Message to the Golden Triangle Baptist Network
Oct. 13: 2019
Dr. Jim Turnbo, Executive Director
Text: Romans 15:22-29
Thesis: Our partnership in ministry is a contemporary manifestation of the biblical pattern for New Testament ministry.
Open your Bibles this evening to the book of Romans chapter 15, beginning with verse 22.
I am grateful for the privilege of serving as the missionary for this family of churches we call Golden Triangle Baptist Network. One hundred churches reaching across six counties in southeast Texas, bound together by a series of Biblical convictions we call Baptist and a firm commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some of us are bigger, some not; some in this convention, some that. We have Orange County, and Jefferson – and East Chambers, with a couple each in Newton, Hardin and Galveston counties as well. We have rural, urban, and multiple ethnicities, diverse life experience, and somewhat different theological perspectives.
And with diversity comes a mountain of issues about which we might disagree. But at the end of the day, we stand together because we love our Lord Jesus Christ and, despite the differences, for the gospel’s sake we’re better together.
This is what I’d like us to focus on this evening. I realize that, due to a variety of issues, relations among a group like ours can become strained. Give me enough time and I’ll offend you (I know my mouth), and you me.
But our mandate to cooperate is greater than this. When the precursor to GTBN was founded in 1888, it wasn’t because a group of preachers said “Let’s start an association.” It wasn’t for just convenience. It wasn’t even solely to advance the gospel. They were engaging in a pattern of ministry as old as the Old Testament itself. As we do today.
One of the clearest examples of this pattern in scripture is in Romans 15.
Paul here is closing out his Roman letter, his deep treatment on the gospel, written to a church that he had neither started nor yet visited. The church was likely started by unknown Christians, sometime between Pentecost and Paul’s missionary journeys. But with his rising status as an apostle to the Gentiles, and several friends of his now residing in Rome, there’s a likely expectation that Paul would have visited them before now.
So in Rom. 15:19-20, he explains how his prime calling, his ambition the text says – is “to preach the gospel, not where Christ had already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation”.
In vs. 19 he says, “I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum.” In other words, he’d planted the gospel in all untouched areas in this part of the world.
And so he says, beginning in vs. 22 (read though vs. 29).
Paul says, “I haven’t visited because I’ve been busy taking the gospel to the untouched territories. But now that mission’s done. Now I can visit you.”
But he says, “When I visit, it’s so can join me as I carry the gospel to Spain, the next untouched field on the map.” Paul the missionary is connecting the Roman church – that he didn’t start – to his missionary task.
But then he says, “Before this, I am going to Jerusalem with a gift for the poverty-stricken saints there, given by churches in Macedonia and Achaia.”
Now, I realize this is a descriptive, not prescriptive text. But it’s descriptive of a pattern apparent throughout the New Testament.
Local churches, independent and autonomous, are nevertheless interconnect by a common faith and a common mission.
Review the book of Acts. The church starts at Pentecost. When Stephen is stoned, Jewish Christians spread the gospel as they flee Jerusalem. Some reach Antioch, where they evangelize Gentiles. The Jerusalem church sends Barnabas to check it out. He fetches Paul. In a year, Paul and Barnabas launch their mission. When concern arose about doctrine in the Gentile churches, the Jerusalem council met. When word of famine and poverty in Jerusalem reached Paul, he encouraged the Gentile churches to receive an offering for them. And now, he enlists the Christians of Rome to join his mission to Spain.
This is the pattern. New Testament congregations were not isolated from one another. And they had their differences. They were certainly not uniform (Rom. 14). But they shared a commitment to stand on particular doctrinal convictions, the expansion of the gospel witness, and a stake in one another’s ministry.
And our partnership, GTBN, is a contemporary manifestation of this pattern. We’re not perfect, but when we work together, it’s because we seek to follow the New Testament pattern for missionary cooperation.
With this said, notice two purposes illustrated by Paul for this partnership.
1. The first is expansion of the gospel.
Vs. 24, “I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.”
- Paul reaches out to the Romans so they can join in his effort to spread the gospel, especially to places where it has yet to be preached. Some scholars believe this is a driving motivation behind the letter, assuring they are firm on the fundamental truths of the gospel as they join in his mission. But the gospel is a foundational purpose for cooperation.
