No matter what, ‘God is there,’ Hunt reminds pastors

Pastors are not immune to the trials and tests of life; neither do they escape bouts of discouragement and exhaustion. But God provides the encouragement to persevere, said Johnny Hunt, as he preached the headline sermon of the 2006 Pastors Conference.
   
Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., preached to a crowd of about 850, plus a 300-member choir and orchestra, during the closing session of the conference, held Nov. 13 at Gardendale’s First Baptist Church.
   
“One of the great needs in the life of those who serve the Lord is encouragement,” he said.
   
“I don’t know where you are in your ministry, but I tell you God’s there,” Hunt said, using Acts 18 as his text. “God wants to encourage you with His Word. He leads us to Scriptures … that are pattern-made for [us]. … You’ve got to spend time with God.”
   
Converts from the work is another source of encouragement, he said. “Don’t get caught up in worrying about who is not coming, think about those who are.”
   
God also uses companions in the work, as Aquila and Priscilla were to Paul, Hunt said. They are dedicated to the work, they are familiar friends and they will speak a word of encouragement.
   
Earlier in the conference, Jay Robertson, assistant professor of Christian studies at the University of Mobile, also sought to encourage pastors. Hold onto Jesus and His promises, he said.
   
Preaching from Mark 5, Robertson described the story of Jairus and his daughter who needed a healing touch from Jesus.
   
As Jairus bowed down to Jesus to make his request, pastors must bow down to the will of God when trials hit, Robertson said. “Jairus forgot his pride, position and power. He took his problem to the Great Physician, Jesus Christ.” 
   
Jairus also prayed fervently, believing that Jesus would deliver, Robertson added. “Pastors, we’re going to encounter troubles and trials. You’re going to experience testing, but if you will hang onto Jesus, you can experience triumph.”
   
John Croyle, executive director of Big Oak Ranch in Springville, urged pastors to focus on their true calling and keep ministry simple.
   
“Some of you are tired inside,” he said. But the exhaustion is coming from trying to be something that is not God-ordained. 
   
“We are all just tools in God’s toolbox,” Croyle said. “But if you are a hammer, be a hammer. You can’t be two tools at the same time. 
   
“There has to come a time when we draw a line in the sand of our spiritual lives and say, ‘I’m going to be what God has called me to be,’” Croyle said, noting that many people confuse activity with accomplishment. “Every tool in God’s toolbox is simple. We are the ones who make it all complicated.
   
“God don’t give a flying flip about what you are doing,” Croyle said. “He is eternally concerned with what we are, which will determine what we do.”
   
Roger Willmore, pastor of Deerfoot Baptist Church, Trussville, reminded Alabama Baptists that “we have an adequate power available to us through the person of the Holy Spirit.”
   
Preaching from John 7:37–39, Willmore — who was elected president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention Nov. 15 (see story, page 1) — said, “The rejection of the Holy Spirit is the sin of our time.”
   
Dependence is being focused on the power of man rather than the power of the Holy Spirit, he said. “Instead of saying, ‘Holy Spirit breathe on me,’ we are saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’”
   
“This emphasis on the power of God is not a mystical matter; it is not a mythical matter; it is a very real truth,” Willmore said. 
   
But many people coming to church “are dying of thirst while sitting on the … pew,” Willmore said. “A man dying of thirst doesn’t need an explanation of the chemical composition of H20. He needs a drink of water.”
   
Larry Draper, an evangelist from Rome, Ga., challenged pastors to avoid the temptation of being ashamed of the gospel.
   
Preaching from Romans 1:16, he said, “The gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive to this world. Everywhere Paul preached, there were those who opposed him … but he was not ashamed of the gospel.
   
“The gospel of Jesus Christ declares the simpleness of man … and that he cannot save himself,” Draper said. “A lost world doesn’t want … to be reminded of their sins.” 
   
But the temptation of the preacher is to gloss over the offensiveness of the gospel in order to be popular.
   
“Paul resisted that temptation,” he said. “He brings the same message even though he knows in his heart it will cost him his life. … Paul was not afraid he would offend someone. He was scared to death he would not.
   
“Until a lost man comes to see he is a hopeless, damned sinner before God, he will never come to the point where he sees he needs Jesus,” he said.
   
Jeff Myers of the Myers Institute in Dayton, Tenn., said Christians should also model Christianity. 
   
The greatest challenge and opportunity to face the church in 1,000 years is training the current generation of young people, he said.
   
“We have a generation of young people who have been raised on a certainty of life is ‘whatever I want it to be,’” Myers said. “They do not know who they are, where they are going or the route between those two places.
   
“The truth is that unless we figure out how to pass the baton to this generation of young people, this will be the last generation of Christian young people,” he said. “The world has not figured out how to disciple its people.”
   
Pointing to the example of Jesus in Mark 3:13–14, Myers said, “Jesus took 12 ordinary men and equipped them to change the world and they did it. He simply walked with them. Invest in the next generation.” 
   
Also speaking during the Pastors Conference were Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis in Petersburg, Ky., and Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
   
Patterson focused on the ordinance of baptism.
   
From Jesus’ baptism to those through the ages who have been proponents of baptism by immersion, he urged those in attendance to see baptism by immersion as an ordinance of the church given to the church through the apostles.
   
“For baptism to function as baptism is supposed to, it is baptism at the hand of a New Testament church,” Patterson said. The ordinance of baptism is symbolic of three things, he said.
   
First, the believer “is acting out an act in history that is the most crucial act of all — the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” Patterson said.
   
Secondly, the believer is making a confession that he or she has died to sin through a new birth in Christ and has been raised to walk a new life. This “is a confession about how we intend to live from that day forward,” Patterson said. “When we tell church members they can live any way they want to, we do the gospel a disservice.”
   
Lastly, baptism is a prophetic statement of the end days when Jesus will return and the saints will rise to meet Him, he said.
   
Patterson also spoke to about 400 people attending the Pastors Conference luncheon. He urged pastors to prepare for the calling.
  
When God calls one to be a preacher, He is calling him as He called Jeremiah — to root out, pull down and destroy that which is not true or righteous, Patterson said. And after that is destroyed, it is time to build up and plant that which is true and honors God, he noted.
   
Pastors need to prepare for the fight they will face while serving the Lord, Patterson said. “We’ve got to work and labor in difficult times just like Jeremiah did.
   
“Gird up your loins, men. If you think this is easy, you’ve got another thing coming.”
   
John Killian, president of the 2006 Pastors Conference and pastor of Maytown Baptist Church, said he believes those attending the conference heard strong Bible preaching and were motivated through the sermons. “Christ was exalted … and there was true worship,” he said.
   
Also during the conference, Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), was recognized for his 28 years as “pastor of the Legislature.” An offering of $3,405.06 was taken up for ALCAP to assist with funding of the new co-director position. (Erin W. Tunnell contributed)