“Southern Baptists have their greatest opportunity to say 'Jesus' to the lost people of the Gulf Coast states and to this nation in our response to what is an unprecedented natural disaster,”
“Despite this horrific tragedy and temporary setback, Southern Baptists in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have the most wonderful opportunity they've ever had to catapult the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God's Kingdom work ahead 50 years, ... if we will but seize the day.”
“We have got to get geared up to do far more than we ever have. Offering a cup of cold water in Jesus' name will not be enough. We're going to need countless tanker-truckloads of it.”
“And while I'm immensely thankful for the tons of Gospel seeds our convention's disaster relief ministries will plant; at the same time we must grasp this reality right now: Many of our sister churches are devastated and destroyed and they're in no shape to even begin to cultivate this field,”
“It's one thing to send construction teams -- and that's great -- but it's quite another to ask these crippled churches, 'Can we come back next year and help with Vacation Bible School?'”
“This is a golden opportunity for us to show our Baptist distinctives of believing the Bible and lifting up the Lord Jesus in ministry and reaching people for Jesus Christ.”
“We already know how to recover from all kinds of disasters. And I thank God for that. But we need to move to the next level. We need to recover from this disaster in a manner that goes well beyond our kinfolks' sake, and moves even closer to the Kingdom's sake. I hope ... that the foundation of our past relief efforts provide that building site where we can help more people recover from disasters of the soul that sin brings to their lives.”
