Some witnessed the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president leaping from the pulpit. Others caught evangelism tracts as they rained down like confetti from overhead. And many answered the pastor-turned-cheerleader’s call of “Jesus” with “saves” and his call of “Heaven is” with “sweet.”
The 300–400 Alabama Baptist pastors, staff members and laypeople participating in these roles were attending the evangelism track of the State Evangelism Conference.
The evangelism track was one of two sets of evangelistic/discipleship opportunities focusing on Intentional Evangelism held at Valleydale Baptist Church, Birmingham, Jan. 24–25. (For discipleship coverage, see story, page 5.)
During the evangelism track Alabama native Bobby Welch, SBC president, took a running jump to about four feet below where he was speaking to make a dramatic point:
“The problem (with evangelistic efforts) is we won’t get out of the boat,” he said, noting Peter had to get out of the boat before he could walk on water. “The problem is getting you, me and that crowd back at the church out of the cotton-picking boat,” he said, urging Alabama Baptists to get on board with his Kingdom Challenge goal of baptizing 1 million in one year.
“Evangelism is not a gift,” said Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla. “It is a command. Don’t ever get so tied up with the church that you lose your hearing for the lost who are not at church.
“There is a harvest out there looking and longing for what you’ve got and what I’ve got,” he noted, referring to Jeremiah 8:20. “The only people who don’t know there are souls out there searching are people who never go out searching for souls.”
Steve Scoggins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Opelika, brought the familiar parable of the prodigal son to life as he preached from Luke 15.
Scoggins, a member of the board of directors of The Alabama Baptist, dissected the story with a dramatic reading that drew listeners into a fresh encounter with the parable.
He explained the significance of each of the characters and presented three truths from the passage:
1. If you are going to be serious about reaching lost people, expect to get in trouble.
“Our Lord Jesus was never criticized more than when He was with sinners,” Scoggins said. “We say we want to see sinners saved, but we really mean respectable sinners.”
2. Every church should consistently ask itself: Do we resemble more the loving father or the older brother?
“The older brother stood outside and he was angry,” Scoggins noted. “Why are we angry at lost people for acting like lost people?” he asked.
3. The loving Father still wants sinners to come home.
Clint Pressley, pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, focused on “Taking on the Impossible” while preaching from Ezekiel 37.
“God has called us to do the absolutely impossible,” he said. “We are ill-equipped, we are sheep among wolves, and yet God has called us to lead people, communities, cities, even our nation to Jesus.”
Pressley drew four conclusions from the text:
1. God always gives us a real picture of the situation we are in.
2. God always calls for a decision.
“Do you believe you are the man for the time in that church in that community?” Pressley asked. “There is no better to place to be than out of the edge, beyond your ability, dependent on God.”
3. God blesses our obedience.
“Stand and declare the Word of God,” Pressley said, noting preaching must be based on the Word, focused on God and dependent on the Spirit.
4. God will show us His purposes.
“God’s purpose for our churches is that they come alive and be an exceeding great army for the gospel of the living Lord,” he said. “God will bless obedience in your ministry. Don’t be afraid to try the impossible.”
Sam Wolfe, an evangelist from Huntsville, presented five keys to Intentional Evangelism. Preaching from Romans 10:1–7, he noted that these were also the secret of a God-blessed ministry.
The five keys are:
1. Conviction that souls are lost and without God.
2. Consuming compassion. “The day I lose that, that’s the day I lose the blessing and power of God upon my life and ministry,” Wolfe said.
3. Intimate communion with the Father. “There’s nothing that will bring the manifestation of God’s power upon your life and church like praying for souls,” Wolfe said.
4. Confidence. “We need to have confidence in the person of Jesus Christ,” he explained. “If you don’t, you can hang it up.”
5. Clarity. Pointing to 2 Corinthians 4:1–6, Wolfe said, “It is our responsibility to make the gospel plain and to not preach a partial gospel.”
Mike Golson, associate pastor of First Baptist Church, Dothan, preached from 2 Timothy 4:5 about the work of an evangelist.
