Shine: Balanced evangelism
In Acts 3-4, Peter and John encounter a man who had been cripple since birth. He was regularly placed at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in order to beg for money. When Peter and John approached the man, they did something that must have been somewhat unusual. They looked at him. Now that is unusual because even today we try not to make eye contact with those begging on the corners of our streets. In full disclosure, I must confess...
Shine: Revivals and their relevance today
Several years ago my director of missions in Sherman, Texas told me about a revival he held with James Simple. His name was Norris Cash, and the flyer for the revival said in large bold letters, “Simple-Cash Revival.” That was my favorite revival flyer until Tuffy Wiggly and I did a revival together and our flyer said, “Wiggly—Quigley Revival.” Needless to say, that flyer turned more than a few heads as it hung in the window of the...
Shine: Do you believe the Bible?
Two unrelated events in my life have made one major impact on my commitment to read God’s Word. The first happened while I was a college student. Professor Gene Petty had just come to Ouachita Baptist University from Duncan, Immanuel. The room was filled with new ministry students, and we were about to encounter a very important series of questions. Petty asked, “How many of you young men plan to obey God’s Word?” We all eagerly...
Shine: True yoke-fellows
“Yoke-fellow” isn’t a word that we use much anymore. However, it is a beautiful picture of team work. Most of us have never seen a real live yoke-fellow set of oxen, but we know it is two oxen bound together at the neck for the purpose of pulling a common load. It is known that an adult ox can pull between 6,000 and 8,000 pounds by themselves but if they are yoked together they can pull between 23,000 to 26,000 pounds. That is far...
Shine: A call to revitalize evangelism in our convention
Recently, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) publicly announced that 29 percent of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches reported no baptisms, and 47 percent reported two or less. In the SBC 2017 book of reports, NAMB reported that baptisms had fallen to 295,000 in 2016, which is the first time the convention reported less than 300,000 baptisms in decades. These statistics and trends over the last two decades have raised...
