Buddy Gray, president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, navigated messengers through annual meeting procedures with ease. With a little humor and a lot of transparency, Gray, pastor of Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, kept messengers lighthearted throughout the two-day meeting in Montgomery.
“I am proud to be part of Southern Baptist life and the Cooperative Program. And I emphasize cooperative,” Gray told messengers during a business session of the convention. “We do need to learn, maybe once again, to cooperate. Many of our laypeople don’t understand how (the CP) has allowed us to do what we have done,” he said. “By giving to the Cooperative Program, we are able to be part of something bigger than we could ever do.”
Exerting presidential guidance throughout the convention for a unified, traditional Alabama Baptist spirit, Gray emphasized cooperation and keeping the focus on Jesus several times. At one point he said, “I don’t care what your motion is or your resolution is, the only thing that really matters is pointing people to Jesus Christ.”
He also reminded messengers that “God is doing some wonderful things and we get to be a part of it.”
During his presidential address, he expressed that Alabama Baptists “have real unity.”
“Sometimes when people move into our state, they come with their sleeves rolled up and many times are disappointed because there is no fight,” Gray said. Then he told the crowd, “If you brought a fight with you from another place, keep it to yourself. We are Alabama Baptists.”
Still, even Alabama Baptists “occasionally shoot ourselves in the foot,” he added. “I would love to leave and have reporters say, ‘Baptists love each other and love Jesus.’ We are out of feet,” Gray said. “Let’s focus on what really matters.”
With that word of challenge, Gray delivered a simple message of “sticking with it” as he read the story of Elisha and Elijah in 2 Kings 2.
“What happens in this story is more meaningful to me each time I read it,” Gray said. “It was a time of testing for Elisha. It is a strange test. What Elijah is going to test Elisha on is not how much influence he has or how well he preaches, but if he can stick with it.”
When it comes to tests, there are three kinds, Gray noted.
First is the test of unexplained rejection.
“People will reject you,” he said. “To pour your life into someone you have discipled and loved, then all of a sudden they reject you — it happens to all of us,” he said. “We get through it with a deeper perception of a bigger picture. God has a bigger plan. What I hope and pray is that the Lord will give you a big picture of what the Master wants to test you on and how.
“It is a test of tenacity,” Gray said. “When you go through this time of tenacity … you (must) be sanctified but stubborn.
“There is something to be said to know that God has called you to a place and you are going to hang in there no matter what,” Gray said. “Don’t leave a ministry because you feel someone is rejecting you.”
The second kind of test is unproductive activity.
“Some of you have been there and are there now,” Gray said. “Maybe you are called to do something unproductive. We know what it is to be in a place where it is easier to get along with unreasonable heathen than (obnoxious) church people.
“In every ministry, there are times on the mountaintop and times in the valley,” he said. “When you plateau, that is when you find out if you will stick with it.”
The third test is undeserved ridicule.
“In 1986 when I came back to be pastor of Hunter Street, I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life,”
Gray said, noting numerous people advised him not to go there. But God gave Gray a vision and being faithful has paid off, Gray said.
“What’s the payoff for being faithful?” Gray asked. “Nowhere in the Bible does God say He wants you to be successful. I want to win as many people to Christ as I can, but the only thing that is going to matter is our faithfulness,” he said. “Payoff leads to unexpected favor.
“We all go through times of testing,” Gray said. “Stick with it. God will do great things in your life.”
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