Will We Reach the World for Christ?

In 2011, Christianity Today reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey interviewed Billy Graham. She asked, “What are the most important issues facing evangelicals today?” Billy Graham responded:

“The most important issue we face today is the same issue the church has faced in every century: WILL WE REACH THE WORLD FOR CHRIST? In other words, will we give priority to Christ’s command to go into all the world and preach the gospel?”¹

Unquestionably, this issue is looming not only among evangelicals, but especially before the Southern Baptist Convention.

Simplifying Our Task

We need to once again simplify our task for each of us personally, for our churches, and for our Southern Baptist Convention. In order to simplify the task, we need to raise up the key question, which is, “Will we reach the world for Christ?”

In our complex world with all sorts of noise going on in our lives, we need to dismiss our attraction to controversies and argumentative discussions. We need to ask our churches continually, “Will we reach the world for Christ?”

With all the good things we do within our own Southern Baptist Convention, we must never neglect the best and highest thing; will we reach the world for Christ? I believe we know this is our mandate, and I also believe that it is the desire most of us have; yet, at times, it gets lost in the maze of many good things.

3 Steps to Reaching the World for Christ

1. Prioritize the vision to reach the world for Christ. It is not an option, but a necessity to see it raised up as our ultimate priority. Everything else we do personally, in our churches, and in our convention must contribute to this mission that God has placed upon each of us.

2. Finance the vision to reach the world for Christ. We must move away from stewardship practices that do not move more and more monies to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This must occur within the lives of all Christ-followers personally, in our churches, and in our Southern Baptist Convention. Our stewardship problems begin in the lives of each Christ follower. Therefore, we must begin to change there! Then, it must occur in our churches and in our convention. Since the preaching of the gospel to the world is a necessity for the world to be reached for Christ, more and more monies must find their way toward insuring this vision is fulfilled.

3. Enlarge our vision to reach the world for Christ. It is sad when we do not have the vision to see our part in reaching the world for Christ. We must not only see our part personally in reaching the world, but each church must discover our part in reaching the world for Christ. As a Southern Baptist Convention, God has placed us strategically in this vision in order to make a major difference across the world.

With our 10,000 plus missionaries strategically placed around the world and many others ready to go, we must find a way to see not only our vision enlarged, but our missionary force enlarged to reach the world for Christ. To see this vision reached will take more and more money given by each of us individually and all of our churches.

In closing…

For the last several years, I have become convinced that I want to give the rest of my life influencing and investing in others to reach the world for Christ. I know I cannot do it by myself. I know our church cannot do it by ourselves. We need each other. Therefore, anytime, anywhere we can, we must influence others and invest in others to reach the world for Christ.

Billy Graham was right in the interview noted earlier. We can talk about all kinds of things, but we must lift this question high forever and ever to today’s generation: Will we reach the world for Christ?

Yours for the Great Commission,

Ronnie W. Floyd

¹ The Great Evangelical Recession, p.119, John Dickerson, author