In a voice-raising, podium-slamming, crowd-pleasing moment James Merritt set the tone for the June 11–12 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo.
Merritt, outgoing SBC president during his address to the convention, called ministers and laypeople to be “faithful to the fight” and announced to all who would listen that Southern Baptists are here for the long haul.
“Christianity is not for the faint of heart. There is no place for conscientious objectors in the kingdom of God,” Merritt said. “When you come to Jesus, He does not invite you to a picnic. He calls you to a fight.”
The three foes of Christians — the world, the flesh and the devil — don’t fight fair, don’t fight clean, don’t accept cease-fires and don’t sign peace treaties, Merritt exclaimed. “If you don’t believe there is a war going on right now with these three foes, just pick up your newspaper, turn on your television, listen to your radio or attend a Southern Baptist Convention.”
Merritt acknowledged that certain groups (particularly gay rights activists) protest the annual meetings of the SBC every year, stating that they will not go away. “Well, I’ve got news for the pornographer, the adulterer, the homosexual, the pedophile and the abortionist. We are not going away either,” Merritt said, drawing a standing ovation.
‘Standing up for the truth’
“With love in our hearts, tears in our eyes, but resolve in our souls, we are not going to march under the white flag of compromise,” he said. “We’re going to march under the bloodstained banner of the cross of Jesus Christ. Flying the flag of biblical truth higher than we have flown it before, we will never give out, never give up and never give in when it comes to standing up for the truth of the Word of God.”
Merritt’s concern for moral issues affecting Christians in America emerged in other forms throughout the two-day meeting as speaker after speaker echoed his message.
“Something terrible is happening to families in America,” said Tom Elliff, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Okla.
Citing a number of examples of family crises, Elliff said statistics indicate 88 percent of the children who grow up in evangelical churches leave the church by age 18. He listed pornography, financial struggles and lack of meaningful conversation between parents and children as other problems plaguing the family.
A divorce rate among church members similar to that of unchurched people is another sign of family crisis, Elliff noted. He said the number of divorces
in the nation impacts an estimated 1 million children a year.
“It’s time for us to save the family,” Elliff told messengers during the SBC Executive Committee’s Council on Family Life report. “It’s time to build kingdom families. Let’s come home to the heart of God.”
That can be accomplished, he said, through a strategy to be unveiled next year. He described it as “a simple and time-honored ministry for virtually divorce-proofing the families in your church.”
Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said cloning is the most critical issue of the day.
“At stake is whether man will be as God created him or will we allow man to play God … and clone humans for profit,” Land said during his agency’s report. “We are whistling past the graveyard if we don’t think God is going to rain judgment on a civilization that allows an abomination like that.”
Speakers providing the theme interpretations for “The Highest Power for the Greatest Task” also challenged Southern Baptists to be faithful in proclaiming Christ.
Alabama evangelist Junior Hill pleaded with messengers to proclaim the cross of Christ unashamedly. He described a church near his home that allowed another faith group to use its facilities. While using the sanctuary, the other group covered a prominent cross with a white drape.
“The twin gods of political correctness and religious pluralism seek to cover the cross so as not to offend the secular world,” Hill said, “But I am not ashamed of the cross!”
Bob White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said the church began with boldness but has become powerless and needs to reclaim its heritage of bold preaching.
Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 call believers to share the gospel boldly, White said, postulating that if the church had been more focused on evangelism, the world would be Christian and the events of Sept. 11 would not have happened.
Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., said the world may hurt believers but cannot harm them. “It is better to suffer pain living for Jesus than pleasure living for the devil.”
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., put a twist on the theme, saying, “You only get the highest power when you do the greatest task.”
“First, we must adopt God’s agenda,” Warren said, “to build His Kingdom, a family of redeemed individuals from every nation.
“If you want God’s anointing on your life, you must care about what God cares about most, the redemption of lost people. He wants His lost children found.”
Afghan captives
SBC leaders and program personalities also emphasized missions and evangelism throughout the annual meeting.
Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, relief workers imprisoned in Afghanistan for three months by the Taliban, urged Southern Baptists to spread the gospel faithfully, even though “it might cost you everything.”
“I realized that God was just looking for anyone who was willing to go,” she added.
That led her to shed tears of burden and conviction for people without Christ, Curry said.
“I realized those weren’t my tears, but those were God’s tears. His heart breaks for those every day who have not had a chance to hear.”
When she served among impoverished mothers and children in Afghanistan, Curry said she frequently was asked, “Why did you leave your great, rich America and come to our poor country?”
“It was easy to share about our faith; it was so natural,” she said. “It was awesome to be able to say, ‘Because God loves you; he loves the Afghan people.’”
Mercer said amid the uncertainty and fear during 105 days in captivity, “I found myself wrestling with God. I asked God, ‘Why do we have to be in prison?’”
Reaching the point where she was willing to sacrifice her life to advance God’s Kingdom, Mercer noted: “It might cost everything to see the people of Afghanistan come to know Jesus. It might cost the church of Jesus Christ to see his church established around the earth.”
Spreading the gospel no matter the cost provided International Mission Board (IMB) President Jerry Rankin the backdrop for his surprise guest during the IMB report.
Rankin reminded messengers that last year he had asked them to pray for a pastor in China who had been wrongly imprisoned.
The New Orleans convention implored God for the release of Pastor Yun. Soon after last year’s annual meeting, the pastor was “miraculously released,” Rankin said.
Then he introduced the pastor, who addressed messengers via video and then in person.
Yun reported he had been beaten and treated unfairly but praised God for his release. He then led messengers in prayer, speaking in his native tongue.
During 2001, more than 34,000 volunteers and 1,155 new missionaries joined 5,100 long-term overseas workers, Rankin noted.
Southern Baptist missionaries and their co-workers overseas started 5,775 churches, 33,000 outreach groups and baptized more than 1,000 new believers every day.
On the home front, North American Mission Board (NAMB) President Bob Reccord gave a progress report on the first five years of NAMB’s existence. The original goal of the committee recommending the reorganization, he said, was that in the first five years it would save $34 million more than what would have been spent if the previous organizations had remained in place.
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