by Keith Bassham
Nearly 38 years ago to the day, in just about this spot in the Tribune, Wendell Zimmerman was introducing himself to the Fellowship as the new Tribune editor. He chose to include in that edition a transcript of a sermon preached by John W. Rawlings earlier that fall. Mr. Rawlings’s text was Psalm 48:9-14, and he stressed the words, “that ye may tell it to the generation following.”
In the Bible study feature this month, I make reference to John Rawlings and a message he wished me to pass on to our Fellowship when I visited him in his home in Kentucky this past month. The text of that 1974 sermon and the message he gave me in his own kitchen were very similar. It speaks well of a man whose words are consistent over so long a period of time.
In his sermon, he spoke of his own conversion, of his fear of the Lord, his appreciation for the Fellowship, and, characteristically, of his hopes for the next generation. He urged them to be personal soulwinners. He challenged churches to reproduce themselves in a time frame of months, not years. He said, “We never can move this Fellowship forward like I’m talking about unless there is sweat and toil and labor — house to house, and door to door,” and “This is not a swan song or a pep rally. But I’ll tell you one thing: If you have been to the cross, if you have been to Calvary, if you have had an experience, if you have had a drink at that fountain, if you have had a look at that bread, and you have put your feet under the King’s table, then get with it!”
As I said, I heard pretty much the same thing during my personal audience a couple of weeks ago. His interest remains the same as it was at the beginning of our Fellowship: “that ye may tell it to the generation following.”
That, of course, is also the burden and charter of the Baptist Bible Tribune as we tell the story of what God is doing among the churches and preachers of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. And as we enter a new year, our Fellowship faces new and greater challenges — a burgeoning population, a nation and a world increasingly willing to accept an adversarial position opposite their Creator, political chaos in that area of the world described by the Bible, and economic uncertainty all around.
Some might want to retreat in the face of those challenges, but the founders of our Fellowship, John Rawlings et al, leave us a better example. They were more like that storied military squad leader who urgently radioed his position to headquarters: “Surrounded on all sides by the enemy. They won’t get away from us now.”
Let us find a place of renewal in this year 2013, for the sake of generations before, and for the sake of those who follow.