On Tuesday, June 20 near the 40-year anniversary of a global evangelism meeting that Billy Graham called in 1983, another evangelism meeting kicked off in Amsterdam. Some of the people at the meeting had been in the earlier meeting. This meeting was called “Everyone.” It focused on the 2033 goals of reaching every person on earth with the Gospel by the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus and the founding of the church.
People gathered from over 130 different countries, speaking multiple languages, but all unified by faith in Jesus Christ. Multiple preachers, teachers, and bands led worship. They were from all over the world. Each day, after morning worship, 10 conference participants gathered at 100’s of round tables. For 90 minutes tables talked about what they had heard in the general session and what God was telling them. It was a huge focus group trying to strategize on how the church together can accomplish the massive goal. How do these goals impact local churches and the global movement?
We sat at a table with people from Ghana, India, Denmark, and the US. Everyone is still hurting from the divisiveness of the last couple of years. It was interesting how so many people had nearly the same experience of division, accusation, and abandonment. There is lots of global pain. In the midst of that are so many Christian leaders struggling to get their churches to grow in evangelism, church planting, and Bible translation. It is easy to think of just our church, but the global need of several billion people who have never heard the Gospel keeps calling to God’s children.
We met with the Finishing the Task team which is trying to stand in the middle of this task and coordinate with over 1600 different organizations who are focusing on the 2033 goals. We listened and prayed and had a chance to serve the conference. I'm writing this after Thursday night and the conference still has two days to go.
One thing I can say, as I contrast this meeting with the Baptist meeting that happened last week in New Orlean where Rick Warren’s church was expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention, is that this meeting in Amsterdam is trying to figure out how to get more people witnessing. More people preaching. How to get young and old, men and women sharing Christ. It was a stunning contrast. Each day the conference begun with a simple phrase, to reach everyone we need everyone.
I was asked by several people before I left about the SBC and its rejection of Rick Warren. I think it was a huge mistake. I think it was a misreading of Scripture. I think it was mean-spirited and lifted up doctrinal uniformity over grace. I think it abandoned the Baptist principles of the priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church. I think the group has rejected what it means to be a Baptist and substituted the structures of hierarchical churches. I don’t think it will end well. I think they will continue to draw a more and more narrow circle and the SBC will continue to shrink. I believe God has already significantly lifted his hand of blessing on the organization.
I’m proud of our church and all our ministers. We are no longer welcome in the SBC. I believe that we are upholding the Baptist ideals. I believe we hold to the vision of Pentecost, “In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy’” (Acts 2:17-18). I believe that God wants to use every person in our church to share the Gospel. I think the next ten years could be the best ten years of our church as we release everyone into the mission of Jesus. Please keep praying for us as we head from this meeting to the Baptist World Alliance and see how Baptists might help accomplish the 2033 goals with our arms linked to our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.