By Jennifer Davis Rash
The Alabama Baptist
Developing the state convention annual meeting theme of “Sent … Here, There and Everywhere” during the opening session, Samford University’s Kevin Blackwell reminded messengers they are ambassadors.
“You have been called into a ministry obligation and that obligation is to share the greatest news the world has ever known, that the One who knew no sin became sin so that we could know the righteousness of Christ,” said Blackwell, assistant to the president for church relations and executive director of the Ministry Training Institute at Samford.
‘Together be reconciled’
“Allow Christ to plead through us … through our pulpits [and] everyday interactions,” he said. “Let’s together be reconciled to God.”
Preaching from 2 Corinthians 5:18–21, Blackwell said, “All of us who know Jesus as Savior have been called to the ministry, and our ministry is one of reconciliation. We all together are sent as ambassadors with a message from the King, and the message is very simple — be reconcilers to God.”
Blackwell asked four ministers “on the front lines” to share with messengers about their individual callings and how God had sent them.
Daniel Atkins, pastor of Taylor Road Baptist Church, Montgomery, said when God called him to Taylor Road He impressed on him that He was making a major move at the church. “God said to me, ‘You can hear about it or you can be a part of it,’” Atkins said.
‘Rediscovering purpose’
“My wife and I moved to Montgomery in January and are helping communicate and rediscover the church’s purpose, which is to exist for the glory of God and to introduce them to Him and teach them to follow Him,” he said.
Jennifer Foster, children’s minister at Heritage Baptist Church, Montgomery, said her journey began at 10 days old, the first day her parents took her to church.
“My parents trusted me to His care, guidance and leadership. I began my own relationship with Him in second grade.
“Being sent by God is an unfolding story from Samford to New Orleans Seminary to serving on the international missions field … and being in service in ministry in Alabama,” she said. “While the call is clear, the work can be frustrating and exhausting and wearying. God who called us is the God who sustains us … as we are following after His heart to reach out into a broken, fractured world and preach the good news, the healing word of Jesus Christ.”
Terrence Jones, pastor of Strong Tower at Washington Park, a new church plant in Montgomery, said, “God has called us to a very difficult part of town with a lot of violence and fatherlessness.
“But we serve a King who is both unelectable and unimpeachable.”
He noted that leading a church amid gunfire in the street is not brave. “We are following the King — take up your cross and follow Him wherever He sends you,” he said. “Not only has God sent us, but He modeled it for us.”
Blake Newsom, pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, was happily balancing his role as a professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and serving as an interim pastor when God made a move in his life — one Newsom wasn’t sure he wanted to happen.
During the early days of 2016, Newsom was serving as interim pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist and realized God wanted him to transition into full-time service at the church, which meant leaving the seminary.
‘Fervently’ walking
He knew the call was from God and he listened. “(Now) we love what God has called us to do,” Newsom said.
Noting Philippians 3 as the guiding passage of his life, Newsom said, “I must fervently walk with Jesus every single day of my life.
“My mission in life, my mission to convey to the church, is to know Christ and to win some as long as I am here on this earth,” he said.
Just as the four ministers highlighted during his presentation are what Paul calls ambassadors for the King, Blackwell said, “A trustworthy ambassador always delivers the King’s message.” That should be true for all believers.
“A true ambassador does not give the message his own spin and never fails to deliver that message.
“Christ desires to use our mouths, to use our lives, to use our ministries in order to beseech and implore through us to humanity’s greatest need — reconciliation.”
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