“Churches are more intentional about training people to do evangelism,” he pointed out, “and they are much more intentional about praying for people who are not believers.”
Henard “has challenged Kentucky Baptists to keep the focus on evangelism,” noted KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey.
Mackey also applauded Henard’s ability to balance his KBC, SBC and Porter Memorial duties.
Henard “has carried out his responsibilities with effectiveness and compassion for what is best for the Kentucky Baptist Convention,” Mackey noted.
So, what is best for the KBC?
Henard said it is for Kentucky Baptists to heed the theme of this week’s annual meeting, “Sharing Christ with Urgency.”
“There are probably 2.7 million non-believers in Kentucky,” he estimated. “We have an urgency to get out there and tell them about Christ.”
However, Henard explained that there are some tough questions that must be answered first, such as, “Why do we have a denomination?” and, “Why do we even do church the way we do?”
He singled out George Barna’s book, “Pagan Christianity,” released earlier this year. It takes a look at church history and explores how churches of today differ compared to churches of the first century.
Barna’s “book questions everything the church does,” Henard noted.
The KBC president insisted that in answering those questions, “it then leads us to know what must be the priorities for the KBC … (and) to understand the urgency. I think the KBC is legitimate, that the church is legitimate, but let’s become relevant,” Henard urged.
He also pointed to another recently released book, Thom Rainer’s “Essential Church?” In it, Rainer attempts to discover why young adults are leaving the church in droves. The priority of evangelism is one of the main issues Rainer focuses on for churches to become relevant.
“If that works in the church” it should work in the KBC, Henard said, because “the denomination is a reflection of the local church.”
“We need more churches”
One way for the denomination to become relevant and effectively reach the lost, Henard insisted, is to plant churches, an area he said the KBC has done well in thus far. But, he noted, there still is more to do, adding that four Kentucky counties remain nearly 90 percent unchurched.
“I think we need more churches, not to be on top of each other, but to get to some of the areas where we don’t have churches,” Henard said.
In addition to starting new congregations, Henard said he has been encouraged by the emergence of young leaders in the KBC. At 53, he called himself “more of the exception than I am the rule” as an elected KBC official.
“I’m almost a dinosaur, in a sense, of the guys who are out there leading now,” he noted.
The previous two presidents—Darrin Gaddis and Paul Chitwood—were both in their 30s when elected. Henard also pointed to those who have served as vice presidents in recent years, including Chad Fugitt, Kevin Smith and Skip Alexander, all of whom are younger, up-and-coming leaders.
Henard said he sees that pattern as a good sign for the convention’s future and represents the lack of a “good-ole-boy system.”
“I’ve been in several other states where it was hard to break in to the denomination,” he noted. “The KBC has been very open … to say, ‘If you’ll come and be active and be involved, we’ll get you connected.’”
Another encouraging sign Henard said he has witnessed over the past year is the enthusiasm of the next generation of Christian leaders attending Kentucky Baptist institutions.
“I see a passion among college students now that we missed a decade or more ago—a willingness to be dangerous with the gospel,” he said.
But as many of those students segue into seminary and become young church leaders in the state, the challenge then becomes getting them involved in denominational life, Henard pointed out.
“Before, people were loyal to the KBC because it was the KBC,” he noted. “In the younger generation—the millinnial generation—there’s not that same loyalty.”
Kentucky Baptists should celebrate unity
The solution to getting them involved may lie in shaking up the KBC annual meeting, he suggested. “The annual meeting has to be more about an engagement with God than it is about business.”
While not entirely neglecting business, Henard suggested adjusting the tone of the oral reports given by KBC agencies and institutions and Mission Board team leaders.
“Talk about, ‘This is what God is doing,’ rather than, ‘Here’s my report,’” Henard said. “That, I think, would stir the excitement.”
He did note that this year’s roster of speakers, including David Platt and Smith, is a step in the right direction. “Everything we do needs to engage at the level of being inspirational, not informational.”
And as he hands over the gavel to the next KBC president Tuesday night, Henard said his successor will have the challenge of not only involving young leaders, but all Kentucky Baptist pastors and laypeople.
“I know our attendance at the convention has dropped, and I think part of that is just out of apathy,” Henard said.
“Part of the challenge of my successor will be to help communicate that when we’re not fighting that’s actually a good thing,” he added.
Henard urged Kentucky Baptists not to follow the same destructive path other state conventions have traveled and “begin to devour each other over insignificant things.”
“If we’re not at peace, then we’re focusing on our conflicts,” he explained. “If we’re at peace and in unity—biblical unity—then we can focus on our purpose.”
Western Recorder issue date: November 11, 2008
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