The North American Mission Board has unveiled a national evangelism initiative called God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS). The goal is to fulfill the Great Commission in North America by 2020. The point man for this continental GPS is Ken Weathersby, senior strategist for evangelism at the Alpharetta-based agency.

The Christian Index recently interviewed Weathersby to get a first-hand impression of his vision and his passion for evangelizing North America. The following is a transcript from that interview.

 

The Index: For a number of years there was a national initiative about every five years to try to reach the United States for Christ, but we have not had anything like that since NAMB’s founding more than a decade ago. I believe Southern Baptists are waiting on tiptoes for a strategy that will serve as a rallying cry for evangelism.

Weathersby: Yes, the battle cry will be “Every Believer Sharing: Every Person Hearing by 2020.” We need a compelling vision to rally Southern Baptists. We don’t need half the believers sharing and half the people hearing; we need a God-sized vision and I believe this is it. We believe in the sovereignty of God and man’s ability to be obedient to the Lord and do what He has commanded us to do – that is, to get out there and sow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

The Index: Goals are necessary to measure success and evaluate the value of any initiative. Will NAMB have any goals or will you ask the state conventions to set goals so that you can establish an accumulative goal for the entire convention?

Weathersby: I have been in this position for seven months and I am learning my way as I go, but the ground troops for this initiative is the local church. That is where the rubber hits the road. So, I began to ask, “What can we do to assist the local church?” So, I geared the initiative to meet the needs of a church that is running 100 or less. I wanted to give the average church the assurance that the initiative would work in their situation.

And we must center this initiative on intentional evangelism. We used to be concerned about little boys and girls and we had Vacation Bible Schools, but now you look at our numbers and you see that between the ages of 12 and 19, baptisms have gone down. We used to express our concern by having revivals and having men who occupied the office of the evangelist to come in and get us refocused on the Great Commission.

We used to do Friends’ Day with an emphasis on bringing our friends to the Lord. We used to have dinner on the grounds and used that to get our lost friends to come to hear the good news of Christ. We had an intentional evangelism focus at the local church and we are going to have to return to an intentional evangelism at the local church.

We may have also forgotten what it is like to be lost and ultimately we are going to have to repent. We need to look at our love relationship with Jesus. Evangelism is the overflow of an intimate walk with God. So, we’ve got to encourage our people to pray, to read the Word, to fellowship with believers, and to see the world as Jesus sees the world.

That is what this initiative is about. It is about praying, engaging the culture as trained witnesses, and sowing the good news of Jesus Christ by whatever means available. I believe the Word of God will do the Word of God’s job. The Holy Spirit will do His job. However, the key is each of us doing our part.

 

The Index: So, is the goal to get people involved rather than establishing any kind of numerical goal?

Weathersby: Our state leaders will set the numerical goals. We have been working in conjunction with our state partners. We didn’t come here to NAMB and dream up this process and then take it to the state convention leadership. The state convention leaders have been with us from day one. We have all been praying together, listening together, researching together, and understanding the needs together. So, the state leaders will go back and set their numerical goals.

Our job is to say, “Georgia, how can we assist you?” You have needs in major urban areas in this state. Our job is to develop contextualized resources to meet those needs. For example, we have over 30,000 Nigerians who live in Atlanta. But we must also be an agency who listens to our partners. At the same time we must be a mission board that is looking holistically at North America. We must all work together to assist the local church to fulfill her mission.

 

The Index: The demographics have changed since our last national evangelism initiative. We are standing on the threshold of history with at least two different church models – traditional and emergent. How will you involve both models in this initiative?

Weathersby: I work from this preface. I don’t need to have an adjective to describe the local church. It is up to each local church to contextualize how they do things to reach their people. My job is to listen to them about their needs and develop the kinds of resources they need to be relevant in their communities. We want to develop a smorgasbord of resources that can be used to sow the gospel down in every community. Resources will be paramount for the national evangelism initiative.

 

The Index: What kind of materials are you planning to develop?

Weathersby: Good question. We are going to be resource-driven. Right now we have several resources. Presently, we are working on praying resources. We know that some of our state partners have already developed resources and if a resource has already been developed and has been effective, why do we need to try to develop a resource that will nearly duplicate one that already exists? We will work in conjunction with our state partners and help spread that resource across North America.

We have resources being developed right now for the big launch in 2010. In 2010 we have a major initiative that is called “Across North America.” As a part of our strategy we are planning an initiative every two years. The strategy that we will launch in 2010 has been very successful in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Baptist Convention has released those resources to us, given the license to us, and we are reworking those resources, called “The Cross,” and will soon have them ready to assist the local church.

We also have a sowing resource being developed which should be ready at the end of this year. This resource is called “Relay.” We are developing resources for students and for the various people groups coming to North America. We are launching this initiative in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

 

The Index: Will there be simultaneous revival and special events?

Weathersby: Yes sir! We are looking forward to all of that. We are still in the process of developing materials and fleshing out the strategy. This summer at the state leadership meeting we will have work groups that will continue the planning process, focusing primarily on implementation. We are going to work together. There is synergy when you work together.

 

The Index: Will there be soul winning workshops and materials developed for that?

Weathersby: Yes sir! On Oct. 5 we have our “Soul Winning Commitment Day.” There are already materials available for that. This year’s emphasis is on “Who’s in your wallet?” We are asking people to write down three names of lost people that they are praying for. Hopefully, their prayers will lead them to intentionally share the good news of Christ with them.

I have already got my names and I believe one of them is close to the Kingdom. If we can get people praying for lost people they will get a greater burden for lost people and eventually share Christ with them so the Holy Spirit can do His work in their hearts. So, yes, materials are being developed.

