The nearly 800 people attending the Feb. 2 opening rally for the 2003 Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference found spirit-filled music, passionate speakers and challenging messages.
Dennis Mitchell, director of church multiplication for the North American Mission Board, launched his sermon, “What to do when you don’t know what to do,” with a word of encouragement.
“Even though war is looming, the economy is reeling and there is one tragedy and disaster after another, do not worry and don’t get discouraged … for God says, “The battle is not yours. The battle is mine,’” said Mitchell, former pastor of Central Baptist Church in Montgomery.
Preaching from 2 Chronicles 20:1, Mitchell acknowledged that everyone faces unexpected crises, but “when you don’t know what to do, don’t worry because God has a plan.”
Along with a spirited and passionate presentation focused on having faith in God’s plan, Mitchell also offered practical tips when one does not know what to do:
1. Seek God’s face.
2. Acknowledge God has power.
3. Wait on God.
4. Claim His promises.
“Satan has a plan too — to deceive, destroy and ultimately kill,” Mitchell said. “God’s counter plan is to give life and give it more abundantly.
“You will be where you are supposed to be … take a stand on the Word of God,” he said, noting “that means you’ve got to be in the Word of God, in Sunday School, in discipleship … and tithe also. How can God bless you when you are not in a blessable position?
“God is not going to bless you until you step out in faith,” Mitchell said. “How you respond to a crisis situation really reflects who you believe Jesus to be.”
Mitchell said Christians need to remind each other:
1. God has always had a plan. God is never without a plan.
2. God is always working out His plan. “Just because you can’t see it, don’t conclude that God has neglected the plan,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes He is working out what we can’t see. He may not come when you want Him, but He’s always on time.”
3. God’s plan is a personal plan.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the plans I have for you … not to harm you but to prosper you,” Mitchell said. “God always has a plan, even in the midst of disaster.”
John Brock, pastor of Highland Baptist Church, Florence, encouraged those attending the evangelism conference not to get caught in the traditions versus trends war.
“Men are too lost. Heaven is too sweet. Hell is too hot for us to be confined by tradition or controlled by trends,” Brock said.
“The church has been in a fierce wrestling match with itself over how to fulfill the Great Commission,” he said. “I don’t remember another season this long when the church has suffered so long over how to do what the Savior has called us to do.
“While traditions have a place and are important, we can become so bound to our traditions that we begin to worship them,” Brock explained, noting issues such as the number of deacons to have, whether to use only the King James Version of the Bible and whether to sing choruses or hymns. At the same time, “many pastors have lost their minds if not their ministries because they tried to turn Mount Hebron No. 9 into Saddleback,” he said.
Brock noted three warning signs:
1. Idea of success. “Somehow along the way we bought into the reality that if you don’t boast great numbers of multimillion dollar budgets, then you are second class in the kingdom of God,” he said.
2. Power of leadership. “We have … a whole generation not sure if they are shepherds of the flock or CEOs managing a business.”
3. Trend of innovation. “We been told that we in the church need to adopt that kind of model that follows cutting edge techniques.
“We’ve spent way too much time caught between traditions and trends,” Brock said. “In my desire and attempt to fulfill the Great Commission in my generation, I will not be confined by tradition … (nor will I) be controlled by the trends.”
Reminding Alabama Baptists that the goal is to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, Brock preached about Paul’s transformational experience from Acts 26:9–19.
“When Paul got off the Damascus road, the vision that drove him the rest of his life — introducing men to Jesus — ruled him,” Brock said. “If we fail to give a lost and dying world Jesus, we’ve given them nothing.”
Paul lived with three things:
1. Purpose
2. Passion
3.Living on the horizon — “Every time we introduce someone to Jesus heaven and earth come together, which is the horizon,” Brock said.
Paul also said in Acts 27 that he was captured and constrained by the truth of the sufficiency of grace; the gospel is a simple message of forgiveness, fulfillment and fellowship; and the gospel is supreme.
Ike Reighard, founding pastor of North Star Baptist Church, Kennesaw, Ga., used Luke 15:11 to develop his sermon topic “When good news causes bad feelings.”
Preaching from the parable of the prodigal son, Reighard pointed out the sins of the elder brother.
The older brother was upset when his father celebrated the return of the younger brother — the prodigal son. While the father attempted to remind the older son that his love for him had never changed, the older brother still became jealous.
“The elder brother is the most dangerous person in the church today,” Reighard said. “Instead of rejoicing about people coming to Christ, they are worried about what those people are like. They say, ‘I can’t believe they are coming here like that and doing what they are doing.
“When the sins of the elder brother manifest in one’s life is indicated by a lack of joy when people are coming to Christ,” Reighard said.
Noting a Barna poll about why the unchurched don’t attend church, Barna discovered 81 percent said churches have too many problems and 74 percent said there’s no value in it. “Only 12 percent said it was because they did not believe in God,” he said. “The poll discovered that the unchurched have not rejected God but rejected the church.”
Reighard quoted a student from India who visited his church as saying, “You (the church) want to clean your fish before you catch them.”
Seeking Jesus
“There are a lot of people out there today who need Jesus Christ desperately in their lives, but they aren’t sure you will be willing to accept them in the church,” he said. “The elder brother is a lot of us who have been in church all these years … watching all these people coming in with all of these new ideas and new ways. Do we really want these people in our church?
“How many churches could truly reach their community if church members quit fighting with one another and fight the true enemy — Satan?” Reighard asked.
The sins of the elder brother manifest within a person when obedience to God is viewed as paying a price rather than a benefit, Christians are jealous of God’s blessings on others and one person thinks he or she is the saint and everyone else is the sinner, Reighard warned.
“Are you going to be willing to help them understand what their calling is all about?” Reighard asked. “A calling is always linked to a caller.
“Everybody has a calling on their life. … to someone, then to something, then somewhere,” he said. “Not every Christian has to be in formal ministry, but every Christian should preach wherever we go.”
Complementing the rally’s sermons was praise and worship music led by Alabama Baptist evangelist and trumpeter Danny Wolfe. The choirs from the National Baptist Community Church and Eastmont Baptist Church, both of Montgomery, and East Memorial Baptist Church, Prattville, also provided special music.
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