Great Commission

“We think of going overseas to go to the places that are hostile to the Gospel, but even in our own world here there are places that are against a kingdom mindset,” 

When Jesus commanded his followers in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples, it was a call to share the Gospel with all people. No matter the context in which you find yourself, through prayer, submission to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and obedience to the word of God, opportunities to share the Gospel can abound. Here are some different contexts and key factors to consider when sharing your faith.

Texas Baptists always have been, and always will be, evangelistic to our core. Through a variety of influential leaders, ambitious strategies and innovative tactics, Texas Baptist evangelistic efforts have resulted in the salvation of millions, and with the most recent appointment of evangelism lead, there is no end in sight.

Evangelism is an ancient biblical term that simply means to share the good news. What greater gift can any human being give to another than the message that God has made a way for us to be reconciled with Him? All Christians are called to participate in sharing this wonderful news with others. 

It’s always wise to approach the Gospel from a person’s social and cultural context, which is why Roland Lopez specializes in evangelizing to the Hispanic community.

Sometimes UT gets assumed to be a godless place, but the reality is every day Jesus is engaging one of the 45,000 lost students with His Gospel and we get to watch that happen and we get to watch what people assume to be godless be incredibly glorifying.

For Spring Break this year, I decided to go to New York City. Not for a vacation or to sightsee, although I did get to do some of that, too. 

Texas Baptists was recently recognized by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) with an evangelism award for the “Highest Number of Baptisms” for the 2016 calendar year. Texas Baptists churches had a recorded 28,765 baptisms, making this the second year in a row for Texas Baptists to receive this national award. 

The story began about three years ago. I was a sophomore at the University of North Texas (UNT), in my rookie semester as an RA in the "artsy dorm" and I had decided to apply for GoNow Missions. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do or who I wanted to serve. I applied for a position in Jamaica because a friend of mine went the previous winter break and highly recommended it. However, I quickly discovered that the timing was not going to work out for that trip. So I ended up going to Discovery Day with absolutely no idea what position I was wanting or being called to.

As Texas Tech’s campus is growing, so is the ministry and vision of Tech BSM. A new building will generate excitement among an increasing student population and will provide additional space that the BSM currently lacks, including a prayer room, missions room, leadership training area and a larger meeting room. These areas will serve as a catalyst to help them accomplish their vision of reaching the campus.

The first day we were in Flushing, New York, my team prayer-walked around the city to find locations for conducting surveys the next day. We were conducting surveys about the new churches to be planted in that area, to determine how people felt about religion in general and new church plants. We prayed that people would take the time out of their busy lives to talk with us and have open hearts to hear about Jesus Christ.

I went on my first mission trip when I was eight years old. My parents introduced me to missions when they took me to Reynosa, Mexico with our Spanish church at the time. I was so heartbroken by seeing how the people we ministered to lived, and I could not help but gain a huge ambition to do whatever it took to help them while we were there. Since then, I have fallen in love with missions.