Stay focused and remember that all Christians are called to be messengers of the good news of Jesus Christ.
That philosophy was the theme of a message by Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham, during the second of two rallies held as part of the State Evangelism Conference Jan. 27–28 in Huntsville. The rally also featured Alabama evangelist Junior Hill and Voddie Baucham from Houston.
Some 3,500 people attended the rally at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center, which followed a meeting the previous night at Whitesburg Baptist Church that saw an attendance of approximately 2,000 people.
More than just preaching, the rallies included music by Whitesburg Baptist’s choir on Sunday and a combined choir and orchestra of 240 people from 10 Baptist churches in the Madison Baptist Association during Monday’s event.
Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said the response to the conference was overwhelming.
“It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” Gilbreath said.
Gilbreath said the conference’s three tracks on traditional, contemporary and women’s ministries (see story, pages 7–9) help meet the needs of everyone attending the conference.
“We’re all messengers,” said Lotz, who also spoke as part of the conferences’ emphasis on women’s ministries. “Every single one of us has been called to go into the world and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Lotz said messengers God uses should keep their focus on Him and His will for their lives. Staying focused, she said, means not concentrating on someone else’s ministry.
“What I want to ask is, who is your target audience?” Lotz asked.
The evangelist said the target audience — both for pastors and lay people — may be youth, the elderly, prison ministry or other groups, but that they should concentrate on those individuals and not be overcome by achieving greater things for the sake of recognition.
Lotz also questioned if churches are missing Christ’s message by offering the world almost everything but what it really needs — Jesus. She said churches may be missing the message from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
“I wonder if one of the primary messages to the church is ‘Wake up, Jesus is coming,’” Lotz said.
Churches today are also failing, she said, because they are not enthusiastic about their ministries. “Are you fired up enough to save a lost world that’s going to hell?” Lotz asked.
A third problem she identified is that many in the church are consumed by sin. Lotz said the greatest need in the church today is for repentance, quickly adding there is an even greater need for repentance among church leaders.
Taking to the stage prior to Lotz, Hill said pastors can be most effective in their ministries by having a sense of calling about the locations where God has placed them.
“There is an insatiable hunger among many of God’s preachers to be somewhere other than where they are,” he said. “The best thing you can do is just be who God made you and be content where you are.”
Hill’s famous homespun humor was on display several times in his message, during which he challenged pastors to realize “wrong motives seldom make right moves.”
He encouraged pastors to consider if they would be as passionate about their ministries if Baptist churches in Alabama decided not to identify their pastors.
“Would you work as hard?” Hill asked. “Would you be content to work out in the backwoods where no one knows you?”
He said ministers should consider their reasons for wanting to lead larger churches or be a leader in denominational life.
“Pursuing the better quite often causes you to miss the best,” Hill said.
Illustrating his point, Hill said he passed on an opportunity to leave the pulpit of a church where he was unhappy. Six months later he began a 35-year career as an evangelist, calling it the best part of his ministry.
“God may have something better for you,” he said. “In His sovereign direction and time, he’ll move you where He wants you to be.”
The 65-year-old evangelist warned pastors not to let the devil discourage them in their ministries. Referencing Matthew 6:28, Hill said pastors should be content like lilies of the field and not attempt to be someone other than who they are.
“Can you imagine going through your life trying to be somebody else?” Hill asked
Sharing his own insecurities, Hill confessed he has struggled with an inferiority complex most of his life. He cited growing up poor, being tongue-tied as a youth and a weight problem as factors that have affected his self-image.
“I can identify with people who are a little bit insecure and don’t like who they are,” Hill said, telling pastors everyone has areas of insecurity the devil won’t let them forget.
“Does he ever tell you pastors that you can’t preach?” Hill asked. “You would do well to learn from the lily in its contentment.”
Baucham, associate teaching pastor of Sagemont Church in Houston, shared his one-man rendition of Paul and Silas’ experience on the way to Macedonia in Acts 16 to explain that life does not always play out as planned.
