SaturateColorado.com

By Mickey Noah, SBC North American Mission Board

ALPHARETTA, GA (BP) -- More than 3,000 Southern Baptist churches have registered commitments to develop an intentional and comprehensive missions strategy through the Acts 1:8 Challenge.

Launched in May 2004 by the Southern Baptist International and North American mission boards (IMB and NAMB) in cooperation with Baptist state conventions and associations, the Acts 1:8 Challenge is deisgned to encourage SBC churches to take a fresh look at how they plan and execute their missions efforts.

The 3,019 churches on board with Acts 1:8 across teh U.S. and Canada are "a testimony to the passion that Southern Baptists have for Jesus' Acts 1:8 mandate to impact lostness and create disciples of all nations in less than three years," said Tim Yarbrough, director of church relations at NAMB.

In Colorado, 35 congregations have made public commitments to the effort.

The Acts 1:8 Challenge assists congregations in implementing a comprehensive missions strategy involving their community, region, continent and the world.  It's bsed on Jesus' charge to the apostles recorded in Acts 1:8" "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

To fulfill its Acts 1:8 commitment, an SBC church is encouragd to cooperate with its local Baptist association, its state convention, NAMB and IMB.  Churches accepting the challenge commit to eight "Kingdom-growing" responses as they work to intentionally carry out Acts 1:8: to prepare, learn, pray, give, go, tell, send and multiply.

Texas leads the top 10 states in the number of Acts 1:8 churches iwht 268.  Others in the top 10 include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

"Through the Acts 1:8 Challange, any church of any size can embrace a strategic, biblical missions model that literally impacts eternity," Yarbrough said.  "After all, missions is the overarching purpose of the church."

When a church commits to the Acts 1:8 Challenge, it receives a packet of resources to help develop a more comprehensive and intentional missions strategy.  Resources include a sermon outline, bulletin insert, video clips on CD-ROM, PowerPoint presentations and a 60-page leadership guide.

While the leadership guide helps a church evaluate its current effectiveness and implement a plan for the future, other resources -- such as the sermon outline, videos and PowerPoint presentations -- are intended to motivate and inspire the congregation to action.

In March, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lone Tree hosted the first Acts 1:8 Renewal Weekend.  It will serve as a pilot for future similar events.  The theme was "Acts 1:8: The Extreme Makeover."

According to Cornerstone senior pastor Michael Wright, four other churches, including a local Korean church, joined Cornerstone in supporting the weekend's activities, attended by a capacity crowd of more than 500.

"That weekend forced us to become laser-focused on prayer and evangelism," Wright said.  "Now our deacons are asking me questions like, 'What can we do to make evangelism a lifestyle here, not just part of the church?  How do we make missions and evangelism an everyday thing in my life?'

"This tells me that the Acts 1:8 program is going deep," Wright said.  "That's music to my ears as pastor."

Wright said he wanted to see Cornerstone make evangelism and missions an even stronger focal point for his church in the future.

"I'd love to see our church ecome a model for other churhes.  I'd like our people to get involved in Acts 1:8 weekends at other churhes. I fee strongly that every church should conduct an Acts 1:8 weekend to get their people on misson 24/7.

"Acts 1:8 is about being transformed, not just something you put on a T-shirt, but something you live.  It's about coming together to get right with God on evangelism.  When you do that, the result for your church is renewal, refreshment and revival," Wright said.

Successful Acts 1:8 efforts in the Denver area is 93 percent.  Surveys tell us that only 7 percent of our local population attends any kind of religious activity.  It's very much a secular world out here.  We don't have enough churches, pastors or witenesses.  We need more harvesters in the field."

In 2006, 12,700 Southern Baptists were involved in church renewal, said Bob Foy, NAMB national missionary and renewal coordinator based in Mooresville, N.C.  Foy said the Acts 1:8 Renewal Weekend is designed to ignite revival in the church -- all focused around God's mission for the church.

"Although the main purpose of Acts 1:8 Renewal Weekends is to get saved Baptists back on fire for missions, we had 132 salvations and 7,600 rededications during the 160 church renewal weekends held in 2006," Foy said.

So far, 112 churches have signed up for specific renewal weekends during 2007, he said: 28 others are tentatively scheduled.

Foy emphasized that Acts 1:8 Renewal Weekends are led by laypeople, not pastors.  The four-day session begins with a 24-hour prayer vigil on Thursday, followed by genera and teaching sessions, worship/sharing celebrations, prayer time and fellowship meals from Friday night to Sunday night.