• What is an evangelist’s work?
“Evangelists proclaim the good news,” he said, noting that they also teach new believers the Word of God.
• Who does an evangelist’s work?
We do, Golson said. “No one is exempt — no pastor, no teacher … no dad or mom … no Christian.”
Other speakers were Dean Register, pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss.; Frank Cox, pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church, Lawrenceville, Ga.; and David Burton, director of evangelism for the Florida Baptist Convention. Coverage of their messages can be found at www.thealabamabaptist.org.
Hunt teaches Alabamians how to conform to Christ’s image
A well-known teacher gave Alabamians a preview of his new course of study during the State Evangelism Conference.
During sessions of the discipleship track, T.W. Hunt presented “Conforming to the Image of Christ,” the first part of “The Real Christian Life.” He will lead the entire study at Ridgecrest and Glorieta assemblies this year.
“Only God can do God’s work,” Hunt said. The soft-spoken teacher said Christians should realize as Jehoshaphat did, “I am nothing. You (God) are all.” Hunt said he began the day with a prayer that God would let him be useful to the end of his life.
Hunt noted that the Bible “is not about people; it is about God.” He gave examples of how to recognize the “main story.” In the “supposed story” of Peter’s denial — all are weak — the real story is “God foreknows and provides for our weakness.”
He said loving God should movitate Christians to seek God’s kingdom first. “What is your first thought every day?” Hunt asked. He said prayers should first lift up missionaries and persecuted Christians.
Hunt pointed out many biblical references to the “perfect other directedness” in the triune nature of God — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — with each of the Persons pointing to the others. He noted Jesus showed that God is love and the ultimate nobility is humility.
“God created us in order to have a family with whom to share His glory,” Hunt said. “Our job in life is to know God as He really is.” (TAB)
Pastors, others gain discipleship plans of action
The numbers in attendance at the six sessions of this year’s discipleship track were encouraging, said Max Croft, director of the discipleship/family ministries office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
But even more encouraging, Croft said, was the way the 100 or so people who attended went away with plans of action.
“I’ve heard many people talking about what they are going to do now,” Croft said, adding that he had heard praise for the practicality of the track’s topics. “The second year of doing the track in conjunction with the evangelism track (of the state Evangelism Conference) has gone even better than the first.”
Croft led a session in Intentional Evangelism, the state convention’s theme through 2007. In that session, he encouraged attendees to “take something you are passionate about and do it with the intent to establish relationships for evangelism.”
Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), said evangelism and discipleship are callings of the laity to be lived out in the workplace.
“It’s encouraging to me that Jesus looked to business people to change the world,” Reccord said, noting the disciples were called by Christ from their work, not from clergy positions.
“Somewhere along the way a distinction happened between people in ‘the ministry’ and laity, and businessmen were made to feel as though their work was secondary to that of the church,” Reccord said. He said his prayer was that full-time ministers would find their thrill in unleashing their people into the workplace.
“People spend 70 percent of their waking hours at work. Imagine if businesspeople were commissioned by the church to be on mission at the workplace,” Reccord said.
In keeping with helping Baptists live out their faith, Marty Cutrone, Purpose Driven Ministries’ national director of mentoring churches, shared practical helps and information on conducting a 40 Days of Purpose campaign in churches. He gave attendees five foundational principles for conducting a campaign.
1. Unified prayer for the campaign.
2. Concentrated churchwide focus.
3. Multiple reinforcements through the kickoff event, weekend services, small groups, Sunday School classes and the daily individual readings in the book.
4. Behavioral teaching, or life application — a call to the congregation to apply the lessons it has learned.
5. Exponential faith thinking, or thinking so big that it can’t be accomplished by human effort alone.
Alabama Baptist church leaders also gained tools and resources for reaching the lost during a how-to for implementing the Acts 1:8 Challenge from Nate Adams, vice president of mission mobilization at NAMB and author of the book “The Acts 1:8 Challenge: Empowering the Church to Be on Mission.”
