Pastors attending a track on traditional worship during the State Evangelism Conference Jan. 27–28 were told they have to be articulate in sharing their message, put their faith in God, fear God and think outside the box when it comes to reaching a rapidly changing world.
Those realities were among the advice shared by six speakers at First Baptist Church, Huntsville. Approximately 850 people attended the track.
Emphasizing the importance of taking the message of Jesus Christ into the community, Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., said Christians must also make sure they are sharing the right message.
“It’s important to articulate the message clearly and get it right,” Henry said.
Henry said successfully leading people to Jesus has to begin with assuring they understand the existence of Christ as a historical Person.
“Our faith is historical; it’s essential that it be anchored in the historical reality of Jesus Christ,” Henry said, stressing people need to know Jesus is not some myth, theology or philosophy.
“There’s a subjective nature to our faith and to other religions and philosophies,” Henry said. “But there’s also a historical root that has to be enunciated and articulated so that our hearers realize that what we’re challenging them to come to is a person of Jesus Christ.
“He is a person, He is a power and He is a present power person who’s now here and is ready to claim their lives,” he added.
“When I go out to witness — the good news and the bad news — I’ve got to remind them that we’re talking about a real person who wants to have a relationship with them.”
Henry shared the story of an aide to Adolf Hitler, who said he could be blindfolded and still know which room of a building Hitler was in because the Nazi dictator exhibited a sense of power, presence and evil.
“Just as Hitler was demonically and satanically empowered as a historical person, people need to see on the other side that Jesus Christ is a Person,” Henry said. “He is powerful, He is present and He is emanating a spiritual good and not a spiritual evil.”
Continuing, Henry said it is also not enough to simply tell people Jesus will give them peace, because other religions will come along and say the same thing. Other religions, he asserted, will also promise individuals love and happiness.
Christians who share their faith with others have to articulate the reality that there is a consequence in not accepting Christ. “The person outside Christ has got to realize the bad news that there is a penalty for sins, before they can appreciate the good news,” he said.
Henry offered several analogies to illustrate how good news cannot exist without bad news.
“Penicillin is not important if there’s no pathogenic bacteria,” he said. “Academic institutions are not important if there’s no ignorance. Insurance is not important if there’s no liability.
“What the good news is, is that Christ has come to rescue humanity, who’s been trapped, who’s been without hope and pull them out to life,” Henry said. “The bad news is that you’ve got to realize you need Christ, because you’re trapped in sin.”
While Henry spoke at a track on traditional worship, he said the style of worship isn’t as important as the message when it comes to reaching people.
Henry said he has been at First Baptist, Orlando, for 25 years, but is unsure if he would call his congregation traditional, contemporary or in between in its worship habits. He said the church has a traditional service where he is dressed in a coat and tie, followed by one where the music is different and he dresses casually.
Henry noted he preaches the same sermon at both services.
“I found an amazing thing,” he said. “Traditional, contemporary or in between, God’s Word still speaks to people’s hearts.”
Henry was followed by McCall Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas.
Brunson said no one touched humanity like Jesus, and the directive for Christians is to go out and touch a hurting world. He told pastors the Bible documents how Jesus reached out and touched a hurting humanity and in doing so, changed not only their present but also their eternity.
“And that’s the same with what He’s called you and me to do, and that is to reach out and touch a lost and hurting world for the cause of Jesus Christ,” Brunson said.
To touch the world, he said pastors must overcome “servant barriers.”
Burnson identified the first as the barrier of position that occurs when pastors become obsessed with their own prominence.
“I’m concerned about young pastors, because we’ve gotten to the place where we think that God has called us to be CEOs of major corporations,” Brunson said.
As a result, many pastors walk around like they are dressed for a photo shoot for the cover of GQ magazine. “I see so many preachers who have got so much mousse in their hair, I look for them to sprout antlers anytime,” Brunson said.
“We have to get beyond thinking how important we are,” he said.
Brunson said there is another barrier pastors and churches must overcome. “If you want to touch people for Jesus, you have to get over the barriers of tradition,” he said.
Brunson said overcoming that barrier means reaching out to blacks and Hispanics as society continues to change. He added it also means churches must be willing to try new musical styles to reach wider audiences.
Pastors must also overcome the barrier of interruption. Brunson said pastors have to accept the many directions they are pulled in and demands placed upon them.
He cited constant interruptions in Jesus’ life because of people who were seeking Him out.
“The whole ministry of Jesus was carried out in interruptions,” he said. “If we’re going to reach people for Jesus Christ, we’re going to have to overcome something — interruptions, tradition and position.”
Even as they overcome those barriers, Brunson warned pastors they will still be powerless unless they learn to rely on Christ.
“If we want to touch people’s lives, we have to stop trying to do it on our own power,” he said. “If you’re going to touch the world, you have to overcome a fickle faith.”
He told pastors they must abandon a faith that is up and down and “just believe” what God can do in their ministries.
“There are a lot of us who have already decided what God can do,” Brunson said. “Don’t make up your minds, folks, about what God can and cannot do.”
Alabama’s pastors were also represented at the conference, with three speakers from across the state.
Gary Hollingsworth, pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville, shared of his father’s love of gardening and encouraged his fellow pastors to be passionate gardeners for God’s Kingdom. Referencing Luke 8, Hollingsworth said the parable is one about faith.
“How much faith do we have to believe that God is going to produce a great harvest?” Hollingsworth asked.
He told his audience that all Christians, not just pastors, have a responsibility to be sowers of the Word of God.
“If we’ll just be faithful enough to be sowers of the Word of God, folks are going to be saved,” Hollingsworth said.
“Do you really believe God will honor His Word?” Hollingsworth asked. “Because if you do, you need to sow with passion. If you plant the seed, God will take care of the rest.”
Hollingsworth’s sermon was followed by a second during the morning session from Rick Reaves, pastor of Hill Crest Baptist Church in Anniston.
Reaves said God is looking for Christians who are focused on the joy of worship. That especially applies to pastors, whom he said need to be cheerleaders in their churches.
“If you’re a pastor, you ought to be the hottest item in that church as far as saying ‘hallelujah, praise God!” Reaves proclaimed. “If we want our churches to worship, we need to be the leaders in worshiping Him.
“As far as the church is concerned, they’re following you,” he told pastors, “so give them something to follow.”
Reaves said churches need to be vibrant, noting that doesn’t happen only inside the church. He asserted churches need to be going into people’s homes, telling them that Jesus still saves.
Allan Lockerman, pastor of Cottage Hill Baptist Church in Mobile, said “If we are going to reach the next generation for Christ, it’s going to take change.
“If traditional churches don’t change, they won’t survive,” Lockerman said.
He argued that churches must change their way of thinking in terms of how they minister to the community.
“There’s nothing liberal about changing things if it’s more effective in reaching people for Christ,” Lockerman said.
Christians must also realize the need for infiltration, recognizing the most important work they do is outside their four walls.
A sixth speaker, O.S. Hawkins, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Annuity Board in Dallas, said the church today exists in a culture that has lost the fear of God that was present in the early church.
“We’re living in a ‘no fear’ culture here in America, because we’re living with no moral absolutes,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said a tendency exists today to take God off His throne, so that He becomes our “good buddy.” But he told pastors moral failure becomes epidemic in churches when God is not feared.
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