Avoid getting sidetracked from sharing, pastor urges

Not everybody understands Intentional Evangelism,” Paul Matthews said to state convention messengers during the final session of the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting, held at Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover. 
   
Matthews, pastor of Jubilee Baptist Church, Daphne, illustrated the Intentional Evangelism theme with an anecdote about a teen who when asked to define the term “evangelism” defined “vandalism.” Although the audience laughed, the point was made.
   
Even though evangelizing is something Baptists mean to do, Matthews said it’s easy to get sidetracked. The key is to remain focused, he said, offering three encouragements for maintaining a gospel focus.
   
Using 2 Timothy 2:3–7, Matthews said Baptists should first focus on the gospel despite hardship and trouble. Paul, he pointed out, was writing to Timothy from prison, but despite his circumstances, Paul encouraged Timothy to remember Jesus.
   
Matthews acknowledged that while pastors often feel as if they’re getting “beat up,” focusing on the gospel will help them through hard times. He also encouraged convention messengers to focus on the gospel despite ever-present distractions. Everyone has distractions, whether health issues, family problems, cell phones or voice mails, but getting lost in those distractions is unproductive, Matthews said.
   
He related a conversation with a New Orleans pastor who lost 200 from his church last year following Hurricane Katrina. When Matthews asked the pastor how he got past something as church-crippling as that, the pastor replied, “We don’t talk about things that don’t matter.”
   
Finally Matthews encouraged his audience to focus on the gospel despite criticism and opposition. Likening God to a coach and pastors to His often-sacked quarterbacks, Matthews acknowledged that pastors, in particular, face attacks inside and outside of their churches.
   
“If you focus on the gospel, you will have criticism,” he said.
   
In closing, Matthews used the biblical example of Stephen, who confessed Christ even unto death and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
   
“Keep on confessing Christ and maybe one day, you will stand as the Son of Man confesses you to the Father.”