by Elmer Towns
A sermon preached at the commencement of Baptist Bible College Asia in Manila, Philippines, March 13, 2014
I believe this is a great college for evangelism. Any great college for evangelism will do it in three ways. First, it will teach evangelism in its curriculum and communicate an attitude and passion for evangelism in all of its courses. Second, students at a college will be involved in evangelism on a regular basis. And third, student evangelism will be connected to church planting and actual soul winning.
Baptist Bible College Asia has been attached to the Highlands Camp built by the Rawlings Foundation. Highlands Camp is located 150 miles out of Manila where over 785,000 campers have heard the gospel and nearly 350,000 have made decisions for Christ in the past 14 years. Many of these converts have attended Baptist Bible College Asia that now has over 1,200 students. While they were students, they became involved in evangelistic ministry back at the camp, or in one of the 18 new churches planted by this ministry in the past 14 years. Today, over 7,000 people attend these churches. This is a great college because it is attempting to carry out the Great Commission.
When we talk about a great college, let’s look at how Jesus used the word great. Our Lord said, “Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” Did you notice that Jesus promised His disciples could do “greater” works than He did? That is what the students of a great Bible college are doing!
Jesus gave sight to blind people, but a “greater” work is when spiritual sight is given to lost people who are blinded by sin.
Jesus healed the lame so they could walk, but a “greater” work is when a person is brought to Jesus Christ, and then taught to follow Jesus just as He commanded in Mark 1:17.
Jesus healed people of leprosy, an incurable disease, but a greater work is when a lost person is cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
How can we tell a great Bible college? Let’s make a comparison of a Bible college to an automobile factory. Great automobile factories are not measured by their great size, or the beauty of their physical plants, nor the greatness of their mechanical assembly lines, nor the greatness of the training and certification of their workers. No! Great automobile factories are measured by the great automobiles they produce. The greatest automobile factory in the world produces the greatest automobiles. And in comparison, a great Bible college produces great soul winners who in turn help build great soul-winning churches.
In 1969, I was conducting research to find the largest churches in the United States. The pastors were familiar with my survey because this was my third year to conduct the research. I added an additional question, “What seminary/college did you attend that motivated and equipped you to pastor one of the largest churches in America?”
I began posting the results on a large chart listing all of the major Christian colleges and seminaries in America. However, most of the best-known accredited seminaries and colleges did not get any votes. They had the greatest reputation, large enrollment, and beautiful facilities. They had names like Moody, Biola, Nyack, and various others.
One college received 23 votes. Immediately I knew this college was special. I determined to find out that reason. I purchased a plane ticket, arrived in Springfield, MO, rented a car, and I showed up at Baptist Bible College unannounced.
First, I visited the library, a large room perhaps 30 feet by 30 feet. Three walls had shelves of books and I asked the librarian, “Where are your stacks?”
“You are looking at them.”
I was dumbfounded; I had more books in my library at home than this college had available for its students. So I asked,
“Where is your reference room?”
She showed me two shelves. I walked out of the library perplexed, wondering how a college that produced so many pastors that built the largest churches in America could have such a small library.
Next I visited two different Bible classes taught by their better-known professors. They were good classes, but no better than those I had at Columbia Bible College and Northwestern College (neither of the colleges or seminaries I attended produced pastors in the largest churches of America.)
Then I went to chapel where Dr. John Rawlings was speaking. The spirit was electrifying. I will never forget the challenge given by Dr. Rawlings.
“Young people … when you graduate from Baptist Bible College, go to some God-forsaken place like Kankakee, Iowa, plant a great church, and capture that town for Christ.”
Then I understood that the secret of the college was in its fire ignited by chapel messages. I learned that day that great colleges “keep the chapel pulpit hot.”
To the leaders at Baptist Bible College Asia, remember you do not build a great college on scholarship alone. But also you can’t build a great college without scholarship. You build a great college on the Great Commission — God’s priority.
Am I suggesting God is against scholarship? No! Academic excellence and scholarship are imperative, but must be kept in the right perspective.
To the young graduates today, remember, God’s call to service includes God’s call to prepare. If God has called you to fulltime service, He has called you to be the best prepared you can be. That involves spiritual preparation, academic preparation, and practical experience.
There are several types of knives; each is used for a different purpose. A butter knife is designed to cut butter, but it cannot cut meat, bone, or anything harder. A meat knife can cut meat or butter, but it cannot cut wood or stone. A knife is effective according to its sharpness. There is a knife that can cut diamonds. To cut diamonds, that knife has to be the sharpest and hardest of all knives. That should be the aim of every minister of the gospel, to be so well prepared that you can do your best in ministry.
When God is looking for a young man or woman to do a difficult task, He must pass over some people who are like butter knives; they are only prepared to cut butter. Therefore, plan to be a diamond cutter. Plan to get more education after you graduate today. To do the greatest job for God, you must have the greatest preparation.
