"Alabama Baptists are not dead yet.”
Sammy Gilbreath made that declaration with a smile to a full house at First Baptist Church, Trussville, on the opening night of the State Evangelism Conference.
“I pray the record books will record that revival broke out from Mobile to Huntsville, Gadsden to Tuscaloosa; that churches once declining are now standing straight and tall, and it all started with a group at First Baptist Church, Trussville, on a Monday night,” said Gilbreath, director of the office of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
The conference, held Feb. 25–26, drew a crowd of more than 1,000. More than 500 also watched online. And those present weren’t a quiet crowd — the house resounded with amens, applause, comments and loud singing as a range of speakers and musicians challenged them to be the Church and reach the lost.
“A lot of churches today are hiding out,” said Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va.
Many Baptists got used to the “glory days” of the Southern Baptist Convention, when people were “coming out of the woodwork” to get saved and Baptists had to build bigger churches, Falwell said.
“They were coming and coming and coming, and they’re not coming anymore. Why not? Because we kept expecting them to come and we forgot somewhere along the way that we’re supposed to go,” he said.
The uttermost parts of the earth are never found within the walls of the church, Falwell said.
“When we are walking with God, talking with Him, learning from Him and passionately sharing Him with everyone … that’s when the church stops being stoppable and starts being the Church,” he said.
Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, said the Church first began to see its mission when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, an event found in Acts 2:1–13.
It’s a power-filled moment the Church needs to get back to, he said. “We don’t need gadgets [and] we don’t need schemes. We need Kingdom power.”
With Kingdom power, a movement begins, he said.
“You not only see the movement born, you see the advance of the movement occur — the kingdom of God began to advance in the Spirit of God through the Church of God around the world when those people left the city of Jerusalem.”
Floyd told the audience that God wants to “use you to take His message” to every people group, both internationally and locally.
Robert Smith, professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, added that God has been for the redemption of all nations from the very beginning, as evidenced by the story of Rahab the prostitute.
As recorded in Joshua 2, Rahab saved the Israelite spies in Jericho by letting them out of the city through her window, and as a result, they saved her whole family when Israel destroyed the city.
“Rahab shows us a different kind of ecclesiology. She didn’t know Galatians 3:28 — that was about 1,400 years later,” Smith said. “But she did experience that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free.”
She risked her life to save the Israelite spies because of what she had heard about their God, and for that faith she is commended in Hebrews 11:31. So Rahab — a “mess” — lived with Israel and became part of the genealogy of Christ, Smith said.
“She is commended for her faith and yet can’t shake that designation (of being a prostitute),” he said. “But she makes her mess her message. Her faith is real, but it is flawed. We are all growing in grace.”
And all believers can experience the provision of God as the spies did, Smith said. “When people close doors on you, God can open a window.”
Christians need to be willing to ask persistently for Him to do just that, said William Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Clearwater, Fla.
Rice spoke of Jesus’ story beginning in Luke 11:5 about the person who knocks on a neighbor’s door at midnight and asks for three loaves of bread. The neighbor gives the bread, not because of friendship but because of that person’s shameless audacity, Rice said.
In Luke 18, Jesus tells a similar story about a judge who first refuses to grant a widow justice against her adversary, but after her continued requests the judge finally gives her what she asks for. Rice said Jesus tells this story because He “wants you to pray and wants you … to keep on praying and to never give up praying.”
“God is eager to answer your prayer,” Rice said. He explained that unlike the characters in the two passages, God “is eager to open a door for you.”
“When will we be desperate (enough) to ask and keep on asking and seek and keep on seeking and knock and keep on knocking till our final breath … for God’s (work) to be done? It’s that audacity, it’s that faith, that Jesus is looking for in us,” Rice said.
He is also looking for a people, a church sold out to Him as their Lord, said Herb Reavis Jr., pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla.
“What needs to happen is a Holy Ghost revival where God’s people get on the altar and give up their lives,” he said. “It’s about getting out of the way and letting Jesus take charge and take us where He wants to go.”
Jesus doesn’t want to be your co-pilot — He wants to be your pilot, Reavis said.
“This false way of looking at the Christian life has infected way too many of our people,” he said. “They see Jesus as hell insurance and shove Him in a closet somewhere as if He’s a fire extinguisher and just hope you never have to use it.”
Salvation is a gift, Reavis said, but Jesus can’t be Savior without also being Lord.
“Time is growing near. The end is coming. The answer is Jesus Christ,” he said. “And what God needs is a man or woman who dares to abandon themselves fully to the lordship of Jesus.”
That man or woman will be the bearer of good news to a world with no hope, said Dan Lanier, pastor of Northcrest Baptist Church, Meridian, Miss.
“In a world filled with discouragement, disillusionment and doubt, we need to herald the good news,” he said. “We should be living for the other world, because we are pilgrims passing through.”
We are to be in the business of reaching people for Jesus, Lanier said.
“Folks, there is something better than what we have here,” he said, telling those present that heaven is real and “beyond our comprehension.”
“Let’s go and tell every man, woman, boy and girl that there is One who is mighty to save,” Lanier said.
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