Page 4 - BKI 15 Years 2003-2018

Great is Thy Faithfulness
Faithful is He by Tom Watson

who calls you,

and He also As we complete our 15th year of ministry, our number one goal remains the same, “To
glorify our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by the willingness to take the gospel to all
will bring it to creation.” Our desires should be the same as our heavenly Father “who desires all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
pass.
There are far more people born into this world than those who are born again. The
Pew Research center reports that Christians have declined sharply as a share of the
1 Thessalonians 5:24 population here in the United States and it appears that part of the problem lies within
Evangelicalism itself.

When pollster George Barna asked conservative pastors how they measured personal success, the top fi ve answers
were 1) numbers, 2) giving, 3) number of programs, 4) number of staff and 5) the square footage of the facility. If that is
the criteria for success, then Roman Catholicism, Mormonism and the proponents of the Health and Wealth gospel, to
mention a few, must be deemed very successful. One needs to ask, “What about the Great Commission and the inward
conviction of personal evangelism?”

Some time ago, I sent a letter to all who remain in my high school graduation class explaining the need for salvation.
Someone said that was a good idea. It was not a good idea but a conviction coming from the Word of God. If you want
a good idea, get on the internet, go to a Christian bookstore, attend a conference or get on the mailing list of a popular
ministry. If you want a conviction to share the gospel, prayerfully go to the Scriptures and ask the Lord to burden your
heart for the souls of men.

Hudson Taylor would never have left the European
Continent with just a good idea. He was convicted
that while his church was hearing the gospel
weekly, there were millions in China dying without
hearing it once. Mission EURASIA reports of the
7.38 billion people in the world 3.12 billion
have no church or gospel witness in their part
of the world.

With success so high on the agenda today, churches
must guard against the church itself becoming the
“peck-measure” under which it hides its light. Last
year we visited a church that had 21 programs
listed in the bulletin, but not one of them had
to do with personal evangelism. I just received
a publication that listed ten characteristics of an Our first evangelistic outreach by boat on the
eff ective church and not one of them emphasized Yenisey River
the need of evangelism. Perhaps what we deem so
successful and eff ective is not so with God. We often object to evangelism without follow-up and discipleship, but do
we object to discipleship that does not result in personal evangelism? Discipleship, as we see it in the New Testament,
moves believers out of their comfort zone, into a world that is in need of the Savior. Church leaders have become experts
at keeping people in their self-confi ned comfort zone with buildings and programs while the world around them knows
not the Savior.

Jesus began His discipleship by telling two fi shermen, “Follow Me and I will make you fi shers of men.” He ended His
discipleship right before His ascension by saying to the disciples, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to
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