God has called Texas Baptists to a mission

SAN ANTONIO - Texas Baptists have been called to reach the state for Christ - a task that must be completed.

Featured speakers from the second evening worship service of the Family Gathering, reminded meeting participants that God has called Christians to reach their communities, their state and beyond.

To do that requires believers to have an intense focus on the mission at hand, said Bedilu Yirga, pastor of Ethiopian Evangelical Baptist Church in Garland. Each action they take, every work of ministry they perform must help expand God's kingdom. To maximize their impact, Christians must work together in a spirit of unity.

"Even little drops of water grow strong when channeled …," he said. "We need that kind of focus."

The Great Commission is great in scope, commanding Christians to make disciples of all people and all nations. It's an outward, universal directive, said Ernest Dagohoy, pastor of First Philippine Baptist Church in Missouri City.

"As Texas Baptists, we're called to move beyond our comfort zones and see the mass of lost humanity that surrounds us, particularly in this state where God has placed us," Dagohoy said. "We do not have to travel across the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans to bring the gospel to all nations, because God has brought them to our doorstop, right here to Texas."

Jesse Rincones, executive director of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, reminded the gathered that kind of unified desire to work together in sharing the gospel may strike others as odd. But that kind of "weirdness" is the power of the Holy Spirit moving to reach the world and the state for Jesus Christ, just like can be found in the book of Acts.

The diversity and integration of the Family Gathering may seem "weird" to some people. The way Baptists worship and express what they believe may seem abnormal. Rincones' sermon shed light on the fact that "weird" does not have to be a bad thing but can simply mean God is doing his work in an extraordinary way.

"We want to make sure what happens [with the weirdness] is the same that happened in the book of Acts," he said, "where numbers were added daily as people boldly proclaimed the name of God."

Jesus' promises to be with His followers "to the very end of the age," helping His followers as they pursue the Great Commission.

"We are not alone as we fulfill the Great Commission," Dagohoy said. "We have the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit who will be there for us, who will never leave us or forsake us, who will be with us every step of the way. Acts 1:8 promises that we will receive power through the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission."