SBC President Urges Future Leaders to Remain Salty as the Protectors of Faith

By Pauline J. Chang, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Jack Graham, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention urged the denomination’s future potential leaders to take back the fallen culture and restore it in the name of Christ, during his mid March sermon at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary campus chapel in Louisville, KY.

"In our battle for the culture we need to remember that we live in a world that is broken by sin. We need to remember who the enemy is and we need to bring every person broken by sin to the feet of Christ Jesus," Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX said.

He challenged the students to be passionate for Christ as the salt and the light of the world.

"We must constantly be asking ourselves, 'How can I personally be salt and light in my community? How can I personally and passionately share Jesus Christ with my neighbor? While the world is falling apart in darkness and decay, how can I make a difference? How can I proclaim the risen and resurrected Redeemer? How can His passion be my passion?'

"It begins with a courageous, consistent witness," said Graham. "We see it in the lives of [Christ's] disciples. We must obey God and not man."

Instead of being blended with the modern materialistic culture, he said Christians must be the protectors of faith.

"Too often the church of Jesus Christ is more interested in keeping the faith than giving it away," he said.

Evangelism remains the "foundational to the assignment that God has ultimately given us. [Other issues] cannot keep us on a side street or sidetrack from reaching our neighbors and our nation with the Gospel of Christ."

"We are not left to human inventions," he said. "We are dependent on the Holy Spirit. ... Satan is far more fearful of a Spirit-filled Christian sharing Christ than any other weapon formed against Him.