— President’s Address —
The starting point for Southern Baptists is not the Great Commission, but “falling in love with Jesus once again,” Bryant Wright told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting June 14 in the annual president’s address.
Wright, president of the SBC and pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., likened Southern Baptists to the New Testament church of Ephesus that Jesus rebuked for having abandoned its first love.
Taking his text from Revelation 2:1–7, Wright noted that Christ began his message to the Ephesian church with words of commendation — and Wright acknowledged that Southern Baptists are doing thousands of good things at home and around the world.
But he continued, “We can even let good things cause us to leave our first love — our families, our work, even our ministry. I believe the major temptation for anyone who serves in Christian ministry is to begin to confuse their ministry with their relationship to Jesus Christ.” Wright pointed out that Christ told the church at Ephesus to do three things to reclaim their first love: remember, repent and then repeat what they did in their “honeymoon” days.
“When we begin to love the Lord, we will begin to love the lost,” Wright proclaimed.
“The Southern Baptist Convention was founded on two key issues — one was good and one was bad,” Wright said. “We were founded in defense of slavery. We finally apologized, but it was 150 years late. The good thing was the spread of the gospel. The Great Commission is the reason we were formed as a convention of churches.” Wright pointed out that the International Mission Board (IMB) has identified 3,800 “unreached and unengaged” people groups that, as far as researchers know, have no church, no mission ministry, no witness for Christ. He challenged Southern Baptists to reclaim their first love by taking the gospel to those people groups. “There is no reason why Southern Baptists cannot adopt every one of those 3,800 people groups,” Wright said. “Churches of all sizes can be a part of this effort. Churches can partner together.”
Wright recalled a conversation with Tom Elliff, president of the IMB, in which they discovered their hearts were in complete agreement about mobilizing churches to reach the remaining unreached and unengaged people groups. “We have to make a decision. Our decision is to be a part of God’s Kingdom business or be on the sidelines,” Wright said. “With all of our resources and with all 45,000 churches, there is no reason why we cannot have a sufficient number of churches to step forward and embrace every one of the unengaged and unreached people groups.”
Wright reminded the audience that Christ warned the church at Ephesus their “lampstand would be removed” if they did not appropriately respond to the challenge placed before them. “If Southern Baptists do not respond to the challenge God has given us to reach the world, we risk having our lampstand removed,” Wright declared.
“We need to repent and get our priorities right,” Wright said. “Are we going to be on the front lines of ministry or are we going to be on the sidelines? God is going to find someone who is willing, and if we are not faithful to obey His Word, our lampstand will be removed. There is nothing sacred about the Southern Baptist Convention [if] the Southern Baptist Convention refuses to follow the will of God.” (BP)
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