The Acts 1:8 Challenge is a strategy endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention to help churches implement the Great Commission on local, state, national and international levels.
Other tools churches can use to encourage people to share their faith were offered by Keith Loomis, associate in the SBOM collegiate/student ministries office. Stressing the need to use teenagers to reach other teenagers, Loomis said commissioning youth into the missions field of their schools shows teens the value and urgency of reaching their peers.
“We need to seek to create a community within the church that fosters in students a heart for knowing their faith and wanting to share it with their friends,” Loomis said. “We need to weave evangelism into the fabric of our relationships.”
“Biblical community requires a commitment that it will not be an island of isolation,” said Voddie Baucham, an evangelist from Spring, Texas. Once people have made a decision to follow Christ, discipleship must take place, he said, noting statistics show the practice of discipleship is breaking down in America — or not happening at all.
“Less than 10 percent of American Christians possess a biblical worldview. Two-thirds of them say there is no such thing as absolute truth, and only four out of 10 say they are absolutely committed to the Christian faith,” he said. “Clearly their idea that ‘I’m a Christian, but there’s wiggle room,’ is coming from somewhere.”
The responsibility for teaching people falls on our doorstep, he said.
“We’ve got to stop this idea that ‘head knowledge’ is bad and remember that it is biblical to use our minds,” Baucham said. Discipleship, he said, has turned into a class rather than what it is meant to be — one life poured into another to help people realize the truth in their lives.
Sonya Tucker, associate in the discipleship/family ministries office of the SBOM, agreed, saying discipleship is important in order to keep evangelism from being a steady flow of people entering the front door of the church then leaving through the back door.
“Babies in the Christian faith should have the expectation to be nurtured, mentored, trained and taught by the church to become all of their potential in Christ,” she said.
And the bonding part of the mentoring is just as important as the lessons being learned, she added.
Other speakers in the discipleship track were Jerry Pipes (see story, this page), T.W. Hunt (see story, page 4) and Edwin Jenkins, director of the SBOM office of leadership/church growth. For coverage of his session, and more resources, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org.
Parents need help passing on godly heritage
Today’s families are under siege, trying to find meaningful time together and to experience God in an “activity-driven merry-go-round,” according to Jerry Pipes, author and speaker from the Atlanta area.
Pipes spoke during the evangelism and discipleship tracks of the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference Jan. 24–25 at Valleydale Baptist Church, Birmingham.
The author of “Building a Successful Family” and “Family to Family,” Pipes said 88 percent of kids who grow up in evangelical churches leave the church by the time they turn 18. But of those who grow up in homes where the mother and father model their faith and get engaged in their children’s spiritual welfare, 96 percent stay in church.
So the question is how church leaders can equip parents to pass their faith on to their children.
“God called the home the primary place where we teach God’s Word,” Pipes said. “We have some of the most incredible youth ministries in churches,” he noted. “But teenagers are being taught to do basic stuff they don’t see at home.”
The church has to help prepare the parents for this role, Pipes said, noting that equipping parents is a two-step process.
The first step is to get the parents healthy. Healthy parenting takes truly listening to children, building up children’s self esteem, pointing children in the right direction through modeling faith and helping them set priorities and loving children unconditionally.
The second step is getting parents “involved in the harvest” — helping parents share their faith with their children and with those they encounter while with their children. One way to help parents is to help them deal with their fear of witnessing through evangelism training in the church, Pipes noted.
Pipes said there are four key decisions that teens have to make:
1. Their identity aside from the family.
2. How they will relate to the opposite sex.
3. How their friends will impact them in how they make life choices.
4. What their life values are.
“The students in your church are deciding whether or not the Bible is true,” Pipes said, noting “they will make and remake these decisions about 16,000 times in their life.
“If our parents are going to pass on their faith, we’ve got to get them healthy and families have to spend quality and quantity time together working and focusing on the things of God,” Pipes said. “We need to give them a heritage, and after 17 years, then we let them decide whether or not they want to continue on with that.” (TAB)
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