By Neisha Fuson
The Alabama Baptist
I’m not fussing; I’m just fussing,” Charles T. Carter joked with messengers attending the Tuesday afternoon session of the state convention annual meeting in Mobile.
But in developing part two of Alabama Baptists’ mantra — One mission, the Great Commission; one program, the Cooperative Program; and many ministries, Great Commission Ministries — Carter had a serious message to deliver.
Using 1 Corinthians 3:1–9 as his text, Carter, pastor emeritus of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, and a James H. Chapman fellow of pastoral ministry at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, emphasized sharing and giving.
He said there are conditions that require Southern Baptists to make a difference and challenges to Southern Baptists to make a difference.
The conditions are numerous, including more people in the world, more knowledge, more mental pollution (like pornography), more lost people and more selfishness.
Selfishness, Carter said, finds a foothold both nationally and denominationally.
Nationally, members of Protestant churches in the United States gave only 2.38 percent of their income to churches in 2009 — the lowest percentage in at least 41 years.
Denominationally, Southern Baptists agree on the need to witness to the lost and disciple new believers but have given proportionally less each year to the Cooperative Program since the Conservative Resurgence, from 11 percent in the 1980s to only 5.8 percent in 2008. “That’s hypocritical,” Carter said.
The challenges to Southern Baptists include making disciples, found in Matthew 28:19–20, and making disciples in the way Jesus said to make disciples, Carter said, noting 1 Corinthians 3.
There are three focus areas: global, local and personal, he explained.
- Global — praying for international missionaries, supporting missionaries financially and going to international locations to share God’s Word while working with local believers.
On a missions trip to seven cities in the Soviet Union, Carter said 5,857 accepted Christ and were born into God’s family but not because he was speaking. It was because they were hungry for the gospel and someone came to share it.
“[Christians involved in the trip] did together what we could not do apart,” Carter noted.
- Local — giving and serving in Alabama Baptist life, exemplified after the April 27 tornadoes.
- Personal — telling individuals in personal circles of influence about Jesus Christ.
Carter shared his testimony of how as a 6-year-old boy, his 16-year-old neighbor had found Christ while visiting a church in Georgia.
She returned home to Alabama and asked his parents’ permission to take him with her to a local church.
She shared her faith in a loving and tangible way and gave of her time and Aug. 15, 1943, Carter accepted Christ.
“Tell someone about Jesus,” Carter said, noting it was because believers shared with the young neighbor who then shared with him that he found Christ. It was a “together” experience, he said.
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