Speakers urge Alabama Baptists to open new doors of ministry, missions

Speakers urge Alabama Baptists to open new doors of ministry, missions

Opening New Doors, the theme of this year’s annual meeting, helps focus attention on new ministries, new partnerships and new levels of support needed for Alabama-based missions, according to Ron Madison, director of associational and cooperative missions for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).

That was just what happened as three different speakers delivered interpretive devotionals of the Opening New Doors theme during the Nov. 19–20 annual meeting of the state convention.

In his first opportunity to speak before a convention of Alabama Baptists, Alejandro Pajaro, director of Hispanic ministries for Elmore Association in Wetumpka, challenged messengers on Tuesday morning with the Luke 5 passage where Jesus told the disciples to “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (v. 4).

Relating the Scripture to the opportunities Alabama Baptists now have to minister to internationals, Pajaro said, “We are an open state to the peoples of different countries. Never before has this state experienced such an influx of people from other countries — Hispanics, Chinese, Korean, French, Russian — all are coming to settle in Alabama.”

But, Pajaro noted, when trying to deal with issues such as broken families, poor working conditions, substandard health care and, most of all, lack of knowledge of the gospel, ministers may become discouraged, especially when efforts appear to be fruitless. They often give up after suffering setbacks, deciding that further efforts would be in vain, just as the disciples did after fishing all night with nothing but empty nets to show for it.

“Maybe we are like Simon,” he said. “We are not watching our nets. We are finished. But our task is a never-ending task. No matter how long the night has been, there is always hope.”

Pajaro emphasized that just as Jesus asked the disciples to go into deeper waters, the same request may be made of anyone, sometimes seemingly without reason. But just as Simon believed and internalized the Word of Jesus, so should all God’s people.

“Do we believe in the Word of God?” Pajaro challenged. “It takes a step of faith and dependency on God. Let God’s Word speak to us. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.”

Buddy Champion, pastor of First Baptist Church, Decatur, began his Tuesday afternoon theme interpretation with the story of Jake Porter, a young teen with disabilities who for three years, dressed out for football and encouraged his teammates from the sidelines. On the last play of the last game, Jake’s coach arranged with the other team’s coach for Jake to score a touchdown. “Jake Porter was in the game,” Champion said.

Champion related the incident to ministry in that while Jake’s coach was willing to put him in the game, some staff ministers sit on ministries instead of putting them in the hands of laypeople who can implement them. In this way, they risk the danger of letting ministries go dormant from not letting someone who could be “taking the ball and running with it” have those ministries.

According to Champion, getting people out of the pews and into ministry is a matter of helping them understand that God has a plan for their lives. Giving ministries away, he said, will allow God to transform people and give them a passion for ministry and a passion to reach one more person for Jesus.

“Let go and let people have their ministries,” Champion encouraged. “We need to empower these people and let them know what it means to be an Alabama Baptist.”

The third and final theme interpretation was presented Wednesday morning by Neal Hughes, director of the Community of Hope, a Southern Baptist network in Montgomery. Hughes used John 4:35 to illustrate his point that there are missions fields in Alabama “ripe for harvest.”

The greatest untapped missions field in America today, according to Hughes, is the vast number of multihousing communities in which at least 25 percent of the people are lost. The key, he said, is taking laypeople and empowering them to do God’s work. But the reality of the matter, said Hughes, is that nothing or no one can do the job that needs to be done except for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Hughes’ presentation featured three “doors” that need to be opened in the effort to change lives: the door of great compassion, the door of great challenge and the door of great celebration. Reaching people, he said, requires the transforming compassion of Jesus, meeting the challenge of radical obedience and celebrating the transforming power of God through the testimonies of believers.

“God has given to you and to me as Alabamians access to the greatest missions field in the world — multihousing communities,” said Hughes. “It is up to us to set the example and set the pace for the rest of the country.”