A major part of a pastor’s leadership is preaching, Muscle Shoals evangelist Bob Pitman told the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference, which met June 12–13 at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Speaking from 2 Corinthians 4:1–5, Pitman pointed to the pastor’s mandate to preach.
“We do not have to apologize for being preachers, because that is our foremost and primary responsibility,” he said. “When God calls you to be a pastor, He calls you to be a preacher.”
Pitman — whose son Vance, lead pastor of Hope Baptist Church, Las Vegas, served as Pastors Conference president — called on pastors to preach the gospel as servant leaders with pure motives.
“God is not interested in any personal agendas that we may push,” he said. “God is not impressed as we climb the ladder in the denomination. The only thing that really impresses God is when we live for Jesus’ sake.”
Of course, openly preaching the gospel in the Muslim world often results in persecution as David Platt learned on a recent trip to Egypt.
The pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, heard from pastors about the many hardships and persecutions that Christians there have endured. Platt said he encouraged those pastors, saying they weren’t experiencing that persecution alone.
“I had the opportunity to gather around … each of those other pastors and to pray for them and tell them they are not alone, that we are with them, that when one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts,” Platt recounted.
Afshin Ziafat, lead pastor of Providence Church, Frisco, Texas, understands what clinging to the gospel costs.
The Iranian American came to Christ as a teenager after he read a Bible given to him by an English tutor. His father disowned him for his faith.
Still Ziafat challenged pastors to recognize the sending nature of the gospel: “The gospel didn’t come into our hearts to terminate with us. If you have really grabbed hold of the gospel, it will send you out to others who do not know.”
Peter Ndhlovu, bishop of the Bible Gospel Church in Zambia, challenged attendees to join him in reaching the nations with the gospel.
Ndhlovu, whose church has planted 286 churches in 13 African countries, preached from Matthew 24:12–14, urging pastors to fulfill the purpose God has called the Church to accomplish: making disciples of all the nations.
“We have a mission and we have to accomplish it,” he said. “We have to do it; now is the time, not tomorrow. We have no time to play games. We have no time to play church. We have to fulfill that which God has sent us to do.”
But Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., said only when pastors have their lives properly ordered will the Southern Baptist Convention be successful in reaching people for Christ.
“We as the Southern Baptist Convention have had a blessed past,” Hunt said. “But I personally sense that God desires to be with us in a more mighty way in the present and in the future if we are to touch this nation, which we’re not touching as we ought, and the nations of the world.” He pointed to the apostle Paul’s example of living “the Kingdom life” in 1 Corinthians 16. First and foremost, Hunt said Paul emulated the Kingdom life by being generous with his possessions.
“We need as much, if not more, emulation as we have exhortation,” Hunt said. “We’ve learned how to say it; we’ve just got to learn how to do it. And we’ve got to do it by example and giving the people a way to follow.”
Preaching on Jesus’ miracle of water made to wine from John 2, Gregg Matte, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Houston, urged pastors to be servants drawing on God’s power to turn proverbial water in their ministries to wine.
Noting the crisis at the Cana wedding celebration when the wine ran out, Matte emphasized that servants, already tired from their duties, were tasked with the burden of filling six stone jars — each holding 20 to 30 gallons.
Following Mary’s command to “do whatever He tells you,” the servants filled the water to the brim.
“When God asks you to do something, when Jesus asks you to do something, do you do 51 percent or do you fill it to the brim?” Matte asked. He warned pastors against a 75 percent effort in their ministry when such effort can often carry them on their talent or giftedness.
Bartholomew Orr, senior pastor of Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Southaven, Miss., warned against “drops” in Christian ministry resulting from a lost connection to God.
“Too many pastors in too many churches have lost contact with the Master,” Orr said. “They’re still in business but they’re not doing His business: His gospel is not being preached, and His truths are not being proclaimed.” He explained that the only way for a cell phone to hold a charge consistently is to remain plugged into a power source. Such is the case for a pastor as well.
“The power is not from us, but the power is from God Almighty,” Orr said. “Just stay plugged in.”
Speaking from Ephesians 5:15–16, Paul Gotthardt, lead pastor of Life Baptist Church, Las Vegas, said it’s important to be positioned correctly in ministry to be effective for Kingdom activity. Once in position, he noted that the best way to accomplish this is to walk in wisdom and make the most of one’s time.
“Our walk is how we live from day to day,” Gotthardt said. “We are to remain alert. We are not to be foolish and self-centered, but we are to walk as wise people who are acknowledging God. Whenever we’re in the habit of remaining alert, and we’re not living for self but we are acknowledging God in His purposes, we are strategically positioned at that moment to buy back some time for God and His purposes.”
But Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey church, St. Louis, and vice president of the Acts 29 Network (church-planting network), told the pastors, “God must work in us if He is to work through us. The preparation, the work, the battle is in the soil of your heart. It is a war for control.”
Preaching from Galatians 5:16–26, Patrick explained Paul’s use of fruit as a metaphor for how spiritual growth takes place.
Fruit, Patrick said, grows holistically, internally, gradually and communally.
“You have to be a person that is willing to deal with their own sin as they are dealing with the sin of others,” he said.
“Your sin is a bigger deal than their sin. You should be more worried about your sin than that sin.”
Patrick said only when pastors are more concerned about their own sin can they deal appropriately with the sin of others.
When dealing with others, Ken Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church, Tampa, Fla., encouraged attendees to look beyond their outward appearance and seek what God sees: the internal need for salvation in Him.
Not only did pastors and others at the Pastors Conference hear passionate pleas to be active in taking the gospel to the nations but they also had the chance to give to make that happen in two key ways.
Pastors Conference leaders hope to raise $100,000 to engage an unreached people group in the Arabian peninsula with the gospel through a translation project and humanitarian relief. The second objective for the Pastors Conference offering is to fund similar pastors conferences in Africa, India and Asia.
Bob Roberts, senior pastor of NorthWood Church, Keller, Texas; John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis; Louie Giglio, lead pastor of Passion City Church, Atlanta; and Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., also preached on the theme “Aspire: Yearning to Join God’s Kingdom
Activity.” (Compiled from BP stories)
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