Fill America was not/is not the idea of one man. Garth Hutchison wrote this, “We believe God touched this effort in rare brotherly unity to thrust forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God was working in the hearts of Michigan pastors John Vaprezsan (Metro Baptist, Church, Belleville), Rusty Chatfield (Northern Michigan Baptist Bible Church, Burt Lake), Tim Rader (Fundamental Baptist Church, Kinross) Garth Hutchison (Black Lake, Baptist Church, Muskegon), Jim Green (Parker Memorial, Baptist Church, Lansing), Lee Taylor (Fellowship, Baptist Church, Whitmore Lake), and many others SIMULTANEOUSLY.” Each one of these preachers deserves credit/blame for Fill America. I am simply the most vocal cheerleader. There are many other grandfathers of the movement, chief among them are: RB Ouellette (former longtime pastor of First Baptist Church, Bridgeport, Michigan), Tim Schelling (Northern Kentucky Baptist Church, Lakeside Park, Kentucky), and especially Tom Sexton (Gulf Coast Baptist Church, Cape Coral, Florida).

Fill Michigan, which became Fill America, was born in prayer. Jim Green originally called for a morning telephone conference prayer meeting that would span the “two weeks to flatten the curve.” As everybody knows, the “pandemic” lasted way longer than two weeks. The good news is that the prayer meeting that was started in March 2020 is still ongoing. Every morning at 7 AM about 30 pastors meet and pray. A total of 60 or 70 pastors periodically pray together. Without a doubt, without this prayer meeting, Fill Michigan and Fill America would not have happened. I urge every state to do something similar. 

We believe that the Bible teaches and that all history and human experience affirms that people  need to be challenged. As much as anything else, Fill America is about voluntary accountability. Every honest Christian recognizes the weakness of their own heart. Every purpose needs a plan (Proverbs 21:22). Every believer needs to be challenged. This is not just true for laypeople; this is true for every pastor and every evangelist. Now, we suppose, there might possibly be preachers and churches that are so on fire for the Lord and are so completely independent that they do not need any outside voluntary accountability or challenge of any kind beyond their own local church. To those men, we say, involve yourself in this effort anyway. ENLARGE YOUR VISION. There are a lot of preachers like us that need help. We might also suggest that you look around at our country that is in such a terrible state and on the verge of collapse.  Is there one independent, fundamental Baptist pastor, evangelist, Bible college or church in our country that is so influential that it can by its own individual effort save America? We think not. A concerted effort is needed. We do believe that God may very well do something tremendous if we pray and work in concert. 

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:” (Hebrews 10:24) To the independent, hyper independent, super duper independent Baptist pastors, I suppose you can interpret this verse as to apply only to your own local church.  We think the principle of the verse should be understood much more broadly. Our prayer is that Fill America would someday become a national movement.  Fill America costs no one any money, does not promote one Bible college or one fellowship, will not advance the kingdom of any one man. It is simply the hearts’ desire of pastors to get first their own people and then all Christians everywhere fulfilling the great commission. We are “Striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27)

“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” (Acts 8:4) Why do you suppose this verse is in the Bible? Is this not something to be emulated? Is this not good? What can we do to make this happen? Fill America is designed to help bring this to pass. If there are any naysayers, I would like to hear your ideas. All Christians everywhere carrying gospel tracts and witnessing at every opportunity is a first step in obeying the Great Commission. It is simply good. Very good.

No one in Fill America is suggesting that this is the end all of everything. As Charles Spurgeon said concerning gospel tracts, “I look upon the giving away of a religious tract as only the first step for action not to be compared with many another deed done for Christ; but were it not for the first step we might never reach to the second, but that first attained, we are encouraged to take another, and so at the last …” Of course, every pastor wants every one of his people to be able to lead a soul to Christ. That said, we all know that many of our people are simply not there yet. However, they CAN distribute gospel tracts!!

We realize that the counting and reporting portion of this is a hassle. It takes time and work. Everyone is asked to report their numbers.  We have voluntarily made ourselves accountable to each other. Nevertheless, having four pushes per year where we ask all of our people to count the number of gospel tracts they distribute is helpful. Those of us who have been involved in Fill America since February 2022 know it is true. We are all passing out more Gospel tracts than we were a few years ago. This is true for even the best soul winning pastors and churches. One reason for this is that we have committed ourselves to counting them and reporting them. That is simply human nature. This principle is illustrated throughout the entire Bible. 

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31) Let us assemble and pray. Then let us go out and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ with great boldness. That is the prayer, purpose, and plan of Fill America.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:1-4) is the only message that can save a soul from hell. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

It is EVERY Christian‘s responsibility to spread this “glorious Gospel of the blessed God.“ (I Timothy 1:11) The Lord “hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (II Corinthians 5:18-20; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; I Peter 3:15)

It is the pastor’s responsibility to teach and train his people to be soul conscious and to spread the Gospel at every opportunity. (Acts 8:4) The first and easiest step of this is to preach, teach, encourage, motivate, challenge, beg, bug, pester, our people to carry gospel tracts at all times (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 4:11,12; Titus 3:8). Of course, it is imperative that we set the example (I Peter 5:3; Hebrews 13:7; I Timothy 4:12). At some point, and to some measure, pastors are accountable to God for their own people‘s lack of dedication to spreading the gospel (Hebrews 13:17).

Our country is in a terrible way and is in a desperate need of a great revival. Somehow, there is a link between a national revival and the spreading of the gospel.

No, you may count all the gospel tracts that you distribute throughout the entire year. We have the 15 day pushes that are designed to be days of special emphasis. I realize that those special days of emphasis do not always work for everyone church’s calendar. The days of special emphasis are centered around Easter, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Christmas. After each of these events is finished, we add up the total amount of gospel tracts given for that quarter.

We have learned that without special days of emphasis, we simply do not do as much as we otherwise would.

Here is how we arrived at reporting three different numbers.

As Charles Spurgeon said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” For me personally, I never want to meet a person again without having a gospel tract in my pocket. For a preacher this is a minimal requirement. As a pastor, I’m trying to teach everybody in my church to make the same commitment. I want EVERYBODY involved. Therefore, I count up the people in my church that are involved.

Person to person, hand-to-hand, gospel tract distribution is the first and easiest step in witnessing. We must teach/train/encourage people to conquer their timidity. I have distributed many thousands gospel tracts hand to hand. I still get nervous. I still must push through my fear. We all must.

Many churches have special days when they blanket their communities with gospel tracts hung on doors. This also is a worthy work. This also should be counted. Leaving Gospel tracts anywhere and everywhere can also be effective. There are many people who have have been saved simply by finding a gospel tract somewhere. This is worthy to be counted also.