And this is certainly true for us. We have churches in GTBN whose particulars fall across the Southern Baptist spectrum, but we’re united in a commitment to spread the clear gospel of Jesus to those who haven’t heard or have not believed!
- This is what the PLAN is all about. You need to know that PLAN is not simply a cute acronym cooked up around our conference table by a few guys. It’s a reflection of our commitment to cooperative missions.
- In terms of gospel expansion we see this in the P and N. The P is for church planting, starting new congregations.
- Now somebody asked me recently, why with 100+ churches in GTBN, do we need to plant new churches. “Shouldn’t we help our struggling churches?”
- And the answer is yes, we should help our struggling churches. But it is not an either / or proposition. Our area is expected to grow by about 40% between now and 2050. Most of this growth will be people of different cultural backgrounds than make up most of our churches. And let’s be honest, most of our churches serve best those with some church or Baptist background. People with absolutely no church experience have trouble connecting with them. That’s why new churches are teeming with young people.
- I’ve run some numbers. On any given Sunday only 1.6 percent of a population in our region of over 430,000 people attend any of our churches, 7200 based on your ACP reporting. We have maybe 3 times as many seats. If in ten years we tripled our combined attendance, there would still be more unchurched people in the Golden Triangle than we have total population today. So, if take the gospel seriously, we must plant new congregations.
- (Opposition to new church in Thoreau…)
- My prayer is that we would put peripheral matters aside, work through significant maters in love and godliness, and join to saturate the Golden Triangle and with disciple making churches, so every person of every culture in every place has every opportunity to become a Christ follower.
But then there’s the N in PLAN, for Networking. And this speaks to how we help churches partner across the region and around the world, so that we have a hands-on role God’s mission beyond our home.
- It’s been a joy getting to know the pastors we partner with in Belize, Charles, Ustaquio, Job, and the others. They are growing disciples in their villages and planting new churches, in part through the equipping we provide, and the missionary we support. All of this to follow the Biblical pattern of working together to spread the gospel.
2. The Second Purpose for Partnership is the Welfare of the Churches.
- Vs. 25-27: “At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.”
- Catch what Paul says. “Before we go to Spain, I must visit Jerusalem. The mission churches out in Macedonia and Achaia have taken an offering. They have benefitted by the Jerusalem church, the first recipients of the gospel, from whom all gospel witness originated. Now, they owe them an opportunity to serve them in return.
- There is an obligation. We always think of the sending church taking offerings for the mission church. I love what you have here, the mission churches helping out the sending church. But there’s a partnership, a concern for the welfare of people and churches that are not your own.
At GTBN we exemplify this commitment through the L and A in our PLAN.
- L is for Leadership, our investment in pastors, staff, lay leaders. John Maxwell is right, everything rises and falls with leadership. Churches are only as strong as those who shepherd them. So we want to encourage, strengthen, and develop a pipeline of new ministry leasers.
- A is for awakening, our spin on church revitalization (PLRN just doesn’t flow from the tongue the way PLAN does. But it is our willingness to work together, to pick up a sister church when they are down, and help them return to the ministry God called them to be. There is a lot of this happening right now in response to TD Imelda.
- And again, we do this nor as a matter of convenience or preference. It’s our effort to follow the New Testament pattern.
Conclusion:
I’ll be honest. The advance of God’s work does not depend on the Golden Triangle Baptist Network. If we go away, He’ll raise others to fill this role.
- But we’re here, together, now. I know in the past relationships have been strained. Still, I believe we need each other. I believe our witness is stronger, and our ministries healthier because we encourage, influence, support, and yes, even challenge one another.
- Going forward we’re going do a few things differently. We hope to move our of our building and into borrowed space, lowering overhead costs and feeing funds to invest in ministry. We’re going to invest the savings, at this point in time, on connecting with underserved groups within GTBN, especially our ethnic, non-English, and bivocational churches. We need to give them a reason to engage. We’re going to serve one another through the Network. Jason Burden told me in an early visit that we have talented leaders within our churches to address any need. I think he’s right.
- And as we strengthen the fellowship, we’ll continue to seek God together to see how we together invest in His kingdom work.
- We are better together. Join me, that this will be more than a hash tag, but a reality.