Today we come to my eighth point. I have been working in this area rather extensively over the last five years. I have been concerned that other movements, both religious and non religious, have been growing. I decided to study their strategies to see if we could use some of their ideas. I was surprised to find out that many times, they are using both biblical principles and rational evangelical methods. When I bring this up to some of our leaders, I am told that we need not learn from others. This has concerned me greatly. Here is my ninth point as stated in my contract with Southern Baptists:

“I will seek to help make Southern Baptists aware of the current issues and religions that pose significant obstacles to the advancement of the Gospel, especially in the Western World. Other religions and cults also have missionary movements and Christians should be made aware of both their strategies and progress. We are responsible to God to be effective during this time in history. We must be aware of what is happening in our current context in order to be effective change agents of history by helping others know the transforming work of Jesus Christ.”

As already stated I studies six growing movements. They were

1. Islam
2. The Homosexuals
3. The Mormons
4. The Jehovah’s Witnesses
5. The Assemblies of God
6. The Southern Baptists

Each of these groups is growing, with one exception: a new report out last week states that for the first time in its history, the Southern Baptists have declined in membership. I am now writing a book to help us understand the dynamics of growth. One pastor told me that we have no business looking at other groups for strategy, but should look only in the Bible. What I did find was that some of these other groups are using biblical principles that we as Southern Baptist are not using. Here are two examples:

1. The Mormons send their young missionaries out two by two. This was used by both Paul and the Early Church. Sometimes we do follow this procedure, but it is not an ingrained principle in our missionary philosophy.

2. The method of going out from door to door and standing on the streets holding their tracts was the exact strategy that the early Baptists in Germany used. It was borrowed by the Jehovah Witnesses about the turn of the last century, and they have been successful every since. After the Second World War, the Baptists of German changed their strategy and have been losing members every since.

When I began this study I became very interested in the Muslim strategy and found that it was superior to anything that I found in Christian mission societies. They have a center located in Mecca called the Muslim World League, and it is here that their world-wide strategy is developed. They have a mega-strategy to make the whole world Muslim by the year 2080. They are having some success. I might add that The Muslim World League receives about $250,000,000 a day from oil money from Saudi Arabia. By comparison, the budget for the IMB for a year is about $350,000,000.

After I got into this study, I decided to write my first book on the Muslim Strategy. The book has been very successful and has been translated into Spanish, German, and Korean. It is also being translated into two other languages. One interesting fact is that Islam has more missionaries active in the United States than Christians have in all the Muslim countries.

I feel that the President of the Convention could help to make our people aware of the fact that we truly have a spiritual battle on our hands. I would try to show that others are active, but because we have the truth, we should be even more proactive in making disciples of all nations.

Information about movements will not be my main point since I feel we should first be proactive in finding new missionary methods, but information giving will be a part of my ministry. Even today, whenever possible, I speak about this subject. In fact, I have been on over 75 radio and television programs talking about the book. This has also given me an opportunity to proclaim the living Christ to a larger audience. If anyone is interested in the book I wrote, it is called “How Islam Plans to Change the World.” It can be purchased at Amazon, or if you order it from me, I can get it to you a little cheaper.

By being a trained Missional strategist, I am in a position to help inform our people about what is happening in the world of missions today, as well as to tell them what other religions are doing. The next few years will be very important for us as we seek to find ways to better communicate who we are to the Baptists of the World as well as to reach others with the gospel.