Faith isn’t something we can just keep. We have to pass it on. Whether we defend the faith, stand for the faith, or define the faith, it’s all for the purpose of transmitting that faith to someone else. The baton is held just long enough to be handed to the next runner.
Christians transfer their faith when they lead a person to salvation in Christ, but that is only part of the process. The joy of the new birth is followed by an intense time of growth and maturity through discipleship. In my article “Truth Transfer” and throughout this issue, we will see how our faith should continue.
R.B. Ouellette gets practical in “Personal Evangelism.” By following the model found in Scripture, listening to the Holy Spirit, and spreading the seed of the Gospel, God will use us to bring forth much fruit.
In “The Bible’s Only Dash,” John Goetsch points out a punctuation anomaly to demonstrate the heart of a man who desperately wanted to see his people saved from their sins. You won’t ever look at this passage of Scripture the same way again.
Don Sisk reminds us in his article, “How I Learned to Win Souls” that soulwinning is better caught than taught. He tells of the man who showed him that people can be saved right in their own homes.
How will we pass on the Christian faith to the next generation? In “United,” Cary Schmidt explains the biblical model of student ministry where the home and local church work together. Parents and pastors may not have the same role in a child’s life, but they certainly should have the same goal.
When it comes to discipleship in modern missions, few men have done more to help churches produce strong Christians than John Honeycutt. The son of missionary parents and a veteran missionary of several decades, Brother Honeycutt has helped write the Daily in the Word discipleship course, has started five churches, and has helped 500 other churches get started. He spoke to the The Baptist Voice about implementing discipleship in a church and the cost of discipleship in mainland China.
Church planting and discipleship are not happening only on foreign fields. We contacted over a dozen men who are planting Bible-believing Baptist churches right here in the United States. They described some of the struggles and great blessings of starting a new church.
Despite the news of our society turning against its Christian heritage, there are churches around the world that are raising the next generation of Christian leaders. They know they carry something sacred, something eternal that must be given purposefully, passionately, and prolifically. If you hold the truth of God’s Word, to whom will you give it?
