Alabama Baptists embrace partnerships — partnerships to help others in the ministry, partnerships to help when disaster strikes and partnerships to edify the state’s church leaders.
So when two preachers representing a past and present partnership with state Baptists spoke during the Feb. 25 afternoon session of the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference, the reality of partnership surfaced again.
Charles Roesel, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Leesburg, Fla., represented a past partnership in which he, along with others from his church, taught scores of Alabama Baptist church leaders about ministry evangelism over a two-year period a few years ago.
Matthew Tanner, pastor of Loving Four Tabernacle, New Orleans, represented a current partnership involving state Baptists in the cleanup efforts following Hurricane Katrina’s devastating blow to his city in 2005.
Roesel, who saw a few hundred people grow to a congregation of more than 7,000 with a multimillion-dollar ministry village, encouraged Alabama Baptists to stay motivated and remain faithful.
Preaching from Matthew 14, he said, "One of the great problems of our day is that most people do not believe in a great God." But there is no way to explain what happened at First, Leesburg, Fla., except to say, "It is a God thing."
The Ministry Village cares for tens of thousands of people through its numerous ministries, Roesel noted. It has a drug rehabilitation center, women’s center, pregnancy care center, children’s home and mentoring program, just to name a few.
"God wanted the most ordinary place and the most ordinary preacher where people would know it is a God thing," he said. So, "don’t ever ask, ‘Can we afford it?’ Ask, ‘Is it God’s will?’"
God owns it all, Roesel said. "We spend $25,000 per week for the Ministry Village — money not in the church budget."
From the love offerings and grants for the village, "there’s never been a single time we’ve failed to have the necessary resources because God can afford it," he said.
It is the impulse of love, the insight of faith and the importance of focus that allows one to reach beyond what he or she thinks possible, Roesel noted.
Tanner, who now preaches from a new building thanks to the help of Baptists, said his church’s theme is "There’s nothing too hard for God."
Preaching from John 9:4, 9, he stressed the urgency of the mission. "We only have a certain amount of time to … win this world to Christ.
"People are constantly dying while we plant a church, while we actually focus on programs and not on people," Tanner said. "It is so unnerving to us to have all these trappings behind our names and nobody is getting saved and nobody’s getting helped.
"We need somebody to be bold enough to share the good news of the gospel."
And when the gospel is shared, the world is better off, Tanner said. "When you evangelize, when you have an urgency for the mission, somebody’s life will be changed."
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