Series
A CHURCH TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Sermon Four: Influencing the World by
Christian Education
By
Jerry Falwell
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:19-20).
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The Jerusalem church is the “acorn” church from which the mighty oak--known as Christianity--grew. This church had it all: evangelism, revival, prayer, and courage in the face of danger. But this was a teaching church and through its educational foundation, changed the world. Notice how they did it,
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine . . .” (Acts 2:42). The word doctrine means “teaching.” They taught new believers the doctrine they received from the Lord Jesus. Notice the method how they did it, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42). They taught in both the homes and the Temple, which was their “church building.” This is the model for Thomas Road Baptist Church’s teaching ministry.
2. The Antioch church. The second great church to change the world was in Antioch. Among the greatest thing this great missionary church did, was lay the foundations for world-wide missions. But, where did they get their passion for missions? It came from their teaching ministry, “they (Barnabas and Paul) assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). I want Thomas Road Baptist Church to influence the world in foreign missions, but we’ll have to do it upon the foundation of strong Bible teaching.
3. The church in Geneva: John Calvin. John Calvin attempted to create a model Christian city in Geneva and a model Christian church in contrast to the corrupt church and city of Rome. While I am not a five-point Calvinist, I salute the great impact that Calvin made on the world. With Calvin’s high view of the sovereignty of God, his great commitment to word-for-word inerrancy of Scripture, his understanding of the total depravity of man, and his unashamed support for the blood atonement of Jesus Christ; Calvin’s anointed scholarship produced men who went around the world teaching the Reformed view that has become the foundation of the great Presbyterian church. Truly, the Geneva church was a church that influenced the world theologically. I want Thomas Road Baptist Church to influence the world, both theologically and experientially through revival.
4. Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. Under pastor Charles Spurgeon, this church was a proto-type of Thomas Road Baptist Church. This church had a Bible college, home missions outreach, foreign missions outreach, and an impact on the English government; and because it was located in London, capital city of the British Empire, it influenced the world. Spurgeon’s books, sermons and writings became the basis for the great ministry of the church.
5. Moody Memorial Church, Chicago, Illinois. Under the influence of Dwight L. Moody, he established the Moody Bible Institute (January 22, 1886). And through its teaching ministry, sent out pastors, missionaries, and has influenced the world for more than a hundred years and fifteen years.
6. Churches on the mission field that are unknown, and unrecognized, but powerful to change a tribal nation. Think of missionaries unknown to us who have labored diligently to take a heathen language that is only spoken, create a linguistic written alphabet, and then begin to translate the Bible, hymns and Christian books into that language. After winning heathens to Christ, they taught them to read, write and build churches. These missionaries carved a civilization out of heathen tribes. How many unknown churches have been responsible for the evangelization for entire tribes? This includes people that you and I don’t know about, but will be numbered with us when we arrive in Heaven. Each of these churches changed “its world” through a strong teaching ministry. From William Carey who translated the Bible into the language of the people of India, and Adoniram Judson, who translated the Bible into the language of the people of Burma; missionaries are still doing it around the world today.
B. THOMAS ROAD AND ITS EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE
1. Lynchburg Christian Academy (LCA). This school with over a thousand students presently, was begun in 1967. Literally, thousands of business men and women, educators, politicians, in every walk of life have been trained at LCA. Perhaps the most notable are: Senator Stephen Newman, member of the Virginia Senate and Stephen Martin, member of the Virginia General Assembly.
2. Liberty University, school of champions. I almost don’t know where to begin when I talk about the influence of Liberty University. This school of champions has produced leaders in almost every area of life.
a. Churches. Dave Earley graduated from LU and LBTS and planted New Life Community Church in Greater Columbus, Ohio, and today averages almost 2000 in attendance; and plans to start 20 churches in the next 20 years in what he calls the “20-20 vision.” I think he’ll do it. Dave Earley is only one of over 2,000 Liberty students who pastor today.
I can’t leave out David Rhodenheizer, Calvary Road Baptist Church in Greater Washington, DC; Al Hinson, Open Door Baptist Church, South Nashville, Tennessee; and Alan Cox who pastors Green Street Baptist Church in High Point, North Carolina. Before that, Alan was at the First Baptist Church of Moore, Oklahoma, (the largest Southern Baptist church) in the state of Oklahoma. When that terrible tornado came through Oklahoma City in the spring of 1999 and destroyed approximately nearly 2,000 homes, it took the roof and front facade off Alan’s church building; plus, destroyed houses immediately across the street. Alan Cox was used of God to organize the entire Southern Baptist Relief program, plus all the federal agencies located on his church property working from his facilities; and when CNN televised a national memorial church service, Alan Cox led the service.
b. Music. When you think of music, you think of the Gaither Vocal Band and Mark Lowry and Guy Penrod. But we can’t leave out the award winning group, dc Talk. And then we can’t leave out our own Kendra Penn, Robbie Hiner, and many others.
c. Foreign missions. Perhaps no one has influenced the world like Joe Hale who is president and founder of Network of International Christian Schools (NICS). He has three schools in Seoul, Korea; plus schools in Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore; Kunming, China; Bandung, Indonesia; Nagoya, Japan; Surinam; Lima, Peru; Belem, Brazil; the Amazon Valley, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Vienna, Austria and Pasadena, California.
d. Education. As dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea, Dr. Chang graduated from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary with our doctor’s degree.