John Wesley was perhaps the greatest servant of God since the Apostle Paul. I have a portrait of him hanging in my office given to me by the World Center for Methodism. Within one generation after Wesley died, the Methodist church he founded had become the largest church movement in the world.
There were reformers who might be better known than Wesley, but they did not accomplish as much. Martin Luther introduced justification by faith to the world, but his Lutheran church was small by comparison. John Calvin introduced reformed theology that resulted in the Presbyterian Church, and again not a large movement. But John Wesley recruited an army of circuit riding preachers whose aims were to win the whole world for Jesus Christ. There is a famous portrait of Wesley with a picture of a globe in the background with these words, “The world my parish.”
There were 243 Methodist churches in the United States when America signed the Declaration of Independence from England in 1776. Approximately 35 years later, during the War of 1812, there were over 5,000 Methodist churches in America — an unheard of exponential explosion of churches. When Wesley died he left 85,063 Methodist church members in England. He rode 250,000 miles on horseback, preached 40,000 sermons mostly in the open air; he usually preached four to five times each day.
Let’s look at the Methodist circuit-riding preachers. John Wesley said he would ordain a man, “If they have numbers, letters, and the spirit of God.” The early Methodist preachers were not graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, or any of the great English universities. They were called “plowboy preachers” or “shop keep preachers” who came from the working classes. Each circuit-riding preacher planted and pastored approximately 40 churches. In the United States, a circuit rider might be assigned three or four counties in one state. He rode his horse down a rural road singing great hymns and shouting the faith of Jesus Christ. People came out of their farms to meet him. He gathered them into barns, stables, taverns, and large kitchens, then preached, won people to Christ, and constituted them into a local church. These churches were called quarter-time churches, for a circuit-riding preacher showed up only once a month.
When they returned from their circuit, the Methodist preachers were gathered into large meetings called a Conference. They heard sermons for eight hours for three days, preached by John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, Frances Asbury, and other great leaders. These plowboy preachers wrote these sermons in their notebooks, then preached what they heard.
The great influence of these conferences came from what is called the John Wesley Fast. The speakers fasted and prayed with only water and bread for ten days leading up to the conference. Revival fires were poured out on these meetings as a result of fasting and prayer. The fiery sermons were re-preached on the circuit by these young men who tried to capture the world for Jesus Christ.
Currently, Liberty University has 104,000 students. Why is it so great and why has God blessed this institution? Let’s go back to examine the very first chapel on September 10, 1971. There were 154 students and the university only offered the first semester of the first year of studies. The university had four former Christian college presidents, each one taught a course in that first year.
In the first chapel I read the Great Commission. I explained that the world was created by God and every person was made in the image of God. God loved the world and every ethnic group in the world. Therefore, I challenged them to “go and capture the world for Jesus Christ.” Then I explained what capturing the world meant, I said,
“Capture the world within you.
“Capture the world around you.
“Capture every person in the world for Jesus Christ.”
There are three reasons why BBC Asia can be great. First, we see the demise of western Christendom, which involves not only churches, but culture as well as the Christian institutions that have influenced culture. Christianity was planted in Jerusalem among Asian people. Paul took Christianity to Europe, which became the center of Christianity for 1,000 years. The European ethnic groups were reached for Christ, and from them the gospel was centered in England.
Next, America became the center of Christianity, and the ethnic groups in America were reached and from America reached out to the whole world.
But just as the influence of the gospel in Europe and England diminished, now the gospel in America is fading. The center of Christianity is moving west and south. The biggest movement for God today is in the nations below the equator and the Pacific Rim. This is the mission field of Baptist Bible College Asia. You are located on God’s cutting edge. Now be a diamond-cutting knife that can do great things for God.
Second, Baptist Bible College Asia has been involved in 18 new church plants in the last 14 years. This is a New Testament commitment not found in Europe, England, or America. First, these churches are non-facility based churches — i.e., they are not pouring their money and energy into buildings and maintaining buildings. They are using existing buildings to reach people for Christ. Also, these churches are not program-driven churches. They have the two functions mentioned in scripture, “Daily in the temple and house to house”. These new churches meet for Bible study in homes and their pastors preach in rented facilities on Sunday.
Third, Baptist Bible College Asia is not committed to an academic formula for success; rather it is committed to a soul-winning formula that has made it successful thus far. The fact that Baptist Bible College Asia has 1,200 students in only 14 years of existence shows the extraordinary power of the gospel.
Therefore, I commend you graduates this day for your commitment to be educated and serve God in a local church through evangelism and ministry.
Second, I commend the parents and families who have stood behind these students at Baptist Bible College Asia, supporting them, praying for them, and helping them financially to get their education.
Third, I commend the faculty and administration who work diligently to make this college a success. I have noted that faculty or administrators do not take a salary. They are missionaries supported by funds from the United States, or they are pastors who are supported by local churches in the Philippines. Thank you for your sacrifice.
Finally, I praise God for raising up a college with the biblical goals, local-church strategy, and evangelistic passion.
So, I commend you all for commitment to reach the world for Jesus Christ.