehend or cope with the problems of today. But, there may be others who are so proud of what they have done.... not realizing their part in discouraging others from advancing forward so they could remain on top.