One of the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force proposals adopted by our churches is causing quite a stir! The proposal reads:
Initiate a 3-year emphasis called “More for Christ,” an intentional time of repentance, renewal, and redirection for the future…. More for Christ means: More of myself in personal surrender, personal witness, and personal sacrifice, more of my family, more for the lost, more for the needs, more for the nations.
We propose that messengers request the KBC Mission Board, staff, agencies and institutions to seek ways that we can implement this theme in every part of Kentucky Baptist life and that it become a clarion call to our churches and individuals.
Explanation: We recognize that we desperately need a recommitment of our lives, our churches, our families, and our resources. Our prayer is that these recommendations will result in a great movement of the Holy Spirit among Kentucky Baptists. We pray that “More for Christ” will be the theme for what Kentucky Baptists do and give for the future. We pray that such an emphasis will be used of God to remind us and motivate us to strategize, mobilize, and give toward that end.
Why the stir? Because, as we witnessed with “Find It Here,” Kentucky Baptists are always ready to accept a challenge. And we have been challenged.
KBC President Floyd Paris has presented this challenge in practical terms, asking us to give more of ourselves in service and more of our money as we donate through our local church. On the money side, Paris is challenging adults to simply give $3 more per week to their local church offering. Mission efforts funded through the Cooperative Program will benefit based upon the giving plan of the local church.
Paris is also challenging the youth groups in Kentucky Baptist churches to raise $835 for CP missions, and children to “change the world” by collecting change and donating it to CP missions directly or through their vacation Bible school offering. These simple challenges can result in millions of dollars for the cause of the gospel.
As news of Paris’ challenge gets out, commitments from our churches are beginning to come in.
Reflecting upon what More for Christ asks of me personally, Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20 come to mind:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Christ didn’t give more for me, he gave all. So I’m putting all of me at his disposal and also committing to give more of my money. Will you join me?
