In this episode, TBMB leader Roc Collins talks about the evangelism initiative that will launch across Tennessee in the coming months.FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Roc Collins:
We want to see people saved, and in a state like Tennessee, where we have nearly 7 million residents, our best statistics tell us that we’re approaching 4 million that are lost without Jesus. Somewhere around 56% of Tennesseans are lost, from our best statistics. So, we understand the importance of winning people to Jesus.
Chris Turner:
Hello, and welcome in to this edition of Radio B&R. I’m your host, Chris Turner, Director of Communications at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. I’m really excited today for us to be talking with Roc Collins, our Director of Strategic Initiatives here at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. Roc, welcome into Radio B&R.
Roc Collins:
Well, thank you, Chris. It’s good to be here.
Chris Turner:
Well, anybody who knows you, knows that if you’re talking to Roc Collins, you’re probably talking about evangelism in some way and sharing the gospel and seeing people come to Christ, which not only is your responsibility here, but that’s just who you are.
Roc Collins:
It is.
Chris Turner:
That’s where your passion lies, isn’t it?
Roc Collins:
It is. It is. I love to see people saved, and I am convicted about that fact that I want to see people saved.
Chris Turner:
Absolutely. Well, that whole thing really was the impetus behind us resurrecting the State of Evangelism Conference, that, if I understand correctly, 14 years since we’ve had the last one?
Roc Collins:
That was my understanding too. When I came on board, about five years ago, Chris, I was inundated with people saying, “Bring back the Evangelism Conference.” I began to search out what had happened and why we weren’t having it and so forth, and found out it’d been 14 years. I said, “We got to do this.” So, we started working on it, diligently, me and my team. We had it ready for 2021, and of course COVID got us, but man, God blessed it. We were very pleased with the outcome from the 2022 State Evangelism Conference.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. You guys had Steve Gaines and Tony Evans and Grant Gaines and Tony’s son, and just great lineup, but really at the core of that was just preaching the importance of evangelism. Why is it so important that we do have an evangelism conference and why we preach that?
Roc Collins:
Well, an evangelism conference, the way I view it, is that it needs to be at time that is energy-packed, where we’re inspiring and encouraging our ministers, our pastors, and all staff and lay people, whoever comes, we want to challenge them to go and be soul winners. That was the reason for the theme that was so very strong found in Jude 23, about snatching them from the fire. Very aggressive, because that’s what we wanted to portray to those who came. It is important that we win people to Jesus. It is not only important. It’s urgent. We need to be urgent about it. So, the preachers were great. As you said, Tony Evans was there. His son, Jonathan, Dr. Don Wilton, who was Billy Graham’s pastor.
Chris Turner:
Wow.
Roc Collins:
Was there. He was also my preaching professor in seminary.
Chris Turner:
Wow.
Roc Collins:
He’s Pastor at First Baptist, Spartanburg, South Carolina, but we had some fantastic speakers. God just blessed it in a mighty way, and I believe people were really encouraged and challenged.
Chris Turner:
Well, that’s not a one-off.
Roc Collins:
No.
Chris Turner:
I mean, that’s not going to happen in the future, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but really there needs to be this igniting, this attention drawn to it. We need to keep talking about it. In 2014, Tennessee Baptists worked together, and we came up with the five objectives. That first objective is seeing 50,000 people saved, baptized and set on the road to discipleship by 2024. We’re rapidly approaching 2024. We’re not necessarily anywhere close to 50,000, but we keep pressing on. So, why is it so important, and where are we with that first objective of reaching people?
Roc Collins:
Well, the first objective is abundantly important, because we want to see people saved, and in a state like Tennessee, where we have nearly 7 million residents, our best statistics tell us that we’re approaching 4 million that are lost without Jesus. Somewhere around 56% of Tennesseans are lost, from our best statistics. So, we understand the importance of winning people to Jesus. Our objective, 50,000 baptisms annually, and set them on the road to discipleship gives us some very important items we have to look at. Number One, I want to draw to your attention that evangelism and discipleship are so very related. We believe they’re two sides of the same coin, so we want to see them saved, baptized and set on the road to discipleship. So, that’s one thing I’d say.