“You mean we can’t use what we are used to doing?” he asked, explaining that Paul and Silas were diverted to Philippi to start a church using methods they had never attempted before.
“Many times our response is, ‘God I know how to do this thing. I have an idea of what I would like to accomplish. I have a program that I paid good money for. And all of a sudden You want us to deal with something we don’t have a program for,’” Baucham said. “We want to follow the program to the letter. We don’t want to have difficulties.”
But “sometimes the circumstances in our lives are hard and while it is hard to pray [that is what we must do],” he said.
To be a true evangelist, the believer has to be a prayer warrior, Baucham stated. “There is a difference between someone who prays and a prayer warrior.”
Continuing his portrayal of the Paul/Silas saga, Baucham took liberty to select a song not written at the time as the one the two might have sung. “It is well with my soul,” Baucham sang softly and then gradually increased his volume as the crowd joined in.
Baucham roused the crowd even more during the first rally Sunday night as he preached on “The Right Response to Wrong Religions.”
Reading from Romans 10, Baucham said in order to reach “religious” people who do not know Christ, Christians must follow Paul’s model. “It begins with compassion. Paul said, ‘It’s my heart desire and prayer to God that they might be saved.’” He felt compassion for the most religious group of the time, the Israelites,” Baucham said. “You have to want those worshiping false gods to be saved,” he explained.
“Second, you have to be informed and have an understanding of their beliefs,” he continued. “They don’t belong to God because they misunderstood the righteousness of God. We must come to a place where our compassion drives us to understand the way they worship and why.”
Noting the public outpouring of support for the Islamic faith since Sept. 11, Baucham said, “It makes me angry. A misconception of Islam is being portrayed by the American press.
“I’m not saying we should be angry with Muslims,” he noted. “We just need to know what we are dealing with. We are not being compassionate and understanding if we say their religion is fine.”
But even with compassion and understanding, Christians must also be “committed to the unique importance of faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.
“Salvation is by faith in Christ alone. If we are not convinced of that we will not respond properly to other religions,” he said.
The final response to wrong religions is through articulation of the gospel, Baucham noted.
“Someone has to articulate the gospel for others to hear, then they can call on the Lord because they heard,” Baucham said.
Two Alabamians were also a part of Sunday’s rally.
Charles Carter, pastor emeritus of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, and an Alabama Baptist icon, delivered a powerful message on hope that kept his audience enthralled. Pointing out that after the Sept. 11 disaster it would be easy for many people to give up hope he stressed, “Today there has never been more of a reason to say there is hope.”
Carter offered five reasons Christians should have hope.
The first reason Carter gave was, “Jesus is a risen Lord. The Bible plainly says He is not here, He has risen. This takes the fear out of dying,” he explained.
Carter stated that the second reason was, “Jesus is Lord.” Elaborating he said, “Jesus’s words hinted that He was Lord and His actions showed He was Lord. If He had done all these things and not risen from the tomb He would not be Lord.”
Carter’s third reason was, “He is there,” explaining that, “Jesus is in heaven for us.”
Stating his fourth reason Carter said, “He is here,” pointing out that Jesus told His disciples that He would not leave them comfortless.
Concluding with his fifth reason Carter said, “He is coming. The main thing is Jesus is coming back to this earth.”
The power of God’s love was emphasized by First Baptist Weaver’s pastor, Roger Willmore, who focused on the book of John to highlight the importance the apostle put on love.
Willmore pointed out that today people are looking for the wrong kind of love in all the wrong places.
“God demonstrates His love for us,” Willmore told his audience, using the example of a woman who had turned her life of crime around to become an outspoken disciple for Christ.
“She went to God on her knees as an absolute tramp but when she stood she was a lady,” he said, adding, “The love of God came to her. The love of God comes to where we are but it is for a purpose. When He comes to us He picks us up and puts us in His family.”
(Jennifer Davis Rash, Sue Ann Miller contributed to this story.)
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