Celebration is not a strength for me. I did not grow up with birthday parties or big celebrations for milestones met. Up until the last minute I was considering not attending my own college graduation ceremony. Given the delinquent approach I took to my college career it is nearly a miracle that I graduated from college at all. I should have celebrated if for no other reason than being amazed that I graduated.
Celebration, however, is an important part of the Christian life. We celebrate when a person crosses from death to life through Christian conversion. We celebrate the birth of a child into a Christian home and the parents dedicating themselves to bring up that child in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We celebrate when a Christian couple commits to spending their life together in a marriage that seeks to honor Christ.
Kentucky Baptists can, and should, celebrate that the unified evangelistic effort known as The Gospel to Every Home (GTEH) is being met with incredible buy-in across the Commonwealth. GTEH, a collaborative effort involving Kentucky Baptist Associations, Churches, and the KBC Evangelism Team, is a “three-phased” evangelistic initiative:
- Phase One: Adoption of each of the 1,728,681 homes in the Commonwealth by a church or association to take responsibility for delivering the Gospel of Christ to those homes.
- Phase Two: Delivery of the Gospel to each of the 1,728,681 homes.
- Phase Three: Working with interested churches to develop an annual evangelism strategy aimed at helping them reach their community with the Gospel.
As of the writing of this article more than 98 percent of the 1,728,681 homes have been adopted by Kentucky Baptist Associations and Churches. By adopting these homes, or more specifically the zip codes where the homes are located, these Kentucky Baptist leaders are saying, “we will see to it, as God enables us, that the good news of Jesus is delivered to the homes in our area”. That is a reality worth celebrating.
I have recently seen pictures on social media of several of our Kentucky Baptist Associational Missions Strategists working together with the churches in their associations mapping out in detail which church will take responsibility for which homes in their selected zip codes.
When there is so much that seems to divide us these days it has done my heart good to see Kentucky Baptists choosing to unite for the sake of Christ and His mission to preach the Gospel to every person.
Kentucky Baptists there still have much work to do. Now that the homes have been, and continue to be adopted, the next phase is to deliver the Gospel to these homes. Lord willing that will happen in the months to come. But for right now we need to celebrate by thanking God and by encouraging each other in working together for Christ.
May God’s name be honored in Kentucky. May the Gospel of Jesus be proclaimed from our pulpits and from the people who fill our pews. May Kentucky Baptists lead the way in making Jesus known to our lost neighbors. And may God be pleased to bring a great harvest of born-again people being added to the family of God.
Great job, Kentucky Baptists!
Dr. Todd Gray 