Combine a little bit of nostalgia, a steady flow of neck hugs from old family friends and a whole lot of passion “to seek and to save;” toss in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president and mix until Alabama Baptists are ready to “do all you can, with what you have, where you are — now.”
This recipe for winning the world to Christ is what Alabama native Bobby Welch laid out for Baptists in DeKalb Association when his 25-day bus tour pulled into his hometown of Fort Payne Sept. 8.
“The church has failed the people,” said Welch, who was elected SBC president in June. “We have drawn back to protect ourselves when all the time we are supposed to be in the bridge-building business. Instead we have gone into the fort-building business.
“But Southern Baptists are going to do better,” he told 200 area Baptists gathered at First Baptist Church, Fort Payne, for the 23rd of his 70 stops.
Welch — who was baptized, married, called to preach and ordained at First, Fort Payne — is challenging Southern Baptists to baptize 1 million people between the 2005 SBC annual meeting in Nashville and the 2006 annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C.
To accomplish this feat, Welch is asking every person he meets along the 20,000 miles he will travel through Oct. 7 to do six things as part of his “Everyone Can” Kingdom Challenge campaign.
1. Train and equip — learn how to share Christ and to reach others through classes offered by the local church.
2. Witness and win — participate in ministry and evangelism visitation efforts provided through the local church.
3. Baptize — help another believer follow Christ in baptism.
4. Stewardship — learn and apply the biblical teachings of stewardship.
5. Vacation Bible School — be involved in VBS in the local church.
6. Start new units — encourage new Sunday School classes to form.
“When we do these six things we are going to have an onslaught of people and will be looking for somewhere to put them,” said Welch, who noted that the plan allows for each person and each church to accomplish these items however it works best for them.
The only parameter set is for the challenge to be met by June 2006 in Greensboro, N.C., he explained. “It’s all about unity of purpose.”
Welch, who just celebrated his 30th anniversary as pastor of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla., used a video clip of the world at war, reminisced about his feelings during the 9/11 terrorist acts and noted Psalm 142 as biblical guidance.
“The devil is not a sleeping yard dog. … He is a roaring lion, the arch terrorist of our soul,” Welch emphasized. “He wants to rip apart our homes and drag [our families] off to the pit of hell and burn them forever and ever.”
While culture says the church is an endangered species about to become extinct, Welch plans to refocus Southern Baptists and get them back on track. “We have the muscle to do it right now but we are suffering from atrophy; we aren’t working together.”
He said the bus tour would help bring Baptists together.
The purpose of the tour is to connect with the many different kinds of churches, to connect with large numbers of people and to encourage and prepare Southern Baptists for the 2005 annual meeting where the “Everyone Can” Kingdom Challenge will be launched, he said.
“When I speak (at the annual meeting), I will speak in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb,” he said. “I will tell them that I got on a bus and went to every state and into Canada … and I found that there is a people in the land ready to claim and take the harvest.”
Welch said he also plans to say, “I’ve inhaled the voice of this convention. I am their voice. There are tens of thousands of Southern Baptists saying the time is now … to claim this land for the glory of God.”
Part of claiming the land requires individual churches to reach out in their communities, so along with his words of encouragement and exhortation, Welch partnered with Fort Payne Baptists to orchestrate a massive visitation Sept. 8.
Early numbers from the church indicated 35 teams of three people each made about 30 contacts overall and at least two people professed faith in Christ.
Welch bus and media coordinator Jason Leschitz said the results and people attending the events varied drastically across the nation but that the same scenario was played out at each stop.
In fact, Welch had stories of lives being changed from almost every city along the tour.
Pat McFadden, pastor of First, Fort Payne, said Welch’s unique approach to the SBC president’s role “will encourage us to stay focused on the main thing — winning and making disciples.”
“I respect him very much,” McFadden said. “As far as I can recall he is the only SBC president to do something like this in an effort to emphasize reaching the lost.”
While Welch’s visit was as much a homecoming as it was a visit from the convention’s top leader, his presentation motivated members of First, Fort Payne, to stay consistent in their efforts to reach the community, McFadden explained.
It also encouraged some first-timers to go out on visitation and return excited about going again, he added.
“The action is on the street,” Welch said. “That’s where the people are.”
And that’s where Welch plans to shock the world with what Southern Baptists can and will do.
He said traveling on the bus tour across the nation in such a small amount of time allows him the opportunity to prove he is making a sacrifice.
“[The people] have to know that I’m out of my comfort zone, so I can earn the right to ask them to move out of their comfort zone and (explore faith in Christ).”
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