Mac Brunson wasted no time in challenging pastors of small and bivocational-led churches.
“We don’t like to tell that to our congregation or to our people, but deep on the inside we feel incredibly inadequate to do what we’re doing,” Brunson, senior pastor of Valleydale Church in Birmingham, told participants of No Restraints, Aug. 13-14 at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Caskey Center for Church Excellence. “Every preacher struggles with this.”
Teaching out of Joshua 1, Brunson referred to the new Israelite leader’s fear.
“God didn’t call him to be adequate,” Brunson said. “He didn’t call you to be adequate. He called you to be obedient.”
‘Preachers need each other’
Brunson followed famous pastors W.A. Criswell at First Baptist Church in Dallas and Jerry Vines at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He knows Joshua’s fear: Moses had led for so long, but now it was Joshua’s time.
“If you will be obedient, God will take care of the adequacy,” Brunson said.
He encouraged the audience to build strong relationships with godly men. “You preachers need each other,” he said, also warning about isolating themselves.
Thomas Strong, dean of Leavell College at New Orleans Seminary and bivocational pastor of Metairie Baptist Church in Louisiana, also was a main speaker for No Restraints.
Preaching out of Luke 18, Strong emphasized that “brokenness is actually a strength. You are a sinner.”
He urged the ministers to be like the tax collector instead of the Pharisee.
“As ministers we can become so academically familiar with God and the works of God, that we lose the awe and reverence of what God’s done in our lives, and what God does through our lives to other people,” Strong asserted. “If you really want God to take notice, just notice God.”
History of the center
The Caskey Center was founded in 2014, and hosted the first No Restraints in 2015. It was held for five years on the seminary campus, and this year in April traveled to two locations in Montana — Billings and Missoula.
“Our intent is to make it more readily available,” said Mark Tolbert, director of the center and NOBTS professor of preaching and pastoral ministry.
The center provided funds to cover the cost, plus meals and lodging, as well as the cost of a class for students attending a special course the first day of the main event.
Pathfinder award
Donny Yarbrough, pastor of First Baptist Church in Glencoe, was awarded the Steve Caskey Pathfinder Award, given to bivocational or small church ministers who have found a way to reach people for Christ in their community.
Tolbert said Yarbrough credited the Monday morning prayer NOBTS encourages its students to pray for a gospel conversation that week.
“He prays that every day,” Tolbert said. “It’s been life-changing for him. It’s increased his passion for evangelism.”
The practice inspired the church staff to commit to 100 gospel conversations this year; and the Glencoe congregation also pledged to have 500 gospel conversations during the year.
“It’s changed the culture of his church,” Tolbert said.
Yarbrough’s wife, Rachel, said No Restraints “was just the word of encouragement that we needed to keep pressing on, to lean on the Lord and to trust Him.”
Yarbrough, who has led FBC Glencoe for 12 years, called the conference a “godsend for us. I’ve seen that God has continually used the Caskey Center and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in divine ways.”
He also was a Caskey Scholarship recipient from the time he began his degree in 2017 until he graduated with a master of divinity degree in May 2021.
Full-tuition scholarships are available to bivocational and smaller membership church ministers for certificate, undergraduate or master’s degree study through any NOBTS delivery system in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama (main campus, hybrid, extension, workshop, online).
The next No Restraints is planned for April 22-23 on the NOBTS campus in New Orleans.
Speakers for the 2022 event will include Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, and Jim Henry, longtime First Baptist Church, Orlando, pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president.
Visit caskeycenter.com for more information.
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