Leaders from more than 250 Southern Baptist associations across the country joined a simulcast Jan. 31 previewing the “Who’s Your One?” evangelism initiative. Yates Baptist Association hosted the live event at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Durham, N.C.
Marty Childers, Yates’ director of missions, said he hopes the initiative will “wake us up as a church and help us to see that lostness is real” and remind Southern Baptists of the mission God gave “to seek and save the lost.”
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Photo by Rob Laughter, The Summit Church J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, shared a preview of the Who’s Your One? evangelism initiative he and the North American Mission Board will launch Feb. 20. |
Southern Baptist Convention president J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, introduced the initiative, which will launch Feb 20. Greear explained three convictions on which the strategy is built. First, he said, the core of Baptists’ commission is to spread the gospel and make disciples.
“There are a lot of important things we can get involved in, but none of them should ever compete with the one essential thing that we absolutely must be involved in, and that is seeing people bring other people to faith in Jesus Christ,” Greear said.
He continued by explaining how ordinary people, not pastors, associational strategists or state convention staff, “are the tip of the gospel spear” and serve as channels of the greatest work of evangelism.
The third conviction is to equip people to reach others outside of church. Greear emphasized the necessity of relationships in earning credibility to preach the gospel into other people’s lives in everyday contexts.
Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), introduced a recorded video of Johnny Hunt, NAMB’s senior vice president of evangelism and leadership, explaining the resources available to churches that want to participate.
Churches can request to receive a free “Who’s Your One?” kit that includes an implementation guide, 30-day prayer guide, graphics, posters, bulletin inserts and sermons by Greear and Hunt. Sermon guides and transcripts, as well as presentation slides are also included. Kits will be sent mid-February, but the implementation and prayer guides are available immediately at whosyourone.com.
Hunt highlighted the importance of prayer for the initiative. “We need more than resources,” he said. “We need a passion and a heart for evangelism. You can be equipped but not really have Christ’s heart for the lost.”
At Ridgecrest, Childers closed the event by leading local pastors in committing to pray for their own “one.”