Southern Baptist president addresses local ministers
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An Alabama native, Welch has been pastor of the First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., for more than three decades. He is a former president of the Florida Baptist State Convention, former Southern Baptist Convention vice president, and co-founder of the FAITH/Sunday School Evangelism Strategy, used extensively in churches across the Southern Baptist Convention.
With over 16 million members and 43,000 plus churches, the SBC is the largest evangelical body in the nation, with churches throughout the U.S. and even in Canada.
Welch came by invitation, but also had a special reason for his visit.
“Why I’m here,” Welch said, “is to encourage attendance and expectation for the Southern Baptist Convention that’s coming to Nashville on June 18-22.”
Welch’s story is an inspiring tale of survival and religious reawakening. He became a Christian as a teenager, but it was a life-changing event that eventually led him to choose the ministry as his calling. A Vietnam vet, Welch was a reconnaissance platoon leader on a mission to clean out some Viet Cong bunkers when he was shot at close range by a Viet Cong guerrilla. Given up for dead, he managed to survive what he felt should have been a fatal wound.
“It was actually after we had cleaned out all the bunkers,” Welch said. “There was somebody still hiding back in the jungles, and I went back in there to find him. When I did, he saw me before I saw him. As I turned around he had already aimed at my chest,” Welch recalled, “and he pulled the trigger. I just saw the muzzle blast.”
The bullet hit Welch square in the chest. At that range, the wound was grievous, penetrating one lung, tearing out a large chunk of flesh and severing the pectoral muscle. What happened next was nothing short of miraculous, according to Welch.
“I could only get out three words,” Welch said. “As I lay there in a puddle of blood I said, ‘God help me.”
That help was forthcoming.
“Through a series off extraordinary events, the Lord saved me,” Welch said. “They put up on top of three dead men and gave me up for dead. But the Lord didn’t. He had other plans.”
The first of those events was the arrival of a helicopter out of nowhere. Once loaded on the aircraft a soldier realized Welch was alive and he was moved to a small field MASH unit, then on to a larger one where his injuries were treated. Eventually he recovered and returned to the states, to finish out his military duty, but the experience stayed with him. After a short stint in business, he felt the call to preach and sold his home and much of his belongings to head off with his family to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
“I never have looked back,” he said, “and that was 30 years ago.”
Welch has a simple, straightforward goal for the SBC.
“My quest is for us to create a unity of purpose,” Welch said, “where we come together, and that is to be around evangelism, trying to reach people with the gospel.”
Despite the continued push for the separation of church and state, Welch feels Christians can’t be politically silent.
“It’s unthinkable that society can deny Christians his views and his vote,” Welch said, “simply because he’s a Christian. Many politicians would like for us to stand back and forfeit our right to speak. We refuse that. We have a right to speak.
“Christians have come to the conclusion that they must vote values now,” he continued, “not parties, and they will. In the future they will more and more vote values,” he added, “and declare that candidates who want their vote must have their values.”