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.