Roc Collins:
Secondly, the 50,000 number. Tennessee Baptists baptized over 35,000 in 1950, and we haven’t got to 30,000 since. As a matter of fact, in 2019, we baptized just under 20,000, and then we had the COVID year of 2020, and our numbers from COVID, which I was surprised that we got hardly anything, but we had 9,000 plus in 2020 during COVID, which was pretty good just to have that many reported .in 2021, we have gotten somewhere in the neighborhood of about 13,000 coming out of COVID. So, we’re working on those numbers, but we’re a ways from 50,000, and we want to get there. So, in order to get there, we’ve tried to come up with a plan that we could help impress upon our churches the importance, but also, equip them with the tools they need so, that we can maybe get to 50,000 by 2024.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. This is one of those things that, too often, we seem to think that the paid ministry staff are the evangelists, and the church and the rest of us don’t. But that’s not what Jesus said in the Great Commission.
Roc Collins:
No, that’s exactly right.
Chris Turner:
He’s commanded everyone of us.
Roc Collins:
Yes.
Chris Turner:
A lot of people don’t do that. They don’t know how to bridge over to their culture, or maybe cross-culturally to people group and their community. What we’re talking about here is an opportunity to try and help our ministers help their people be equipped to do that.
Roc Collins:
Exactly. What we’re planning do Chris, over the next 24 months, I mean, we’ve got two years basically to get to 2024, and we can get the 50,000. We’re going to start going to every association, and we’ve got over 60 associations, so it’s going to take us a while. But we’re going to try to do, what we’re calling, ignite rallies in each association. What that will consist of is we’re going to have a dinner for the pastors and ministers, where we can share with them our passion, and we’re going to give them a box called a Win Tennessee Box. In that box, is going to be filled with resources, such as different tracks. We’re going to have sermon outlines that they can use. We’re going to give them a number of resources that they will be able to take back to their church, and we’re going to ask them to use some of those resources that they can use anything they want, but we’re going to share some things that they could use.
Roc Collins:
We’re going to ask them to have at least a 30 day emphasis in their church, where they are extremely evangelistic in everything that they do. Those sermon outlines will not necessarily be evangelism sermons, as much as how to train your people to do evangelism. So, we’re going to have training, but we’ll also have opportunities in that material, in those resources, where they can use them evangelistically. We would like to see, at the end of 30 days to have a big celebration of baptisms. So, it’s just an attempt to help our churches get excited and ignited, if you will, to win the loss. We believe, if we’re going to win the harvest field of Tennessee, every church will need to win their harvest field. So, if every church is winning their harvest field, we can win the whole harvest field of Tennessee.
Chris Turner:
Well, one of our other, of our five objectives is church revitalization. It seems like nothing cures a church’s need for revitalization as much as looking outward beyond the church’s walls and into their community.
Roc Collins:
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. That’s the beauty of our objectives. Those first three, 500 churches revitalized, 1000 new churches planted. Both of those, if they are being accomplished, are affecting the first objective, which is 50,000 baptism, because nothing does stir your church like seeing outside your walls, and what happens? People get saved. Chris, Dr. Landrum Leavell, who was longtime president at New Orleans seminary said this, and I quote him often, but I found it to be true. He said, “There’ll be no trouble in your church that trouble baptismal waters won’t take care of.”
Chris Turner:
Wow.
Roc Collins:
I thought, what a great word, and if we can trouble the baptismal waters, it’ll take care of a whole lot of ills in our society. But more than that, it will change our churches to be more vibrant and alive for the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Chris Turner:
Well, we have, over the past two years, really made it a concerted effort here at the TBMB to stay connected with our pastors, to just check on them, making sure they’re doing okay. We’ve walked with a lot, through a lot of different stuff, but this initiative, we will continue to do that. This isn’t like, here’s your kit. Call us when you’re done.
