by Bill Webb
SAN ANTONIO - California Pastor Rob Zinn bemoaned Southern Baptist baptism statistics and challenged messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting to catch a vision for winning people to Christ.
In the annual convention sermon, Zinn, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, charged that Christians have fallen short of the demands of the Great Commission, and many churches deliberately have chosen not to grow.
"God's never given us the right to vote down what He has called us to do," Zinn declared. "Our commission is to go. There is nothing in the Bible that says you should stay within the four walls (of the church) and the community will come."
He noted the most recent annual baptism total among Southern Baptists was 364,826 - fewer than the year before, despite a challenge for Southern Baptist churches to baptize 1 million people in a year.
"We're in desperate need of revival," Zinn said. "We're in desperate need of the Holy Spirit filling us, our churches and our Convention so we will be what we need to be."
Southern Baptists' biggest barrier to winning people to Christ may be their attitude, Zinn said.
"Why are we baptizing less people? The answer is, 'Our attitudes stink.'"
He suggested churches in the 21st century must learn four attitudes prevalent in the first-century church.
"First, we're going to have to take the Great Commission seriously," Zinn asserted. God took the Great Commission seriously; the devil takes the Great Commission seriously.
"Our problem is our attitude toward the Word of God. When it takes 45 Southern Baptists a full year to baptize one person, we're not serious about it.
Second, Christians must take the Great Commission personally, Zinn said. It is not enough to give money so that people far away can come to Christ. Believers must be active personally in evangelizing their own communities.
"Too many pastors do all their evangelism on Sunday morning," Zinn charged. "We need to make evangelism a lifestyle.
"Pastor, you're going to have to get in your car" and go visit people, he said.
Third, Christians must approach the task of evangelism enthusiastically, Zinn said.
"God said He would go with you and will empower you," he noted, using the Holy Spirit to spark enthusiasm by providing a vision for the task and an attitude of love toward others.
Finally, the believer must approach his task prayerfully, Zinn said. In the early church, "It was prayer that turned fear to boldness. Prayer is where the power comes from."
Prayer is necessary to winning the spiritually lost to Christ, Zinn stressed.
He also called for churches to be flexible in their methodology if they are going to effectively reach out to the younger generation.
"We've got to be willing to sing some of their music if we're going to keep them in our churches."
This generation is hungrier for the gospel than any generation he can remember, Zinn noted, but if Southern Baptists are going to reach people for Christ they must be willing to change their mindset, methodology and ministries.
While churches must never change "the Man (Jesus), the message (the gospel) or the mission," they must be willing to change methods like the kind of music used in worship if they are going to reach a new generation in a changed culture, Zinn stated.
"My heart is bursting for a generation of people that is lost and dying and going to Hell," he said. "It's not about you; it's about (Christ) ... and He loved them all. Let's get them."
(Includes reporting by Mark Kelly.)
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