Speakers urge pastors to ‘Preach the Word’

Press on, stay focused and don’t become discouraged. Those themes were driven home to ministers during the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference Nov. 12 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville. More than 1,000 pastors were fed by their colleagues with sermons that urged them not to give up when visited by hard times — whether it be in their professional or personal lives.
   
“I think the attendance alone has been an indicator of the positive response to the kind of program we’ve had,” said Roger Willmore, conference president and pastor of First Baptist Church, Weaver. “I’ve invited men who are known as preachers, as encouragers of preachers, and I think that’s happened.”
   
The ranks of those attending the conference swelled during the evening session, during which James Merritt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., said he didn’t have to know the name of every pastor to know they all face difficult times.
   
“I can tell you that you need encouragement,” he said. “We all need encouragement.”
   
The key to pastors being encouraged in their ministries is to be an encourager of others, he noted.
   
“When you bring blessings to others, you break barriers and build bridges, and you will be the one encouraged,” he said.
   
“When you become an encourager of other people, you will rub them the right way,” Merritt told pastors.
   
Merritt said an encourager also looks for ways to break down barriers for others and helps open doors for them. “A real encourager champions the underdog,” he said.
   
Merritt offered his insight during a day that included advice from other Baptist pastors, beginning that morning with Bob Terry, editor and president of The Alabama Baptist. Terry implored his colleagues not to become frustrated because of disappointment in their professional or personal lives.
   
“Sometimes, we do our very best and it isn’t enough,” Terry said. “Things far beyond our control just come upon us and we ask, ‘What’s going on here?’”
   
Preaching from Isaiah 46, Terry reminded the congregation to “remember the former things.”
“I hope everyone in this room would remember the time you gave your heart and life to Jesus Christ as your personal Savior,” he said.
    
And when ministers feel discouraged in their ministries, they should remember how they felt when first called into ministry, Terry added. He also encouraged ministers to hold on to the feelings they had when they found that first ministry position — the excitement, the joy, the sense of purpose.
   
Disappointment will come, he said, but be encouraged and “remember the former things.”
   
Offering an example of disappointment, Don Graham, of Don Graham Revival Ministries in Clanton, shared the pain of being estranged from his wife and the joy that came when they were eventually reunited.
   
“(God) redeemed a marriage that was destined for oblivion,” Graham said.
   
Telling pastors to make their wives and families a priority in their lives, Graham prayed they might learn from his experience. He also prayed for pastors to have the knowledge that their families are the greatest things they have.
   
But how do pastors put the joy back in their churches? That question was addressed by Ted H. Traylor Sr., pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., who said he wanted to help ministers put “heaven’s hallelujah” back in the local church.
   
“You ever been in a church where there is no hallelujah, no praise, no glory — no lifting up the name of the Lord Jesus?” Traylor asked. “It just seems the death pallor had come across the congregation.”
   
Traylor said pastors should be sure of their salvation, be sure of the Scriptures and be certain of their own submission.
   
“It has everything to do with your heart. You can stand in the church pulpit and preach and not be in submission.”
   
During another sermon, Mac Brunson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, said that as America fights a war on terrorism, the events of Sept. 11 have created an opportunity for Christians.
   
“We have this great possibility of pointing to where true victory lies,” according to Brunson, who said the Bible tells the world how to secure the ultimate victory. “We are told that ultimate victory lies in Jesus.”
   
Brunson said that without spiritual direction, the world will look to “anything and everything for hope and inspiration and salvation.”
   
He said people are asking, “Is there a Savior?”
   
Taking the pulpit later, Robert Smith Jr., professor of Christian preaching at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, offered a lesson on how Jesus helped write the history of the world before it began.
   
Smith said Jesus died in the mind of God before Adam and Eve were ever created. “God had already won before there was even the firing of a gun,” he said.
   
Smith said he often cheats when he reads a novel by turning to the end to find how the story ends. “Well, brothers and sisters, thanks be to God,” Smith said. “I read the last page (of the Bible).”
   
Along with preaching, the conference featured music, including a solo by Jean Cullen, Terry’s daughter and youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Vincent where her husband, Lon, serves as pastor. Attendees also heard music throughout the day from Dwayne Moore of the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association in Birmingham, the Rick Evans Family from Montgomery, the Whitesburg Baptist Church celebration choir and orchestra and the sanctuary choir from First Baptist Church, Weaver.
   
Willmore also recognized Alabama Baptist State Convention executive director Rick Lance and evangelism director Sammy Gilbreath for their work with the partnership between the Alabama and Venezuelan conventions.
   
During officer elections, Glenn A. Graham, pastor of East Memorial Baptist Church in Prattville, became president of the 2002 Pastors Conference after being president-elect the previous year. Ed Litton, pastor First Baptist Church, North Mobile, in Saraland, who previously served as vice president, was nominated as president-elect and won unanimously.
   
The conference also included the presentation of the Troy L. Morrison Leadership Church Growth Award.
   
Allan Murphy, pastor of North Shelby Baptist Church in Shelby Association, was presented with the award for work in a church less than 10 years old. Dusty McLemore, pastor of Lindsay Lane Baptist Church, Athens, Limestone Association, accepted the award for the category of churches older than 10 years.