‘Not Just Another Movement’

Each Thursday morning at AiG, we invite a local Christian leader to present a devotional to our staff. Just a few weeks ago, our guest speaker was Gary Jaycox, operations director for two radio stations in the Cincinnati area (which are a part of the influential Salem Radio Network). He helped launch our radio program ten years ago.

Gary shared a message on how he views the ministry of Answers in Genesis in this challenging day and age. He so well articulated what AiG’s mission is that I believed his words should be printed here for you to read.

As Gary is about to share, AiG is not just another movement—it’s not just another organization to teach aspects of Scripture—but a movement to engage the culture and the church to return to the Word of God.

This is a transcript of what Gary shared so effectively to our staff:

My association with Answers in Genesis began when you guys arrived in town [ten years ago] and we started recording the AiG radio program. Since then you’ve grown up and moved it [the radio production] in-house, like you have so many other good things.

As I was thinking about your ministry, I looked at things in terms of four principles: history, identity, purpose and destiny. You never know the identity of a thing unless you study its history. You never know the purpose of a thing unless you first know its identity. And you’ll never figure out where it’s going—it’s destiny—unless you have first found its purpose.

I’ve seen the placement of AiG here in Middle America—at the crossroads—at a particularly crucial time. I’ve reviewed church history to understand what has happened in the church in America:

• in the ‘60s, evangelism with Billy Graham had a prominent place;

• in the ‘70s, the church was really ‘getting a sense of itself’ and its power and its place in this nation—as a result, various movements arose involving Christians returning to more of a civic responsibility;

• in the ‘80s, we saw a return to the family emphasis through such groups as Focus on the Family;

• in the ‘90s, there was an emphasis to return to the foundation built by America’s Founding Fathers.

But what about the first decade of 2000? I really see the great need to pray for a return to the Word of God. It is the one thing that has not been a real significant movement … until AiG had been raised up. What a remarkable place that puts you as a ministry.

Think about it: if you don’t have Genesis, you can’t fully return to the Word of God. If you don’t return to the Word of God, then you’ve just got another movement. And we don’t really need just another movement, because you would just have something that isn’t going to have the foundation that is needed in this era of history.

I sincerely believe, and I’ve thought about this for some time—and I’ve never told you this—that perhaps the most important ministry in this new century in terms of the impact that it can have, on the United States, the American church and perhaps the church around the world, is that of Answers in Genesis.

If we don’t get Genesis straight, if we don’t get the fact that what happened in Genesis is not myth, we’re not going to get anything straight about the Bible.

Think about it: the Book of John doesn’t make any difference if what Jesus said is based on something that isn’t true [in Genesis]. And Jesus said many things that were based on Genesis. If what He were saying wasn’t true in Genesis, then He was talking myth … and maybe He was just a myth, too.

I now see something forming here at AiG at exactly the right time at exactly the right place—it’s God’s timing. I believe you are about to ‘emerge.’

Thank you, Gary, for the kind words. AiG has just moved into its new offices in Northern Kentucky (near Cincinnati), which are part of the complex that will eventually house the Creation Museum. The shell of the museum building is complete, much design work on the exhibits has been accomplished and we are now beginning to build those exhibits.

Yes, AiG is ‘emerging,’ as it attempts, with God’s blessing, to rebuild the foundations in society (our new theme for 2005, by the way, will be ‘Rebuilding the Foundation’) to engage both the culture and the church to return to the Word of God.