 

The Index: What kind of funds are going to be allocated for this initiative?

Weathersby: I don’t believe money is the issue. God is not short on money. I’ve been a church planter. All the churches I started I started with zero money. Money is never the issue. It is a heart issue. It is an obedient issue. The issue is “Are we doing what God called us to do?” If we believe God is omnipotent and God is sovereign God will do His part and we must join God in His work. I believe if we do what God tells us to do, the money will come.

We must be good stewards of what God gives us. I am pretty tight when it comes to money. I think about that woman who lives on a fixed income and who puts her money in the collection plate to go to the Cooperative Program. I am going to be a good steward of her money and I don’t want one penny of what she gives to be wasted.

But a large percentage of the money we receive will be designated toward assisting our partners and everything we do at the North American Mission Board will be focused on the national evangelism initiative.

 

The Index: I know that NAMB President Geoff Hammond said at the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis that there would be television and radio spots, as well as printed material, to support this initiative. I just wanted to know if a sufficient amount is going to be allocated for that?

Weathersby: Well, we had almost three weeks of commercials in Indianapolis before the convention. It was an imaging commercial. We worked with the state convention leadership of Indiana and they said that people don’t know who Southern Baptists are and those who know us don’t have a very good image of us. So we did imaging commercials showing that we feed the hungry, assist those who have AIDS, and repair homes. We attempted to show that Southern Baptists care.

We have a website called wearesouthernbaptists.org to let people know who we are. We are going to develop commercials geared toward different regions of the country. Those who watch the commercials will be directed to a website where they can learn more about Christ and if they want to talk to someone they will be able to or they will be able to talk to a live person through our ERC (Evangelism Response Center).

 

The Index: Will this initiative become a priority with our church planting department and our missionaries?

Weathersby: Yes, and we are going to stay with this for a few years. I have been in denominational service for a few years and I have been a pastor and I know it takes awhile before an initiative can get from the entity to the local church. By the time a church understands the initiative and embraces it, we often move on to something else. We have to stay with something long enough for it to be assimilated though our churches. That is why we want to stay with this initiative for at least twelve years.

 

The Index: Has there been any discussion about how many churches you want to see planted in the next twelve years and how many additional missionaries you want to have on the field?

Weathersby: I have heard numbers, but I am not in a position to say what those numbers are, because I want to make sure that what I say is not contradictory to what our partners say their needs are.

 

The Index: Have you determined what years you want to have the simultaneous revivals?

Weathersby: I have some ideas of what we ought to do, but I have to wait to make sure that our state leaders are saying, “This is what we want to do.” We have work groups involved in every level of strategy, but we still develop the implementation process. I have a lot of things I want to lead us to do, but I don’t have the authority to answer your question since I am working in partnership with our state leaders. We realize if we are going to be effective, we must do what our state leaders want to do rather than what we want to do.

So, that is why I don’t want to say what all we want to do and say, “These are the numbers and these are the goals” even though I think we need those things. I am not in a position to say what those will be right now, because we are still in the process of development.

 

The Index: It would appear to me that Alabama and Georgia should be able to present the gospel to everyone in their states in twelve years, because Southern Baptists have a lot of troops in those states. But what about states like California and New York and especially Canada where there are fewer troops to do the job? Have you thought abut how we can evangelize those places? Will you ask some of the mainline state conventions to partner with those areas to accomplish the objective?

Weathersby: Partnerships are key to the success of this initiative. Media is also very important. We must work and strategize together with our state partners in our pioneer states to see what God has said to them. We must come alongside them and discover the synergy that could happen when we work together.

We must cover all these areas with prayer – do a lot of prayerwalking. You can tell a difference when you go into an area that has been covered with prayer. People are more receptive to the gospel when their area has been saturated with prayer. So, we must cover Canada and these large metropolitan areas with prayer.

We have a humongous task and we cannot do it. We do not have the strength to do it, but our God can help us accomplish His purpose if we depend on Him.

I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have all the details laid out, but I do have this belief – that God has given us this vision; and God will work in His timing to help us accomplish what He has called us to do. So, I am just going to wait on God to see what God tells us to do and be obedient to God.

 

The Index: Our society is becoming much more secular, so what do we do to reach a culture that is hostile to the gospel? Does that make the challenge more formidable than ever?

Weathersby: Yes, and that is the reason why we are going to try to train the average layperson in worldview issues. We could once assume that a person had a God consciousness, but that is no longer true, because many people no longer think that way. So, we must develop resources to help our people to know what those Buddhists believe, what Muslims believe, what is their outlook, what is their worldview? Our interfaith ministries will help us show Southern Baptists how to bridge the gap and proclaim Christ.

When a Jehovah’s Witness or a person from the Mormon church comes to your door you will no longer need to close the door on them, but you will have enough information about your own faith so that you can invite them in to have a discussion about faith issues. If we believe the Holy Spirit is the best teacher and if we believe the Bible is powerful we can witness to anybody.

 

The Index: Do you believe people are still searching for the truth?

Weathersby: No, that is not biblical. The Bible says, “No man seeks after God, no not one.” I believe God is the great seeker. He said, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.” He said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.” So, I come from the perspective that God is the great seeker. That is my premise and we must join God in His work. All I know is that God can do whatever He wants to do, but we have a responsibility to do what God called us to do.

 

The Index: What do you hope the continent will look like in 2020 compared to now?

Weathersby: I hope history will be able to write, “God moved and we saw another spiritual awakening in our land.”