Despite consistent threats of hazardous winter weather, attendance at the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference remained steady with 300 to 400 people and 600 at the closing session. Another 426 people watched the conference over live stream on the Internet.
Georgia Baptist Convention officials cancelled their evangelism conference, which was scheduled for the same two days, but Alabama Baptist leaders pressed on and were pleased with the result.
“Due to weather it is half what we would have had but double what I thought we would have,” said Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
Sammy Gilbreath, director of SBOM’s office of evangelism, also was pleased with the “sweet spirit” of the event.
Noting he is sometimes asked about the purpose of the conference, “it’s for encouragement and inspiration,” he said.
And the eight preachers lined up to deliver sermons during the event Feb. 23–24 at First Baptist Church, Trussville, all sought to bring just that.
Kevin Hamm, pastor of Gardendale First Baptist Church, wrapped up the conference with a challenge for participants to open themselves totally to God.
With a focus on “we have never seen anything like this,” Hamm said, “If God is going to bring revival to America … we are going to have to be on our knees, broken.”
The hindrances to revival start with God’s people, Hamm said.
Burden for the lost
“When’s the last time that we were so burdened about [the lost] we couldn’t eat or sleep?”
It isn’t that believers don’t want people to be saved, he said. “But we really only want people who look like us and talk like us. But heaven isn’t going to look like that. Shouldn’t our churches look like heaven?
“If you don’t have a gospel for everyone then you don’t have a gospel for anyone,” Hamm said.
Believers also must discover a passion for Jesus, he said.
In the story of the paralytic in Mark 2, the four carriers knew exactly where to take him, Hamm said. “They knew Jesus was the answer. Not religion, church or a denomination, but Jesus.”
Another hindrance to revival is resistance to change, Hamm said.
“These four carriers (in Mark 2) destroyed a roof to get this man to Jesus. And somebody, somewhere said, ‘We ain’t never done it that way before.’”
Open to change
“Change is not always bad. … Sometimes the methods — not the message — can change,” Hamm said. “If we are not open to change then many of our buildings will soon be empty.”
Right in line with resistance to change is the lack of celebration in the church, Hamm concluded.
“Some church members today are more concerned about keeping rules than having a revival,” he said. “When we celebrate the goodness and greatness of God it opens the door for God to pour out His Holy Spirit on us.”
Dan Garland, regional director for LifeWay Christian Resources and former Kentucky Baptist Convention team leader for church evangelism and development, shared how church revitalization and evangelism are co-dependent.
The common denominator in revitalized churches is lost people getting saved and saved people learning to share their testimony, he said.
“We’ve got to start where we are and we’ve got to start with the one, not the masses.”
So often pastors get paralyzed by masses, Garland said, thinking they have to save the world.
That is the beauty of Acts 2 and 3, however. The contrast between the salvation experience of 3,000 people in Acts 2 and the lame beggar receiving the miracle of walking in Acts 3 is the perfect example of pastoral ministry, Garland said.
“We can become so religious that we’re no good to God,” he said. “If we aren’t careful, hurting people become invisible to us.”
Through the undeniable reality and unforgettable impact of the lame beggar walking, the true power of Christ is displayed, Garland said. Lost people do not have to clean up, they just have to come to Him.
“Everybody that comes to [Christ] has to come as is and everybody is slightly irregular,” he said.
“If God has changed your life why don’t you let a little of that rub off? Why don’t you get contagious?”
Evangelist Scott Dawson, who recently trained for and ran in his first marathon, borrowed the apostle Paul’s oft-used analogy of a race in Galatians 6 to encourage ministers to stay the course.
Dawson said the typical race involves a start and a finish with running in between. And it’s during the latter part of the running phase where distraction and discouragement can set in.
In that respect races are a lot like ministry, he said. Though people often start well, they don’t always finish well. “But we’re called to finish this race that’s been set before us.”
Referring to verse 17 where Paul mentions “the marks of Jesus” on his body, Dawson noted four marks needed for finishing the race.
The first is a spiritual mark, a relationship with Jesus that is personal not just professional.
“We’ve all got one thing in common. We’ve all sinned,” he said. “No one ever has to teach us to be bad. It comes naturally. … But the good news about God is that when we couldn’t go to Him, He came to us.”
The second mark of humility enables a person to be used by God. Pride is a self-sustaining spirit and everyone comes to a moment in their lives where they need to be brought down, Dawson said.
Paul exemplified the third mark of persistence when he refused to stop telling others about Jesus regardless of the personal cost, Dawson said.
“What would it take for you to stop following Jesus?” Dawson asked. “If He didn’t get out of here without any pain and suffering, why should I?”
The fourth mark is passion. “Let’s be passionate about Jesus.”
And those who heard Josh Lancaster’s message at the conference left the session counting their balloons.
The pastor of Underwood Baptist Church, Florence, wrapped up his sermon with a story about a young family’s visit to an amusement park.
After spending $100 to get in, staying more than 12 hours, riding all the rides and eating every hotdog in sight, the children cried on the way home because their father forgot to buy them some balloons.
“How many times have you said, ‘Lord, I didn’t get a balloon,’ and forget about all the things He has done?” he said. “You don’t think about what you’ve been given; all you can think about is that balloon that you never got.”
Citing 2 Samuel 7, specifically David’s unfulfilled dream of building a temple, Lancaster addressed disappointments and how to deal with them.
Inevitable disappointment
“If you live long enough, I can promise you that you’re going to have disappointments,” he said. “But I believe God cares about your broken dreams and disappointments more than you realize.”
Disappointments can come in many forms, he said. Disappointment in oneself, a marriage, children, etc. — it is inevitable.
“You’re even going to be disappointed in God at some point,” he said. “But God is not threatened by your disappointment. He can handle our questions.”
For example when David expressed a desire to build God a temple his motive was right but God had other plans.
“Just because it’s a great idea doesn’t necessarily mean it’s God’s idea,” Lancaster said.
The key, he said, is to understand four things about God: He is personal, working on an eternal plan for each one of His people; He is provisional, extending grace in the midst of pain; He is purposeful, putting His people where they need to be, whether for their own benefit or somebody else’s; and He is providential, doing whatever He is doing because He is God.
“Sometimes the question doesn’t need to be, ‘What have I lost?’ but, ‘What do I still have?’”
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