Roc Collins:
No. This is something we’re going to continue to follow up on, and 2024 is the date we want to accomplish 50,000 baptisms, and setting them on the road discipleship. But I want to be clear. We get to 2024, we’re not going to stop emphasizing baptizing folks and winning them to Jesus and sending them to [crosstalk 00:10:12]
Chris Turner:
I doubt you’d be all that broke up, if we actually went well beyond 50,000.
Roc Collins:
I would tickle pink.
Chris Turner:
So, when we look at this, and we just see that this is out there, let’s just be clear, this is not a program.
Roc Collins:
No, it’s not a program.
Chris Turner:
Because, what we’re talking about is a great commission.
Roc Collins:
That’s right.
Chris Turner:
We are already commanded. Jesus gave us a program. He gave us the program to go and reach those in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
Roc Collins:
That’s right.
Chris Turner:
So, our churches need to have that broader Acts 1:8 vision. But what we’re talking about here is trying to help them get on that track.
Roc Collins:
Yes.
Chris Turner:
Do what they’ve already been called to do.
Roc Collins:
Yes. It’s not a program. I’m so glad you said that, because so often in church life and Christendom, we’ll say, “Well, here’s a new program that’ll work.” It’s not a program. I’d rather call it trying to ignite a passion.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. Yeah.
Roc Collins:
There’s nothing that stirs and ignites evangelism like winning somebody to Jesus-
Chris Turner:
Yeah.
Roc Collins:
Once you do it. That’s why I often say evangelism is not taught, it’s caught. We were talking about your long-time pastor, who had a great heart for evangelism.
Chris Turner:
Yeah, Ray Newcomb.
Roc Collins:
Ray Newcomb was, it burned within him to see people saved. I remember hearing that in the front cover of his Bible, he had written, God help me to never get used to men and women, boys and girls going to hell.
Chris Turner:
Yeah.
Roc Collins:
I thought, God, let that be the passion of our heart in Tennessee.
Chris Turner:
Well, and that’s really where we’re headed with Ignite. That schedule will be coming out. You’re already lining up places?
Roc Collins:
We are meeting presently, with directors of missions all across the state, and will be getting those dates in place. They’re going to begin pretty soon.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. Well, I think you’ll be playing Willie Nelson, On the Road Again here-
Roc Collins:
Of course.
Chris Turner:
If it gets too much, as if you haven’t been off the road. But so, be looking for information that’ll be distributed through our DOMs, and DOMs and it will connect with our pastors. But this is an ongoing conversation, that we really have a passion to be involved with our churches and with our Directors of Missions.
Roc Collins:
Yes.
Chris Turner:
Because, we’re all trying to accomplish the same thing.
Roc Collins:
Exactly. I may not have said this. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t. We’ll have a dinner where we share those resources I talked about. Then after that, we’ll have a rally where everyone’s invited, not just ministers, laity, everyone, and we hope to ignite some excitement in that time.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. Greatest need that we have in our churches is for people to take ownership of what it is that the Lord has called us to do anyway. We can look around our world, across our state, and just see that the thing that will affect what problems we have, is Jesus coming into the heart of people and being-
Roc Collins:
Amen.
Chris Turner:
… reconciled to God.
Roc Collins:
Amen.
Chris Turner:
Well, Roc, thanks so much for sharing a little bit of time to get us going, get us ignited as we start this. As you’re listening, be sure to keep up with what’s going on. Call us here at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, but also be checking your inbox, Facebook and our website for more information. Roc, thanks for being a part of this.
Roc Collins:
Thank you, Chris. My joy.
Speaker 3:
Thank you for listening to Radio B&R, a podcast production of the Baptist and Reflector, the official news journal of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. This, and other episodes can be downloaded at Baptistandreflector.org/RadioBR. The ministries of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board are supported through the Cooperative, and gifts received through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. For more information, visit TNBaptist.org.
