Pastors Conference offers spiritual refreshment

Alabama Baptists attending the Nov. 15 state Pastors Conference at First Baptist Church, Montgomery, heard a variety of sermon styles from  eight guest preachers. But among the smorgasbord one thread remained constant — Jesus — as the preachers developed the theme, “It’s All About Jesus.”
   
“Our ministry is not about the size of our church or the prestige, but it’s all about Jesus, because we serve a risen Savior,” said Pastors Conference President Gary Hollingsworth, pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville.
   
“The Pastors Conference was a time of encouragement and challenge for pastors and is also a time to call us back to our call,” he said. Its design was such that any pastor in the state — perhaps even those who can’t usually attend conferences — could come and feel right at home, he said.
   
He estimated that more than 1,000 people attended the conference, which was held  in the new sanctuary of First, Montgomery.
    
“It was an honor for First Baptist to host the conference,” said Pastor Jay Wolf. “We pray that the Pastors Conference was like a spiritual spa ­— a place of refreshment and rehydration for pastors.”
   
Travis Cottrell, a music evangelist and Christian recording artist and writer from Nashville, inspired pastors with an array of music.
   
Choruses and hymns led by Cottrell and 4 by Grace, an ensemble from First Baptist Church, Prattville, framed the services, which had many pastors moving to the front of the church and falling on their knees in prayer.
   
Among the Pastors Conference lineup of preachers was Southern Baptist Convention president and Alabama native Bobby Welch (see story, this page).
   
Alabama Baptist pastors on the program were Clint Pressley, pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, and Keith Thomas, pastor of Cottage Hill Baptist Church, Mobile. Alabama native Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., headlined the one-day event.
   
Other preachers were Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.; Roy Fish, professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas; Gary Frost, executive director of Metropolitan New York Baptist Association; and Joe Brown, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.
   
Traylor challenged pastors with a “heavyweight” message from Matthew 23:23–24, where Jesus addressed the scribes and Pharisees.
   
He admonished pastors to do the right thing in their private and public lives. “Are you men of justice, of right living?” he asked, pointing to husband-wife relationships and maintaining integrity in interpersonal relationships.
   
Along with pointed directives, Traylor sprinkled humor throughout his sermon, keeping those at the  conference chuckling.
   
Pressley focused his sermon on maintaining an accurate vision of Christ in order to provide direction for the journey of life.
   
“There is a tremendous amount of pressure to relativize Jesus,” Pressley said. “I’m a sinner who needs Jesus, but I don’t need Dr. Phil’s Jesus – I need the Bible’s Jesus.”
   
Pastors are pressured to be financial advisers or parenting experts, but all that they should strive for is to invite people to “come and see” Jesus in the Word, Pressley said. 
   
“Your church members don’t need you to be slick and pretty. They don’t need you to have a good golf game or be professional speakers. They need you to be men of holiness who aren’t afraid to preach the reigning Lord Jesus,” Pressley said.
   
Thomas addressed the issue of being attacked from within the “family” by preaching from 1 Samuel 18, which described David’s survival of Saul’s jealous pursuit. Thomas encouraged pastors to survive and even thrive in the midst of “friendly fire” ­— attacks that come from fellow Christians.
   
“From the cradle to the grave we are vulnerable to undeserved hurts from other people,” Thomas said. “Don’t be surprised when the spears are thrown.”
   
And don’t be sidetracked or shaken by them, he added. “Mistreatment comes with the turf of following Christ, and so does being misunderstood,” Thomas said.
   
Fish said that God’s redemption should ignite a “desperate passion” to share the gospel.
   
“In this highly pluralistic society there is a tendency to believe that Jesus is just another player in the field of religion — but He’s not only superior, He’s exclusive,” he said.
   
“We must be not only wise enough to believe this but fearless enough to preach it. If you preach it, you will be more strenuously resisted at this point than you ever have in your preaching ministry.”
   
Referencing the fearlessness of the four men in Luke 5 who carried the paralytic man to Jesus, Fish said desperate passion for Christ comes with decisive purpose and is followed by a release of divine power.
   
Akin said a church that is encouraged, energetic, exemplary and expectant is the sort of church that pleases Jesus and becomes successfully evangelistic.“Many churches are asking if they should be purpose-driven or seeker-driven,” Akin said. “The Bible doesn’t address any of these questions — it addresses the foundation and priority of the Church.” 
   
That foundation is Christ and an intentional dissemination of His message, Akin said. An evangelistic mind-set is planned, prayed and talked about, he said, “and you pursue it with everything you are.”
   
Frost said focusing on domesticating Jesus is producing “treadmill Christians” who think they have it all together but can’t make it running the “real race.”
   
“There’s a temptation to be everything to everybody rather than simply exegeting the Word of God,” he said. “A feel-good religion isn’t going to cut it for people who have real questions about … life.”
   
Brown challenged pastors to live their lives based on unwavering commitment to their beliefs.
   
“People don’t want to know how you feel, they want to know what you believe and that your lives reflect those beliefs,” he said.
   
New Pastors Conference officers were also elected: Harold Fanning, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church, Decatur, president; John Killian, pastor of Maytown Baptist Church, Maytown, president-elect; Barry Holcomb, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, Andalusia, first vice president and Barry Cosper, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer, treasurer.