Evangelism Conference preachers stress importance of prayer, ‘getting lost people saved’

A hush gripped the sanctuary. A moment of contemplation kept Alabama Baptists silent and still until they erupted into a standing ovation.
   
It was the Tuesday-afternoon session of the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference, and Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, Tenn., returned to the state to participate in the conference.
   
Gaines, former pastor of Gardendale’s First Baptist Church, concluded his sermon about achieving a successful journey in the ministry by singing a cappella, which left the crowd spellbound.
   
A little more than an hour later, the same group of Baptists were whooping and hollering in support of Bob Pitman’s passionate presentation of salvation through grace in Jesus Christ as he defined evangelism.
   
Gaines and Pitman, pastor of Kirby Woods Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn., were two of nine pastors and Baptist leaders preaching during the morning and afternoon sessions of the Evangelism Conference. The conference, which took place Jan. 23–24, was held at Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile.
   
Preaching from Genesis 24, Gaines encouraged pastors to stay the course in ministry and pointed to keys for a successful journey:
   
• First, be a person of submission, he said. “We live in a day where the cry is to question authority,” Gaines said, noting the importance to submit to the authority of God. 
   
Gaines also said to submit to governmental authority, pastoral authority, a wife to her husband’s leadership and children to parental authority.
   
• Second, be a person of prayer, he said.
  
 “You cannot have a successful journey and not spend time in prayer,” Gaines said. “A day without prayer is a wasted day.”
   
In fact, the disciples only asked Jesus to teach them one thing — to pray — Gaines pointed out. “If you are a preacher, make prayer the priority of your life and make preaching the priority of your ministry.” 
   
• Third, be a person of worship, he said. “Offer your heart up to God. When you’ve been in a worship service and have experienced the presence of Jesus, you will never be the same.”
   
• Fourth, be a person of focus, he said. “My job is to let Jesus fill me and then He can fill the church. Focus on Him.”
   
• Fifth, be a person of completion, Gaines said. “Run to the very end.
   
“Unless God has given you a release from the ministry you have, don’t quit,” Gaines said. “You and I need to complete the journey and do it well.”
   
Part of the journey includes evangelism, which was the focus of Pitman’s sermon.
   
“There seems to be a confusion today of what evangelism means,” he said. But it is basically “about getting lost people to become saved people.”
   
Preaching from Romans 3:21, Pitman explained what salvation means.
   
First, salvation means righteousness, he said. “Righteousness carries us into the very throne room of heaven, into the heaven of heavens,” Pitman said. “Salvation has nothing to do with self-righteousness.”
   
Second, salvation means justified.
   
“The fact is we are guilty before God … but (if you are saved) you have been declared innocent, cleared of all guilt,” he said.
   
Third, salvation means redemption, Pitman said. “Jesus, by the shedding of His blood, paid the price for my sin,” he said. “I am bought with a price.”
   
Fourth, salvation means propitiation, Pitman said. “Jesus Christ is our propitiation.”
   
Fifth, salvation means remission, he noted. “It means a passing over.
   
“All of the deeds I have ever committed are on … record,” Pitman said. “Lost people will be judged out of those things on record. Every sin I committed before I was saved is still written in that book, but when God comes to my name, He just passes over. He does not execute judgment on me. 
   
“Jesus Christ took my place on the cross,” he said. “God poured out all His wrath against me on His Son. That’s what it means to be saved.”
   
Along with the meaning of salvation, Pitman described the method and motive of salvation.
   
“My salvation is not determined by my keeping rules,” he said. “It is by faith of or in Jesus Christ. It is free but that doesn’t mean it is cheap.
   
“All man has ever done is break God’s heart and challenged His heart but He still loves us,” Pitman said. “We are saved by grace … sustained by grace … encouraged by grace. That’s why God saved us.”
   
Dusty McLemore, pastor of Lindsay Lane Baptist Church, Athens, knows firsthand that evangelism works.
   
He explained that in his mid-20s, he found himself buried in gambling debts and contemplating suicide, but an intentional evangelistic visit by a local pastor a few years earlier changed his life.
   
“I never got over that visit,” McLemore said as he encouraged Alabama Baptists to meet people where they are.
   
“God had a plan for my life,” he said. “It was not at a church house, not at a revival; it was one-on-one evangelism.”
   
Preaching from Acts 8, McLemore gave three characteristics of a soul winner.
   
First, a soul winner is connected to the Spirit, he said. “God uses us as His instruments to win others to Christ,” McLemore said, noting Philip was sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
   
“If we are not careful, we can be more connected to ourselves than we are to Jesus,” he noted. “We can be more connected to our programs, our projects, our plans and our personal responsibilities than God’s presence and power.
   
“When God shows up and the Holy Spirit gets a hold of us, things won’t make sense to us,” McLemore said.
  
Second, a soul winner is confident in the Scriptures, he said.
   
“Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope that is in us,” McLemore noted. “Thus saith the Lord — that’s all I have to stand on.”
   
Third, a soul winner is convinced of the Savior, he said. “Philip took this ol’ boy (the Ethiopian eunuch) where he was and led him to where he needed to be,” McLemore said. “If we are going to impact the kingdom of God, we’ve got to do it one soul at a time.”
   
For a full report of all the conference preachers, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org and enter “Evangelism Conference 2006” in the search field.