While the saint of God is constantly challenged to present himself/herself to God as a "living sacrifice" or lay one's entire being upon the altar for the Lord, few ever live a life of complete surrender.

In fact, most are content to give God the odd moments of their time, the ragged edge of their talents and the leftovers of their treasures.

However, what would happen if every Georgia Baptist were to get sold out to Christ and completely committed to the task of spreading the gospel? Can you imagine 1,500,000 people evangelizing, becoming soul winners, sharing their faith, and unashamedly giving their testimony "in season and out of season"?

You say, "It's not going to happen."

Well, you are probably right, but at the same time we are being swallowed up by a secular, humanistic culture that is relentlessly pushing their agenda upon us. How can we turn the tide? How can we make a difference in the midst of a society that doesn't have a God-consciousness?

Here is the question! What is the minimal requirement for someone who just might have the slightest interest in being a Great Commission Christian? I say, "Passing out gospel tracts."

We have some interesting statistical information regarding the results of tract distribution. Bill James, a layman at First Blairsville who has been in the business of printing and distributing tracts for years, has calculated that .03 of one percent of those who are given a gospel tract come to faith in Christ.

In a recent telephone conversation, Mark Brown of the American Tract Society confirmed that those statistics were consistent with what he had heard. In other words, if one thousand tracts are distributed statistics show that 3 persons will pray to receive Christ.

What if only one in 10 Georgia Baptists made a commitment to heed the Great Commission by distributing tracts and consistently handed out just one tract a day for 4 months - not even for a whole year, but for 1/3 of the year? What would be the results based on the above statistical information?

First of all, 150,000 Georgia Baptists handing out one tract each day for four months would result in 18,000,000 tracts being distributed. If .03 of one percent of those who receive a tract come to know Christ personally and are saved, then 54,000 would be born into the Kingdom of God.

We have been challenged to baptize 50,000 new converts in 2005. It is a worthy goal. Georgia Baptists have never baptized that many in a single year. Obviously, gospel tract distribution is one way to accomplish our goal.

Why don't you, dear Georgia Baptist, resolve to share the gospel by giving tracts to your neighbors? Give one to your barber, your butcher, your baker, your candlestick maker, your service station attendant, your teacher, your crossing guard, and your legislator.

Put a tract in the envelope when you pay your bills. Distribute tracts at civic club meetings, PTA meetings, to fans at sporting events, to patrons of the library and to patients in the physician's office. Let the message of Christ be proclaimed in every human heart until the glorious song of salvation is being sung louder than all the ditties this world has to offer.

One of our goals at The Christian Index is to provide tracts to churches and individuals free of charge so that we might saturate our state with the gospel. In fact, our printer, Atlanta Web Printers, Inc., has graciously printed 100,000 gospel tracts for us to distribute. Mike Minnix, the vice president for evangelism for the GBC, has written the tract entitled, "How to Make Time Work for you!"

The Christian Index will make the tracts available to churches and individuals at the annual session of the Georgia Baptist Convention and as long as they are available. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so" (Psalm 107:2).