Point-of-View

It has been a tremendous blessing and privilege to serve as the President of the Florida Baptist Convention. Since elected in November 2002, I have been provided the opportunity of representing our Lord, First Baptist, Brandon, and Florida Baptists at over 60 different engagements. God has provided me with a healthy perspective of the ministry of the Florida Baptist Convention. Our convention sets the pace for Southern Baptist work.

I suggest that there are five things that I would change about the Florida Baptist Convention. Our Florida Baptist Convention consists of 2,760 churches and missions made up of 781,000 resident members and 1,047,795 total members.

1. Commitment to Evangelism
Our churches baptized 34,274 in the year 2003. This represents one person led to Christ per 23 resident members of our Florida Baptist churches. Approximately one-third of these baptisms came from 160 of our 2,760 churches. I urge our churches to be intentional in evangelism. Door-to-door outreach still works!! We cannot lose the call to personal evangelism rendered in God’s Word.

2. Commitment to Missions
Our churches gave $35,373,749 to the Cooperative Program in 2003. This represents approximately $45 per resident member of our Florida Baptist churches. Statistics reveal that approximately 800 churches gave 7 percent or higher to the Cooperative Program of their undesignated receipts. I urge our churches to increase your percentage support or dollar support of the Cooperative Program. We have the finest mission organization in the world with over 10,000 missionaries on the field. It is incumbent upon us to give in a sacrificial manner.

3. Commitment to Sunday School
Sunday School attendance has been in a plateaued state among Florida Baptist churches. You can grow your church through the ministry of the Sunday School. On any given Sunday approximately 288,000 persons are involved in Sunday School in our churches. Renew the commitment of your church to Bible study through the small group setting.

4. Commitment to State Convention Staff
Our state convention is blessed with quality leadership. Dr. John Sullivan sets a tone of excellence for the work of our state convention. Last year our 77 state convention-based elected staff logged over 2.5 million miles and led in 7,500 personal conferences and 3,800 group conferences. These conferences were attended by over 169,000 persons. I urge you to express your appreciation to these dedicated servants of the Lord. Our staff made 8,171 Gospel presentations and witnessed 2,522 professions of faith. These individuals are seeking to provide training and challenge to our churches. Let them hear a loud thank you! from Florida Baptists.

5. Commitment to the Baptist College of Florida
We are blessed with a jewel of higher learning in Graceville. Dr. Tom Kinchen has led our college to a new day of preparing men and women for ministry. The tuition cost of the Baptist College of Florida is $5,600 per year, ranking 56th in lowest tuition cost among 57 Baptist colleges. We need to support our college with our prayers and finances. We need to encourage our God-called individuals to ministry to attend our college. We are blessed with an institution that fully aligns with the Florida Baptist Convention. I urge you to support the Baptist College of Florida in a wholehearted manner.
These five things I would change about our Florida Baptist Convention.

J. Thomas Green is pastor, First Baptist Church, Brandon