If Alabama Baptists want to “reach more in ’24,” we need to do less talking, open our eyes to the lostness in our communities and “commence going,” said Rob Jackson, director of the Office of Church Health for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Jackson explained the importance of doing these things during the 2024 Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference at First Baptist Church Pelham, Jan. 28–29.
Preaching from John 4: 31–38, he noted how the disciples had lost their focus on trivial things, such as food, and were not seeing the spiritual needs before them.
‘Stop talking’
“If want to reach more in 24, we’ve got to stop talking,” Jackson said. “I wonder if yours and my life as ministers, as leaders, as church members, as Christians, sometimes we need to stop talking, stop focusing on the things on this earth … of the things that are perishing and going away.
“I’ve been to churches, and so have you, that we argue about some of the most trivial things.”
While all of us would say that evangelism is important, Jackson noted, too often we just “talk the talk,” without walking the walk.
“Perhaps we need to evaluate our lives,” he noted. “When is the last time we’ve had the joy of leading someone to faith in Jesus Christ.” He added how Christians don’t typically “drift toward evangelism, we drift away from it.”
‘Open our eyes’
Not only must church leaders stop talking, Jackson said, they need to open their eyes.
“[The disciples] were focused about food and focusing on Jesus. And He said, ‘Look up at what’s coming. Open your eyes.’”
“We need to have God’s Holy Spirit to open your eyes and my eyes,” he noted. “Apart from Him touching my heart, apart from Him opening my eyes, I will always just dwell in the flesh. But I need to be praying and you need to be praying.”
Pointing to Ephesians 1, Jackson noted, Paul prayed “open the eyes of their heart that they may see the hope of their calling, the surprising riches that await them, their passing greatness of the power available to us who believe, the same power that raised Christ and the dead.”
He added, “Are you praying ‘Lord, open my eyes so I can see?’ Open your eyes so that you can see all around you. Around your church there are people lost without Jesus Christ. All around us there are people crying. There are more people, I believe, who want to hear about Jesus Christ. Open our eyes, Lord, so we can see.”
‘Commence going’
“We must commence going,” urged Jackson, who emphasized how today’s churches are putting their hope in —and too often fighting for — the wrong things. “…Our nation is so divided. It breaks my heart, but there is only one person that has the answer and He’s Jesus Christ. It’s not a political party. If you’re basing your hope on a political party, then you are just spitting in the wind.
“Jesus Christ has given us this Great Commission to go, because of the authority, go make disciples of all the nations. We must individually commence going.”
He noted, “If we don’t do it as leaders, our churches are not going to follow. They will not. Even though we preach it from the pulpit, if we’re not doing it, they aren’t going to follow.”
Jackson shared about one church that focused on four things that helped impact their community for Christ. First, they focused on prayer for lost men and women. Second, they looked for strategic ways to go out and reach their community for Jesus Christ. Third, they held a special baptism day and saw many come to Christ during a two-hour service.
“Guess what happened, God started moving. Who gets the glory? God, gets the glory.”
Jackson added, “Some of us here need to repent and stop talking about it. Some of us need God to open our eyes and see the fields are white unto harvest. God open my eyes. I want to be that laborer … May we all say, ‘Dear God, I’m surrendering to you today — and I want to reach more in ’24.’”
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