- Baptist Press - https://www.baptistpress.com -

20,000 ‘force multipliers’ needed, FAITH pastors told

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ST. LOUIS (BP)–Reminiscent of an old-time revival meeting, hundreds of people went forward and accepted the challenge to be FAITH force multipliers and go forward as even more committed soul-winners for Christ.

Meeting during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in St. Louis, more than 500 pastors and others representing churches that have been participating in the FAITH Sunday school evangelism strategy attended a luncheon June 11 sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources of the SBC.

Gene Mims, president of LifeWay’s church resources division, told the guests, “We have to multiply ourselves.”

Using the military analogy of the force multipliers, Mims said the FAITH pastors must use the same strategy of having a small group of trained, committed Christians invest themselves in training others to do the work of the gospel.

Mims challenged every FAITH pastor to enlist five other pastors to begin FAITH at their churches in the next year. “We’d have 20,000 force multipliers involved. That would mean we’d have hundreds of thousands of people who would be winning people to Christ.

“By 2005, with 20,000 FAITH force multipliers,” he said, “we can take this country back.

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“There are people out there who don’t know the Lord. They don’t know they are lost and going to hell. They just don’t know because they haven’t been told.” Mims said that he could understand those who had not accepted Christ because they didn’t know.

“I can even understand that there are people who haven’t accepted Christ because they don’t care that they are going to hell,” he said, adding that those who feel self-sufficient may not see the need for a savior.

“But what I will never understand,” he said, “are the Christians out there who don’t care about the people who are going to hell. I’ll never understand that.”

Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla., and the originator of the FAITH Sunday School evangelism strategy, said, “As far as I am concerned, this is a do or die time in our country.

“I honestly believe if a crowd like you doesn’t take up the challenge [of winning lost people to Christ] that’s facing you today, I think we are done for,” he said.

The secret to success in this or any mission, Welch said, is getting a constant infusion of fresh reinforcements to the front.

“The secret is to infuse this movement with fresh recruits who are ready to lock arms, lock hearts and go out do what God wants us to do,” he said. “Let God open the door to the ministry he has given to you.”
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