Jesus Christ, His cross and the importance of preaching the gospel simply and easily summarize all that happened at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference Nov. 17.
But leaving it there would prevent those who missed the event, held at East Memorial Baptist Church, Prattville, from experiencing a taste of what mimicked a family reunion. Of course, this was a reunion with more than 800 people by the time the closing session began.
“Everyone on the program was a very close friend (some were even family members),” said Rick Evans, president of the pastors conference. “That made it special. It seemed like I was at my church.”
The closeness of the program personalities surfaced as several poked fun at each other, told embarrassing stories on each other as well as themselves and shared emotional family memories.
“Too many times, we come to these conferences and try to be something we are not,” said Evans, pastor of Dalraida Baptist Church, Montgomery. “But this was me and my friends and I’m basking in it.”
The warm embrace of family was especially evident when Hartselle evangelist Junior Hill garnered a standing ovation both before and after his turn at the podium during the evening session.
“He’s Alabama’s most beloved evangelist,” Evans said. “He’s endeared himself to pastors all over the nation. He’s our friend, fellow laborer and mentor. He’s our sweet, sweet Brother Junior. He oozes with kindness … and preaches the Word of God in purity and power.”
And while Hill moves a little slower now and indicates he is in a “final-lap” season of life, he still managed to deliver some of that down-home humor Alabama Baptists have come to know and love.
Conference headliner Bob Pitman, an evangelist from Muscle Shoals, also managed to keep attendees chuckling.
But Hill and Pitman weren’t the only ones. Laughter surfaced often with various preachers throughout the day, and “you-had-to-be-there” kind of lines were consistently delivered, drawing roars of laughter from the crowd.
Still all aspects of the conference — every sermon, every song, every prayer — stayed focused on the theme, “The Preaching of the Cross.”
“I’m very pleased with all the speakers,” Evans said. “I have a great satisfaction that I did what God wanted me to do.
“This was one of the greatest days for me as a pastor to provide a program for my fellow pastors, to remind them why we are called to preach — to share the gospel. And they’ve heard that today.”
Delivering what he labeled “the most important message you will ever hear,” Hill outlined five lessons from the cross as he preached from Romans 1:16.
- God’s evaluation.
“If you want to know what God thinks about man, look at the cross,” Hill said. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. … None are righteous. No not one.”
- God’s condemnation.
“The wages of sin is death,” he stated. “God nailed His Son to the tree because of the condemnation of sin that He bore in His body.”
- God’s propitiation.
“It simply means paid in full,” Hill said to a chorus of “amens.”
“We have a lot of people today who want you to believe all religions are the same. Put all religions of the world together in one pile, and above every one of them is the word ‘do.’ But above the cross is written the word ‘done!’
“Jesus paid for my sins and made propitiation for it in ways I could not do myself,” Hill said. “That’s why today you and I can stand and shout, ‘Hallelujah. Praise God my sins are gone. They are nailed to the tree.’”
- God’s imputation.
“Do you know what righteousness man holds in his hands? Filthy rags,” he explained. “But with Christ, we are righteous and without sin because we are standing in the imputed righteousness of God.”
The world considers acceptable righteousness that which is inherited, improved or imitated, Hill said.
Inherited righteousness means someone is a moral person because he or she was taught to be a moral person.
Improvement righteousness happens when a person looks at his or her life and decides to be better, to improve himself or herself.
Imitation righteousness is what much of the religious world considers to be the way to be righteous, Hill noted.
The idea is “Jesus is the Savior and if I want to be a good Christian, I have to be just like Jesus. If I can do that, then I will be acceptable to God.”
Hill stressed while the heart of every child of God should want to be like Jesus, no one has ever become righteous by imitating Jesus. “All your (personal) righteousness does not make you anybody in the sight of God. … It is God’s imputed righteousness.”
- God’s renunciation.
“We have a culture that says all roads lead to God and all religions are of equal value … but as long as God shall give me strength, I intend to stand and say, ‘There’s no other name but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,’” Hill said.
Those who believe there’s more than one way to God “don’t deserve to be called a man of God,” he said. “If a church is debating if Jesus is the Savior, then it should close its doors and go out of business.
“I’m an old, worn-out preacher who’s in the final lap of my journey,” Hill noted. “As long as God gives me breath, I’m going to get out of bed each morning … lift up my hands and say, ‘Pvt. Hill reporting for duty’ and ‘Come, come, come to the cross!’”
