Find it Here focuses on being witnesses

Their faces flashed on the screen one after another. The faces kept coming and coming as Chuck Register, executive leader for church planting and missions development, shared about Find it Here 2012: Expanding the Kingdom during the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) annual meeting in Greensboro.

The video had no sound, just faces. But that’s all it took for the numbers to become reality and to move beyond just statistics.

“In this video we are looking at five faces per second. If you looked at this video every second, of every minute, of every day, it would still take you 38 years to see the faces of all the lost people in the world,” Register said. “These people are what Find it Here is all about. It’s about lost people who desperately need the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In a world of seven billion people, only about one billion have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That means six billion people in the world are lost and will not spend eternity in heaven with Christ. That means in North America 258 million people do not know Christ, and in North Carolina 5.6 million people are lost.

Find it Here 2012 is about expanding God’s Kingdom so that more people hear the gospel and have a chance to respond in faith and receive salvation through Jesus Christ.

“Where lostness intersects with the Great Commission of Jesus – this is where you will find our 2012 Find it Here emphasis,” Register said.

The 2012 emphasis is the final year in a three-year emphasis on intentional evangelism, transformational discipleship and mission mobilization. Although attention next year turns to missions, evangelism and discipleship must remain central focuses in the local church in order for the Great Commission to be fulfilled.

Don McCutcheon, executive leader for evangelization, encouraged North Carolina Baptists to continue next year as they have the past two years with a special focus on evangelism in the weeks leading up to Easter. McCutcheon encouraged churches to once again engage in four evangelistic activities on or before Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012: pray for the salvation of non-Christian family, friends and neighbors; invite non-Christian family, friends and neighbors to Easter services; preach an evangelistic sermon; and baptize new converts.

Lynn Sasser, executive leader for congregational services, also challenged North Carolina Baptists to continue next year the efforts begun this year in transformational discipleship.

“A disciple is one who abides in Christ and does the things that Jesus did,” he said. “So we must worship God, we must be involved in His evangelistic mission, and we must come together in community to nurture our faith and worship God more.”

Sasser noted that each component of Find it Here is necessary in the life of a local church and in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ. “Every day of every month we must be about each of the three intents; it’s not one or the other,” he said. “The scripture makes it abundantly clear that we cannot be obedient, fruitful disciples without engaging in God’s great mission in the world.”

To help North Carolina Baptists engage in God’s mission of redeeming lost humanity, Find it Here 2012 is built on the foundation of Acts 1:8 and seeks to help churches formulate a strategy for reaching their Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth with the gospel.

Find it Here includes four strategic phases: discover, develop, implement and evaluate. As churches move through the phases they will assess the current mission strategy, create the framework for a comprehensive mission strategy, implement that strategy and evaluate the effectiveness of that strategy.

The Find it Here 2012 planning guide includes resources such as diagnostic tools, Bible studies, sermons, prayer guides and video resources to help churches in each of the four phases. The planning guide is available as a free download at finditherenc.org.

“It is time for us as a family of faith known as North Carolina Baptists to put our words into actions,” Register said. “ You can make an eternal difference in the lives of people locally and globally.”

Register challenged messengers to commit to participate in Find it Here 2012, and by doing so committing to growing as an individual Christ follower who consistently engages the lost with the Gospel and who helps develop those who embrace Jesus as Lord into mature, reproducing disciples.

He also challenged messengers, as influencers in local churches across the state, to commit to helping their church fulfill the Great Commission, intentionally proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples and nations, and intentionally making mature, reproducing disciples of those who profess faith in Jesus Christ.

“A lost and dying world waits to hear the life saving message of Jesus,” Register said. “The only question is: are you all in?”

To sign up to participate in Find it Here, or for more information, visit finditherenc.org.