Wireless technology has advanced to the 4th generation (4G Network) so that your phones, computers, TVs, and other devices can retrieve and send digitized information at breathtaking speed. We believe all our churches want to accelerate to the level God wants in this generation. For our purposes here, I want to describe our congregations as "4G churches" so they will reflect the pattern of the very first church as described in Acts 2:42-47. State conventions, and in particular the Louisiana Baptist Convention, hope to ignite a Great Commission Resurgence by helping local churches accelerate to 4G status.

The vast preponderance of Baptist work is done in the churches. Therefore, if a Great Commission Resurgence is to become a reality, it must happen through the churches. The most strategic person is not the one who occupies my office, but the one who occupies the pastor’s office. The most important conversations are not the ones in the conference room at the Baptist Building, but the conversations that occur at the church building. The most important praying is not by denominational workers but by the members of the local church.

The churches regularly help the denomination be its best. The LBC state mission staff is committed to helping the churches be their best. We are not praying for a Great Commission Resurgence because we think the churches or the ministries of our state/national conventions are bad—but because we want to be better. We are not suggesting the churches have lost their way—but that we have not arrived yet at our destination.

There are four crucial ingredients to being a 4G church. As our churches accelerate in these characteristics, I offer some pledges by our state convention mission teams to assist the churches with the task.

A 4G Church is a Godly Church

The place to begin a Great Commission Resurgence is not with a study of organizational administration or technique. A GCR begins in the heart. Every person speaking, writing or blogging about GCR recognizes that issues like Lordship, obedience, humility and prayer must be addressed before we can expect a movement of God among us. If we are not careful, we will merely say these words and then proceed immediately to looking for things to fix in our organizations, programs and schedules. The challenge is to not look at superficial things. Look to your heart.

If we can believe what surveys tell us, too many of our people do not believe any differently or behave any differently than the lost world. How can unbelieving, misbehaving, unrepentant, shallow Christians affect a wave of revival? They can’t.

My four year-old grandson announced to his mother that he wanted them to sing before he went to sleep. She asked little David if he had a song in mind. He said he wanted to sing, "Father, I ignore you . . ." We laugh. However, too often we are guilty of singing to God "we adore you" but our practice is to ignore his presence in our daily lives.

Godly living is living in right relation to God. I had a pastor friend once who said to me, I think the reason most of us don’t pray more is because we think we can do it ourselves. We can’t! The lostness in our culture is too bad. I believe the most significant reason for the decline in baptisms may be the level of animosity and vigorous opposition to historic Christianity in this nation. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 17 of the wicked, "They close up their callous hearts, and their minds speak with arrogance." We can’t simply shake ourselves as before and go out and conquer. We must have God’s presence.

At LBC we refer to this area of emphasis as spiritual formation. We are praying for discernment about how to develop this crucial area of the Christian life. Our hope is that it becomes part of the DNA, the agenda for more of our churches and church members. We are not searching for some new magical or mystical remedies, but we are seeking to call our churches to the practice of the very first church, "to give ourselves continually to the apostles’ doctrine and prayer."

So, here is the first pledge from the LBC: We will provide resources and strategies for use in the churches that deepen biblical understanding, provoke holy living, and call Christians and congregations to concerted praying. 

A 4G Church is a Gospel Church

The first church saw 3,000 people come to Christ at its inception and added daily those who were being saved. A Great Commission church immerses itself in the gospel of God. Our only message is that "God in love sent his only Son to die in order to pay for our sin debt that we have no hope of paying ourselves."

It is the primary task of the church to proclaim this gospel. Therefore, every congregation needs an evangelism plan, every year. "Sharing the Peace of Jesus" is the LBC’s emphasis for 2010. This strategy encourages every congregation in our convention to join in prayer walking, gospel distribution and evangelistic invitations to every domicile in the state. This Easter, your church can accelerate its gospel outreach through the "Sharing the Peace of Jesus" initiative.

We want every church to be effective in its gospel witness. So, our second pledge is this: The LBC will provide resources and strategies to enable the churches to carry out intentional, continuous witnessing in their local communities intended to result in baptisms in the church.

A 4G Church is a Global Church 

The first church was made up from people of "every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5), and they were scattered back to their homes where new churches were formed. Churches planting churches is a New Testament imperative. Is your church a reproducing church? We need to become convicted that creating another congregation somewhere else (across the neighborhood, nation, or world) is just as much our responsibility as growing our own congregation. If it resulted in a thriving new church, would you be willing to send out members and money even if it initially diminishes your congregation’s strength?

There is a lot of interest and discussion on how to plant effective new congregations. Many different strategies are being proposed. The most important advance our churches can make is becoming convinced that God wants them to reproduce themselves in additional congregations. Our research shows that having a serious, committed, invested "mother" church is the most important ingredient in successful church planting. The denomination can’t take the place of a strategic mother church. We will partner, train, pray, research, and assist, but your local church must step up.

Therefore, the third pledge from the LBC: The LBC will facilitate a statewide church planting strategy that involves associations, Southern Baptist national partners, local churches, pastors and laypersons.

A 4G Church is a Generous Church

If we are going to ignite a Great Commission Resurgence, we must come to grips with our lifestyles as American christians. The first church pooled their resources and shared everything they had with those in need (Acts 2:45) Today, however, too many of our members are trapped in debt or caught up in chasing the American dream of material things. We have got to break that cycle so that our lives and resources can be invested in the kingdom of God.

Let me say some things so I’m not misunderstood. 1) I am a capitalist. I believe God wants us to be industrious, thrifty, entrepreneurial and acquisitive. I think America has modeled that well for the world and I hope we will not ruin it by sliding in to some failed system of economics. I am not against people earning money and neither is God. 2) I am thankful for the sacrificial giving by Louisiana Baptists, especially in this economic crisis. Many are not doing what they ought but many are, and I thank you on behalf of all our missionaries and ministries. I always hate it when the preacher berates the good people because the bad people are misbehaving. 3) God can get his work done without us. If we decide to be selfish instead of generous, he will use someone else and Baptists will forfeit their opportunity to be used by God.

Having said that, we must note our levels of financial support, as a whole, are declining. Long before there was any recession, the percentage given to the Lord by Baptists was declining. In fact, it was happening during economic booms. Somehow, we must teach believers to give themselves and their resources sacrificially and generously to God’s work. Otherwise, a Great Commission Resurgence among us will starve to death before it gets underway.

Putting another 3,000 missionaries overseas and starting 1,000s of new congregations in the unreached cities of America and continuing to reach New Orleans and Shreveport requires great generosity. So, here is the question: am I willing to modify my standard of living so that I may be used of God to advance His kingdom?

If you are willing to try, our pledge is: The LBC, while exercising excellent stewardship of the churches gifts, will provide educational and inspirational resources and strategies to aid churches and church members to grow in the grace of giving.

In the Lord of the Rings, in a moment of desperation Frodo says to Gandalf, "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

And Gandalf replies, "So do all who live to see such times. But that’s not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

The author J. R. R. Tolkien’s precise words capture the passion needed for a Great Commission Resurgence. We must decide what we will do with the time given to us. Will it be invested in the things that matter the most to the Lord?

"4G churches"—godly, gospel-centered, global-minded and generous- are the hope of a resurgence that accelerates churches toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission.