Johnny Hunt said he experienced a spiritual, emotional and physical “dryness through duty” a couple of months ago after completing an intense two years as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., described his recent bout with emptiness during his Timothy + Barnabas Pastors Conference Nov. 2–4 in Branson, Mo.
After advancing an epic set of reforms on the denominational level known as the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR), Hunt found himself experiencing a “meltdown of biblical proportions” like the Old Testament prophet Elijah did in 1 Kings 19.
Hunt described how he gradually found himself being separated from his wife of 37 years, Janet, due to all of the busyness that came his way. The concept of Sabbath rest had become a stranger to him.
“I would start my day at 4:30 or 5 o’clock on Sunday and finish at 10 o’clock that night, go get in bed, and be up early the next morning and head for the airport to get to something with GCR or speaking engagements,” Hunt said. “Janet said, ‘You’ve got to be tired,’ and I’d say, ‘I sleep pretty good on a plane — I’ll get a nap on the way there.’ Janet would drive me and I’d sleep on the way to the airport, try to slip it in. I was violating time and it bruised me. It bruised me.”
In January, he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous prostate. Noting that while it may have been the Lord trying to get his attention, Hunt said he didn’t slow down because there were many more important meetings and activities and strategy sessions to attend.
But Hunt did slow down after the SBC annual meeting. He took a sabbatical for the month of July, then a leave of absence in August and early September.
On Sept. 19 at First, Woodstock, Hunt preached a sermon on his experience.
The notes for the sermon, which he titled “Dryness Through Duty,” can be accessed through the church’s website at www.fbcw.org.
Since then, he said he has been experiencing the grace, love and healing of God as his priorities have been realigned.
His testimony in that message was that he was “leading on empty.”
Unable to bounce back, Hunt felt spiritually, emotionally and mentally empty. All of that gripped him physically, leaving him drained. (BP, TAB)
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