Bobby Welch’s “The Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge for Evangelism” began its second round of travels on Sept 23, 2004. And according to Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), evangelism is not the only thing needed in the denomination.

“It’s obvious to me that some of our churches are not focusing on baptism,” Welch said. “Now I’m not on a crusade to show the SBC how dire our situation is, because the statistics have done that for us.

“I’m on a quest in hopes of creating unity of purpose in evangelism that will not only get our people to witness to and win people to Christ, but will also result in baptisms,” Welch said on Sept 24.

Noting the name of the historical denomination, Welch said he makes no apology for emphasizing baptism.

”It holds us accountable for the job our churches are doing on discipleship. Baptism is a definite benchmark of discipleship,” said Welch. “And it’s a benchmark our convention needs to get back to.”

Accordingly, the slogan of Welch’s bus tour is “Witness, Win and Baptize… ONE MILLION!”

“I am confident beyond doubt that God will bless any Southern Baptist church in our convention if it will make reaching lost souls its top-most priority,” said Welch.

The Everyone Can Bus tour is heading toward the western coastline over the next few weeks. For more information or to see the schedule, please visit: http://www.sbc.net/bustour/schedule.asp