Seth Hood said his church for a while now has been praying intentionally for the lost, and two men recently felt a burden to get connected with a drug and rehab facility so they could share the gospel there.
“They make the phone call to this place, and the owner wouldn’t even return their call — couldn’t even get in,” said Hood, pastor of First Baptist Church Colbert Heights in Tuscumbia.
But the church kept praying.
“A storm comes through our area, straight-line winds,” he said. “One of these men who we’ve been praying would get into the rehab facility is a lineman for Sheffield Utilities. This story, there are 200,000 power poles on their system. Three poles got blown down — all three right in front of this rehab facility.”
One pole went through the gate and tore it down.
“There are 27 linemen who work for Sheffield Utilities, and this man was the one who got called out to go fix the pole,” Hood said. “He walked through the gate of this facility, the owner is standing there, and he said, ‘I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.’ And they’ve been doing Bible studies.”
This is just one example of how FBC Colbert Heights has seen God work since prayer became the starting point of their ministry.
“There’s a big difference between ministry success and a movement of God,” Hood said. “Every movement of God starts with prayer.”
He shared that story during a panel discussion on spiritual leadership at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 10 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
During the panel, conference president Chad Hess, pastor of Woodmont Baptist Church in Florence, discussed leadership topics with Hood along with author and speaker Richard Blackaby and Ethan McCreary, pastor of Church on the Hill in Huntsville.
Blackaby encouraged pastors to surround themselves with people who could speak into their lives.
“Recognize you do need advisors, I’d call them friends even — you just need friends who have wisdom to give you. You need them. Everybody does,” he said. “And don’t wait for them to invite you. Go find them.”
He said a pastor might feel that he is weak in his prayer life or in his administrative ability.
“Just say, ‘Spirit of God, show me someone in my area who has what I need,’ and go buy them lunch,” Blackaby said. “Don’t waste their time; get right to the point. I used to have people go to lunch, and I would have a list of questions.”
He said it’s smart to learn from your mistakes, but it’s much wiser to learn from the mistakes of others.
“If you recruit them and build a team you can bounce things off with, it will save you so much,” Blackaby said. “Learn from their mistakes so you don’t have to make the same ones.”
McCreary said his church leadership has rhythms that help them grow also.
“Every single month, there’s going to be one particular staff meeting that is primarily focused on leadership development,” he said.
That may include spiritual leadership, leadership through disciple making efforts or a particular ministry emphasis.
“But that’s just devoted, specific time to sharpen each other’s edges to make sure we become more effective in ministry,” McCreary said. “It would be something that could easily get put on the back burner, but we felt like we could repurpose that time where every Monday can feel pretty monotonous.”
Now that they have a rhythm he said he thinks his team “genuinely looks forward to, and we can all walk away just 1% better as a leader with some focused time each week.”
He called it a “simple adjustment” that has “really yielded much fruit.”
Hood said another adjustment his staff has made is to filter the church’s ministry through a set of core values and a mission and vision statement.
“That’s so we’re all on the same page and know where we’re headed so that every moment of our day, every decision, all the calendar, all those things fit under that mission and vision,” he said. “It keeps you focused, and I’m the world’s worst at staying focused.”
Hood said a vital component of this is guarding time spent in prayer.
“People will learn that you’ll call them back when you can, you’ll meet with them when you can,” Hood said. “When they learn that their pastor is on his knees before God and the evidence is there in what He’s doing in your church … they’ll learn to let you guard that time.”
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