The Empowering Kingdom Growth (EKG) spiritual campaign of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) launched a new resource, entitled, “A 40 Day Experience: EKG, The Heartbeat of God,” with a service at Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tenn., Sept 26, 2004.

Ken Hemphill, the national strategist for the EKG, led the service with a powerful message about “two kingdoms in conflict”.

"There's the kingdom of this world, which is transitory, which is passing away, and yet has a great allure for us. And there is the Kingdom of heaven, which is eternal and permanent but not often seen and sometimes neglected,” said Hemphill.

Hemphill explained that too often, people don’t fully realize what they’re supposed to do as a person who has been saved.

Southern Baptists are meant to be “agents of God's Kingdom -- living in this world as God's representative and pointing unbelievers to God's coming Kingdom,” said Hemphill.

Hemphill also said the declining number of baptisms show that we are “at a crisis moment in the evangelical movement in North America."

"We cannot be satisfied with incremental growth," Hemphill said. "The Kingdom of God is about exponential growth."

Hemphill concluded his message by enlisting the three things God looks for in a church: people who will embody His name, embrace His mission to the nations and obey His Word.

According to the SBC, over 200 congregations began the new EKG 40-day study this fall, and over 15,000 copies of the resource has either been sold or ordered.