On the second day of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville June 22, speakers exhorted pastors to lead with “One Love,” “One Spirit” and “One Purpose.”
Newly elected officers for the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference are (left to right) Ben Mandrell, pastor of Englewood Baptist Church, Jackson, Tenn., secretary/treasurer; Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, Fla., vice president; and Kevin Ezell, pastor of Highview Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., president. Elections were held June 22 during the closing session of the conference.Passionate, funny, pleading – speakers Mike Landry, Ed Stetzer, Francis Chan, Tom Elliff, Michael Catt, Fred Luter, Dennis Swanberg, Alvin Reid, David Platt, Johnny Hunt and Mike Huckabee referred to the Great Commission, tertiary issues, humility, and accountability.
The pastors also elected officers for the 2010 Pastors’ Conference in Orlando, Fla.: Kevin Ezell, pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., president; Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, Fla., vice president; and Ben Mandrell, pastor of Englewood Baptist Church, Jackson, Tenn., secretary-treasurer.
Mike Landry, pastor of Sarasota (Fla.) Baptist Church, pointed to the book of Jonah for a lesson on maintaining the same love of Christ the apostle Paul mentioned in Philippians 2:2. A lack of love, Landry said, turns a Christian into a judge as displayed in Jonah, judging the people of Nineveh and desiring punishment for them more than reconciliation.
Francis Chan, teaching pastor at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., said radical love for one another was a defining characteristic of the early church, and should be for Christians today.
Tom Elliff, a former pastor, SBC president and vice president of the International Mission Board, shared the power of forgiveness from the vantage point of personal experience. He told how he forgave his father, J.T. Elliff, a pastor who left his wife for another woman. Elliff called pastors to forgive those who have betrayed and wounded them in order for Christ to be exalted and their ministries to be more effective.
Michael Catt, widely known for his church’s work with Sherwood Pictures, which produced the movie “Fireproof,” shared his concern over the lack of respect between the older and younger generations of believers in the SBC. “You and I need to care about the lost; listen more than we speak; pray more than we talk; groan more than we gossip; plead before God instead of pointing fingers; set an example for the next generation; stop burning bridges and start building them,” Catt said.
Drawing from Acts 1:4-8, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, said early Christians “turned the world upside down” because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. “We can’t win the lost by ourselves,” Luter said. “We must be filled with his Spirit. We must be led by his Spirit.”
Combining humor with a prescription for healthy relationships, comedian Dennis Swanberg encouraged pastors during the afternoon session. His jokes focused on the close relationships that have shaped him, and he urged pastors to develop friendships and interpersonal relationships that lead to a balanced, fulfilling life.
Alvin Reid, professor of evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, said the Southern Baptist Convention is far too comfortable in a world racing toward hell. Reid said the convention has reached a tipping point from which it cannot go back, but instead, must move forward for the sake of the gospel. He said the SBC has “tipped” in how it views relationships, the gospel, the future, the culture and success. Instead of seeing people as numbers and money as the goal, Reid said the thinking must be turned around so that people being saved is the goal.
David Platt, lead pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., preached from Hebrews 13, a text he said demands readers to answer the question: “Are we going to die in our religion or are we going to die in our devotion?” Platt said Christians can retreat from the mission God has given them, or they can risk everything for it.
An absence of morality, not a lack of money, is responsible for many of the problems facing the United States, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told attendees. “Wall Street did not melt down because it was a money problem,” he said. “It melted down because there was a moral problem – and without righteousness and character, our nation will perish.”
Speakers on the first day of the Pastors’ Conference included Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, and Mary Mohler, wife of Southern Seminary president Al Mohler. – BP