NEW ORLEANS -- Evangelism is neither voluntary nor mandatory; it is inevitable for the true believer, said Charles Roesel during the Gurney Lectures on Evangelism at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) Feb. 25-27.

According to a Baptist Press report, Rosel pastor at First Baptist Church in Leesburg, Fla., "If Jesus Christ is living in our hearts, he's going to be in our talk. If he's not in our talk we need to question whether he is reigning in our hearts."

Roesel, encourages his church members to be intentional about sharing the message of Christ with a hurting world. In turn, his church has become a leader in the area of ministry evangelism -- witnessing through meeting the needs of people.

"First Baptist Church of Leesburg truly is one of the most outstanding and unusual churches in the Southern Baptist Convention," said NOBTS president Chuck Kelley. "The church is organized around a very simple philosophy; when you meet people's needs you can tell them about Christ, and Christ will transform them."

During the lectures, Roesel noted how well the early church shared their faith despite the many obstacles they faced. Led by uneducated fishermen, the first Christians were serious about the task of leading others to faith in Christ.

Today outreach is different. The church has many material and financial resources at its fingertips and enjoys more freedom than the early church. More church leaders are being trained today than at any other time in history. But unlike the early church, Christians are not reaching many people, Roesel said.

"Something is drastically missing. We've got the programs, we've got the easy ways to do it, but it isn't being done," he said. "Never has there been a time when we have failed so miserably in evangelism as we are doing today."

Roesel pointed to a disturbing trend in the Southern Baptist Convention. Last year, 11,000 churches reported no baptisms and another 11,000 churches reported three or less.

First Baptist, Leesburg baptizes more than 200 people per year.

In the lectures, Roesel applied the Lord's Prayer to the task of evangelism.

"In this prayer the Lord reveals the attitude that must be in our hearts if we are going to have a passion for taking this world for Jesus Christ," Roesel said. "I want to pray everyday that I will have the heart of God, that I will have concern about the things that concern him, hurt about the things that hurt him and that I will learn to pray."

The Gurney Lectures on Evangelism were established by Thomas Gurney, a Baptist layman from Orlando, Fla. Gurney, a lawyer and member of First Baptist Church in Orlando, was a committed witness who boldly shared his faith. He gave an endowment in order to fund a lecture series on evangelism at NOBTS each spring.