Minister's Blog

Lazy in Prayer and Weak in Witness
Last Sunday night I was privileged to teach on evangelism and missions. This was part of our Sunday night series of teachings on the Baptist Faith and Message. Article XI of the BF&M 2000 states, it is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations…the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ. As I prepared to teach that lesson, I went back over passages of scripture I had read and studied many times. I reflected on the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20, and many other passages which reminded me of the duty and privilege we have individually and as a church to herald the good news of Jesus Christ. This was convicting, to say the least.
The Lord began to convict me of a few areas in my own life where some changes need to be made, but he also showed me some areas where changes are needed in our church. The Lord convicted me of something I must admit has been true for some time. I have become less zealous for souls and less bold in my personal witness. I am sure there are many contributing factors (busyness, preoccupations, distraction, or laziness) to this decline, but like most issues of spiritual dryness, prayer neglect is a chief contributor. When I look back over the most fruitful seasons of personal evangelism in my life, disciplined, faithful prayer was a chief catalyst. I was praying for a burden for the lost, opportunities to witness to the lost, and for the salvation of lost individuals the Lord had put in my path.
This same correlation is clear when I look back over the most fruitful times of evangelism in the churches I have pastored. The Lord stirred concern for the lost in our community and throughout the world. Our prayer meetings became more prayer-centered and our prayers began to be more spiritually focused. It is needful to pray for physical needs, and too easy to neglect the spiritual. We have a great opportunity to start, both individually and corporately, this next week as we observe the 2025 Week of Prayer for North American Missions. This Sunday you will receive a prayer guide for the week. Each day you will be challenged to pray for a place in North America where NAMB missionaries are serving amid spiritual darkness and for the people whose eyes need to be opened to the light of the Gospel. I want to challenge you to take one of those pamphlets and pray to make it a part of your prayer time next week. Read the missionary stories to your family and have a family prayer time for missions. This could be a catalyst the Lord would use to stir our hearts to recommit to praying for the lost and the lost world the church is called to engage with the Gospel!