It won’t be the numbers that people talk about when they recall the 2004 Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference. Participation was off just a little from last year.
It won’t be the worship tracks — traditional and contemporary — that people talk about either. Contemporary worship has drawn a declining number of participants each of the last two years after being well received in 2002.
It won’t be the workshops, even though this year the Evangelism Conference featured a series of superior workshops about discipleship. State Evangelism Director Sammy Gilbreath told the assembled groups that evangelism and discipleship go hand in hand and he hopes the workshops become a permanent part of the annual conference.
What people will likely remember is the great preaching from beginning to end. Altogether, it was probably one of the best series of sermons delivered at an evangelism conference in a number of years. Contemporary, traditional or rallies, the speakers were all outstanding, not a weak one among the group.
Their styles varied widely. Some shared their salvation experience of coming to Christ from other religions. Some carefully exaggerated Scripture texts. Some preached topically about the need for evangelism and to encourage participants. God spoke through them all.
Participants might also remember a thematic thread that seemed to lie in the background of many presentations in the worship tracks and in the workshops. Perhaps it was because of the conference theme itself — Intentional Evangelism.
One speaker explained that intentional evangelism was not a preacher saying he intends to have 10 professions of faith in a service and telling the ushers not to let anybody out until he has the 10. Rather, intentional evangelism is ministry-based evangelism, one speaker declared. It is meeting people where they hurt just as Jesus did.
One speaker urged Southern Baptists not to be so quick to “unload their gospel gun.” He urged listeners to learn the names of people, to learn the stories of people, to become involved in the lives of people.
Another speaker noted the world was amazed by the early church. Today the world is amused by the church. “When they (the world) see us helping hurting people, the world takes note,” he declared. “We are known as the church that cares.”
Gilbreath announced that the state evangelism office has contracted with First Baptist Church, Leesburg, Fla., to train a number of Alabama Baptist pastors in intentional ministry evangelism. “Our goal is to have at least one intentional ministry- based evangelism church in every association,” Gilbreath added. Those churches will then become trainers for others.
The Leesburg church is located in a county of 15,000 people and has a membership of 7,000. It is ministry based with a wide range of social ministries designed to help people where they are hurting.
Pastor Charles Roesel cautioned that helping hurting people can be so satisfying that one forgets to confront ministry recipients about their greatest need — Jesus. That is why evangelism has to be intentional. “You have to point toward a presentation of the gospel,” he declared.
Speaker after speaker picked up this thread. One pointed to the demoniac in Luke 8. He pointed out that the Bible calls him a “man … who was possessed with demons.” He is not a demoniac but a man. The preacher urged listeners to see people as individual human beings with problems, not to see them as drunks or druggies or whatever.
Another urged participants to “live lives that create questions.” He explained that if we have been born again by the blood of Jesus, we are different. Our lives should be different. When we live with people, they see our difference and will ask about it.
“They see we have something they do not. They want what we have. That is the time to share Christ,” he said.
While the emphasis on ministry and relational evangelism was being preached, John Ed Mathison, pastor of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, was teaching pastors how to lead their churches so that every member is a minister. T.W. Hunt, the internationally renowned leader of prayer emphases, was helping people glimpse the life changing power of prayer as taught in Scripture. And there was more.
Relationships with lost people, ministry to people where they are hurting, Holy Spirit timed and intentional presentations of the gospel, every member a minister, a life transformed by prayer, Christians serving together in healthy churches. Each is a positive message. Together, they can change a life, a ministry, a church, a convention, a denomination.
Still, it is likely most people will remember the great, soul-stirring preaching of the conference. Perhaps as they reflect on the preaching, they will also remember the messages, even this underlying thematic thread. Intentional evangelism is relational, ministry based evangelism. It is not “bar the door until I get my 10.”
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