This is the first in a three part series based on the report I delivered to the mission board on May 5th.
My family three years ago, at the meeting where I was appointed KBC executive director. Much has changed in three years.
This meeting marks three years since you hired me as your executive director. Let me report that I am having the time of my life! Thank you for allowing me, and all of the members of our team, the privilege of coming to work every day to help churches reach Kentucky and the world for Christ.
My gratitude also goes to our board members for their service to the 2,400 churches of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. The gospel alliance you represent as you serve on the Mission Board is a mighty force for the Kingdom of God. You are part of a Baptist coalition that has existed for 177 years. We are thankful for the men and women of God who served and sacrificed in the past. And we are grateful to inherit the work from them for our sprint around the track.
Our rapidly changing culture and the new role being assumed by our government will likely cause the gospel work in front of us to be more difficult than what lies behind us. We live in a society and under a rule of government that is racing headlong into moral chaos and running away from the religious liberties sought by those who first made pilgrimage to this land.
In the midst of unprecedented cultural shift we are the stewards of the prophetic call to repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the Ezekiels of our time, whom the Lord instructs: “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!” (33:11). We are the John the Baptists of our generation, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt 3:2).
Thankfully we have momentum in certain areas, like making our voice heard in Frankfort. In our state, 750k people identify themselves as Kentucky Baptist and 1 million people identify themselves as Southern Baptist. A voting block of one-fourth of the population hasn’t gone unnoticed on matters like gambling expansion, religious freedom, or a traditional definition of marriage. So far, we have been able to hold the line on these issues even as we beg God for the passage of legislation that would protect the lives of unborn children. How grateful I am to the Lord for bringing Roger Alford and his team to lead our Communications Department into a new level of effectiveness and strategic impact regarding these and other critical issues.