Pitman, preaching from John 1:29, depicted the person, purpose and passion of Jesus.
By relating Christ’s character as the Lamb of God, Jesus’ tenderness, uniqueness and holiness are revealed, he said, adding He also “taketh away sin.”
The passion of Jesus is revealed through His taking away the sin “of the world,” Pitman continued.
“Not only is sin bad because it separates us from God and renders us guilty before God but sin brings death,” he said. “Education cannot take away sin. Legislation cannot take away sin. Resolution (or passing resolutions) cannot take away sin. Jesus came to take away the sin.”
Preaching from 1 Timothy 2:8–10, Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said the goal of the pastors conference was to “help us remember what we should know,” paralleling this to spiritual Alzheimer’s — forgetting what should be remembered.
“Remember Jesus Christ,” Lance proclaimed as he encouraged listeners to consider the life He lived, the death He died, the gospel He gave, the power He provided and the future He has fulfilled.
“The power of Christ is embodied in us giving us the power of the Holy Spirit, giving us the power of the Word of God, giving us the Great Commission so we can spread the great news of Christ,” Lance said. “Remember the power He has provided.”
Former Southern Baptist Convention President and Alabama-native Bobby Welch reminded pastors of their call to evangelism.
Using 2 Timothy 4:1–5 as his base Scripture, Welch pointed out that evangelism should be intentional by pastors. It should be instantaneous as led by the Holy Spirit, he said. It should also be proved by example of those who minister to others, ought to multiply through the passion of the church and should occur “always,” being delivered through eager invitation at every opportunity.
D.J. Horton, senior pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church, Moore, S.C., addressed the pastors’ ministries as he preached from Galatians 6.
“What really counts is what you boast about, what you brag about,” Horton said. “If you want to brag about something, just brag about Jesus and what He did on the cross!”
Calhoun Baptist Association Director of Missions Sid Nichols, preaching from Revelation 19, challenged Alabama Baptists to give Jesus back His title as King of kings. “Our moral compass has jumped off its center pin. Our value system is on the skids to say the least,” he said.
Quoting the titles of Christ as the Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, King of kings and Lord of lords, Nichols said, “America needs a king.”
“We need the king that Daniel was speaking of that said there will be One to whom there will be given glory and the Kingdom,” he said. “His dominion is everlasting and will never pass away.”
While Jesus as King is trumpeted throughout the New Testament, culminating in Revelation 19, He does not receive that credit in the world today, Nichols said, noting two reasons.
- Some believe Jesus’ kingship is completely futuristic.
- If Jesus is not King of one’s personal life, then He can’t be respected as the King of kings. So “what do you do with the King of kings?” Nichols asked. “You either accept Him or reject Him.”
Evangelist Phil Waldrep, of Decatur, agreed.
“There is something that’s happened in our churches,” he said. “We sing about Jesus, we talk about Jesus … but I’m afraid the people that sit in the pew have lost some of the awe and wonder for who Jesus is.”
Waldrep took Alabama Baptist pastors through a study of Mark 1, canvassing the life of Christ through His baptism, temptations and early teachings and reminding them that “the greatest proof of who Jesus is, outside of Scripture, is in the lives that have been changed.”
And speaking of changed lives, Frank Cox, senior pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church, Lawrenceville, Ga., urged Alabama Baptists not to take that lightly.
Preaching from Luke 9, he said, “We are called to the extraordinary life that Jesus Christ would have us live … because of what [He] did for us on the cross of Calvary. He gave His life for you and me. … He cleansed us, saved us and changed us.
“We are to make a big bang for Jesus Christ in the world in which we live,” Cox said. “I’m not just talking about the (salvation) experience but one followed by an expression of daily faith.”
Along with the combined choirs and orchestras of East Memorial Baptist and Dalraida Baptist, music for the conference was provided by: James Bell, minister of music at Dalraida; Michael Evans, minister of music at East Memorial; the Evans Family Trio, of Montgomery; David Freeman, music evangelist from Birmingham; Sherry McKinney Holt of Memorial Heights Baptist Church, Montgomery; Ron and Claudia Henderson, music evangelists from Albany, Ga.; and Mount Gilead Quartet of Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Dothan.
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