C. HOW THE EDUCATION OF THOMAS ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH HAS INFLUENCED THE WORLD
1. Classroom teaching. We have had the finest teachers in the world since “Day 1.” And through classroom teaching, counseling, mentoring, which means “the faculty pouring their lives into their students,” we have changed students who have changed churches and homes, who have changed their clientele, and in turn have touched the world.
2. Family teaching. I don’t think LCA, LU, and all our educational institutions have done it alone. We couldn’t have done it without godly example, problem-solving, correction, teaching and daily prayers of parents. These students would not have changed the world without godly parents. But notice how influence works. First we influence the students, but at the same time, we influence parents. And the standards we have set for students are supported by our parents, and together--church and parents--we have influenced the lives of students.
3. Curriculum building at LCA. When we began LCA, we couldn’t follow the public school curriculum, although we learned many wonderful things from them. We had to start building our own curriculum in the early days; we wrote much of it, although we took from Bob Jones University, A Beka Book curriculum of Pensacola, and many other sources of good curricula.
4. Curriculum building of EDP. Think of the curriculum for the External Degree Program (EDP), what we used to call Liberty University School of Life Long Learning (LUSLLL). We had to start out by not only deciding the courses, but writing each course, then filming each course. Many professors wrote the textbooks and the worktexts. In the early days, accrediting agencies wanted LUSLLL entirely different in methodology, scope, and sequence, of what was taught in the campus classrooms. We did that. Then they wanted comparability, (their word) i.e., sameness, or similar. We spent millions of dollars taping hundreds of courses and we have had thousands of students in EPD around the world.
I read the testimony of a Roman Catholic college president who took our course in the Gospel of John and was converted. I read the testimony of an African-American secret servant agent who said he did most of his studying on Air Force Two, and today he’s retired, and pastors a prosperous church in Greater Washington, DC.
5. Acorn. We wrote our own Sunday School curriculum for each grade. We spent 15 years developing an outstanding Sunday School curriculum, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars.
6. Liberty Home Bible Institute. This is the brain-child of Dr. Harold Willmington, and perhaps out of all the things he has ever done; here is his greatest influence for the Kingdom. Literally, thousands of students have listened to the audio tapes of Dr. Willmington teaching the Bible. He taught what conservative Christians have always taught, i.e., the simple truths of the Bible. Because the Bible changes lives, thousands have gone through this course, graduated, and been used of God.
7. Writings. Thomas Road Baptist Church/Liberty University/LCA have influenced the world through the writings of people who are leaders. First of all, Dr. Harold Willmington has released his monumental work, The Willmington’s Guide to the Bible. Second, in the early days, I co-authored two best-selling books: Church Aflame and Capturing A Town For Christ, the philosophy of super-aggressive evangelism and saturation evangelism. Dr. Towns wrote The Ten Largest Growing Sunday Schools, and America’s Ten Fastest Growing Churches, best-sellers that influenced thousands of churches. And today, Dr. Towns has his books translated into 55 foreign languages. So, today people are reading his books in Arabic, Nepalese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Dr. Ed Hindson has published over 20 books with the Knowing Jesus Study Bible as his most influential book.
But beyond these, our Liberty faculty wrote the reference notes for the Liberty Annotated Study Bible. Later, Thomas Nelson changed the name to the Liberty Reference Bible and it has stayed Number 4 on the best-selling list of reference Bibles for years. But our faculty also wrote the Liberty Bible Commentary. The Old Time Gospel Hour has literally given away hundreds of thousands of these Bible study helps.
8. Bible Study Helps. The Old Time Gospel Hour has literally given away hundreds of different kinds of Bible study books--the great books of Christianity--to help influence the world for Jesus Christ.
9. Elim Home. While we don’t think of Elim Home as primarily an educational institution, perhaps we could call it “re-education” because people’s lives are turned around when we ground them on the Word of God. Obviously, the preaching they hear at Thomas Road, attending Sunday School and the services of TRBC are important, but I think one of the most important things that Elim does is providing that extended time around the dining room tables in the morning and evening hours where men from Elim talk through life’s problems, and have their questions answered, either as a group, or one on one. Teachers such as Ray Horsley, his son, David and his son, Clint Horsley, have done an outstanding job of equipping thousands who have gone through Elim Home.
10. New endeavors. There are several new things that we plan to do that will influence the world. Tim LaHaye’s School of Prophecy will be huge, and I think make a great impact on the future. When the church moves on the mountain, The Jerry Falwell Center for Global Ministries will be a home for vision, missionary research, prayer coordination, and a building through which we can touch the world.
D. LET’S NOT QUIT TOO SOON
As we move forward, there are several things that could harm our world-touching influence:
1. If we give up our efforts.
2. If we give up the fundamentals.
3. If we give up our focus.
4. If we give up our dependence upon God.
If you who are leaders give up in any way, those that follow you will not “stay the course.” And if the followers in this church “give up,” Lynchburg will not be saturated with the Gospel; the United States will not be touched with the Gospel, and I believe we will not do our part to win the world to Christ.
As I get older, I wonder what you who are leaders will do after I am gone. Will you “stay the course”? The great Jerusalem church and the great Antioch church are gone. The great church of John Calvin in Geneva, is gone. Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle in London is almost defunct, and has little influence outside its neighborhood. What will happen to the world-influencing ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church in the future?
1. If Thomas Road doesn’t touch the world, God will use someone else.
2. If Thomas Road doesn’t influence the world, we will lose the privilege of being a servant of God.
3. If Thomas Road doesn’t become an even greater church, all that we’ve done in laying the foundation will be lost.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
For more information on the TRBC Pastor’s Bible Class, log on to the Internet for TRBC Home page at www.trbc.org/pbc.
