Richard Blackaby said his dad, Henry, was a pastor in Southern California when he called a family meeting that included 8-year-old Richard.
“We had a good church, but dad told us God was calling us to a dying church in Canada,” he said. “The church had 10 members. My dad said if the church belonged to Christ, why must it die? The church couldn’t afford to pay our moving expense, so dad paid for our move to a smaller church with a smaller salary. I’ve often remarked that he had faith, or what I’ve called ridiculous faith!”
Blackaby spoke at the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders on Nov. 10 at the Whitesburg Baptist Church South Campus in Huntsville. Ric Camp, current ABCAL president and lead mission strategist for Shelby Baptist Association, served as host.
Blackaby said there is always a “long line” to the best churches, but much shorter lines to the hardest churches.
“My dad said we’d never regret going with God’s will, and I’ve found this out in my life. I, too, took a small church in Canada after graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and God blessed us with a fruitful ministry.”
Blackaby used the story of Nehemiah to suggest that God wants to do a new work since “His glory is at stake.”
“So much of what we do is from our own abilities, or as scripture says, ‘of the flesh,’” he said.
“A good question to ask ourselves is ‘What makes us weep?’ We should be broken when God’s church is declining. Nehemiah cleaned up the debris in the city, and we also have debris in our path. Revitalization is motivated by the Holy Spirit, and it begins with prayer and repentance.
“Churches can decline when members insist on their own preferences rather than seeking the will of God in evangelism and ministry.”
Blackaby suggested that “God is more than powerful enough to encourage you to revitalize your church.”
In his second session, Blackaby used John 15 to teach about fruitfulness.
“It’s amazing to me that churches in danger of dying may still have full calendars!” he said.
“Satan delights in filling our calendars. We’re often faithful to do things we’ve always done whether those things bear fruit or not. Jesus in this passage talked not about salvation or faithfulness but fruitfulness. He said bearing fruit brings honor to the Father.”
Blackaby said there are many kinds of fruit, though we naturally think of conversions as primary.
“I once reminded church leaders of a lady who was sitting in worship the Sunday before praising God, who a few months before tried to take her life,” he said. “And I reminded them of a young man sitting with his parents and worshipping who had been a runaway a few weeks before. These things are the fruit God gives when we seek to glorify Him.”
Blackaby said there is a difference between results and fruit and between working hard and working with the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Our natural abilities are part of God’s design for us, and God uses them, of course; but fruit is what God does when we abide in him,” he said. “We need to seek fruit in our preaching and teaching and in our conversations. Anything God does isn’t unimportant, and we seek to honor Him in our work, not ourselves.
“And in the new year, we seek God’s pruning us so that we produce more fruit for His glory.”
In their business session members approved bylaw changes and a budget for the upcoming year, and elected Justin Olvey of the West Cullman Baptist Association as new president (now serving two years as per bylaw changes) and Timmy Ray of the Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association as vice-president. The men also heard a report from fellow associational leaders about the ongoing development of a website specifically for bi-vocational ministers, bivotools.com.
The ABCAL website is abcal.online.
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