Month: June 2018

Kie Bowman calls for new life in dry bones

DALLAS Kie Bowman, pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, preached the convention sermon from Ezekiel 37, calling on Southern Baptists to ask God to breathe life into families, churches and the Southern Baptist Convention at the annual meeting in Dallas June 13.

During his message, Bowman noted that “Ezekiel was a priest. That means he had spent his entire life ministering around the things of God in the temple of God,”

“But in 597 B.C.,” he explained, Ezekiel “was captured as a prisoner of war and taken to a pagan culture, and 10 years later he got word that the temple had been destroyed. That means that everything he’d ever prayed about, everything he’d ever hoped for, everything he’d ever worked for was evaporated in the winds of war.”

God led Ezekiel, in a vision, to “the ultimate example of his shattered hopes and the desecration and the devastation of his national dreams—an army of skeletons,” Bowman said. “… This once great army was lying scattered on the desert floor.”

The message God gave Ezekiel 2,600 years ago was one of hope and life, he said, and it applies to believers today.

“This message is still a message of hope and life to your situation because our God is a God of life and a God of resurrection, and anything that looks dead to you may be the next God raises back to life,” Bowman said.

God wants bones to live again in the 21st century, so he calls believers to speak life, he said. Some messengers may be struggling in their marriages or with their children or in their ministries, Bowman said.

“Some of you may be just struggling with where we are as a convention. We’ve heard some sobering reports. Yes, we believe in the Good News. Yes, we’re optimistic, but it’s going to be an uphill battle and we all know it.

“… It may feel like to you that there are a lot of dry bones around your life, but here’s your good news: God specializes in raising the dead, and nothing is impossible with God,” Bowman said. “Anything God has ever done before he can do again, and anything God’s ever done anywhere he can do here, and anything God’s ever done with anyone, he can do with you.”

In Ezekiel 37, God gave the prophet some strange advice, Bowman said: Preach to the ones who will not and cannot hear.

“God’s solution to the biggest problem imaginable, a valley of dry bones, was pretty simple: Declare the Word of the Lord to a culture that will not hear or cannot hear, and just keep declaring the mighty works of our sovereign God who says, ‘I will give you life.’”

God also calls his people to spiritual life, Bowman said. “It occurred to me this isn’t a passage about dry bones at all. This is a passage of Scripture about our God’s amazing ability to raise the dead. And he does it by his Word when it is anointed by his Spirit.”

The message from God to his people today, Bowman said, is, “I’ll put my Spirit into defeated, dry, dead circumstances and situations and families and churches and denominations and people, and I will make you live again.”

“You and I have a choice to make today. We can live in our own strength and we will have the same spiritual impact as the prayer lives of a robot,” Bowman said, “or we can invite the Holy Spirit of God to breathe life into all of our dead places.”

Believers never grow spiritually by accident, he said, so if they want an Ezekiel 37 moment in their families, churches and ministries they must be intentional. In closing, he called the convention to a time of prayer, urging messengers to come forward and ask God to “breathe life on our churches, on our families, on our ministries, on our convention.”

Crossover evangelistic outreach reports 4,229 professions

DALLAS/FORT WORTH Seminary students, local church members and volunteers from evangelist Greg Laurie’s Harvest America Crusade joined forces to share the gospel across Dallas-Fort Worth June 4-10, celebrating 4,229 professions of faith, the largest number ever recorded for the annual Crossover evangelistic outreach.

“One thing the church will never have to apologize to Jesus for is sharing the gospel too much,” stated Shane Pruitt, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention evangelism director who helped coordinate local the 13 launch sites at local churches. “We can’t be selfish with the gospel because it is meant to be shared on a daily basis.”

After six days of door-to-door evangelism, 185 students and faculty from Southern Baptist seminaries made 19,464 contacts, initiated 3,180 gospel conversations and reported 340 spiritual commitments as part of this year’s Crossover evangelistic outreach prior to the annual meeting of Southern Baptists. Local SBC churches throughout DFW hosted the groups after students spent their mornings taking an evangelism class at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Thousands of volunteers hit the streets with gospel conversations from launch sites around the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They saw 675 people profess faith in Christ and invited thousands of people to the crusade led by Laurie on June 10 where another 2,339 people were saved. With live streaming of the event, over 100,000 unique viewers watched online and 875 people made professions of faith.

An inability to speak Spanish fluently didn’t stop three students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from leading a non-English-speaking Hispanic woman to the Lord while visiting Grand Prairie neighborhoods. “We had an English tract and gave her a Spanish language version of the same tract and walked her through it,” explained Brian Steward who was joined by Abby Miller and Misti Short.

That’s when the group turned to the 1Cross app developed by the SBTC to provide 3-minute gospel testimonies in over 60 languages. “We let her watch the video and then she repeated it at the end so we knew for sure she understood the gospel and we got to lead her to Christ.”

Over in Fort Worth, Rebekah Goodman of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was walking through a neighborhood with another student, headed to an apartment complex. “We took a wrong turn and walked across to a place we weren’t supposed to be.”

There they encountered a homeless man named Josephus and began explaining the gospel to him. “He had never heard it before and he accepted Christ,” Goodman said. “It was really a cool moment and we weren’t even supposed to be going that way.”

Brian Post and Justin Wine of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary met a man named Javier while visiting a Fort Worth neighborhood. “He said he was fine with speaking English, but I wasn’t sure it was most comfortable for him so we changed over to Spanish,” Post said.

The man said he believed in God, but when asked about Jesus Christ, he admitted he did not. “We talked about what it is to ask Jesus to come into your heart and make that decision for eternity,” Post recalled. “At first he didn’t make a decision, but said he understood and we prayed.”

After more discussion, Post and Wine made sure Javier understood everything Christ had done for him. “‘He said, ‘I am just so thankful for what Jesus did for me,’” Post said. “We prayed again and being able to hear from him was the most important part,” he added, describing Javier’s testimony of faith in Christ.

“I had never led someone to Christ before and he was excited, too, asking, ‘What now?’” The students gave the man a Bible and located a nearby Hispanic congregation to follow up.

When Southwestern Seminary student Esther Constante knocked on the door of a single mother in Fort Worth, the woman told her she was too busy to buy whatever the visitors were selling. Having explained that she had just come out of a difficult relationship, Constante told her, “You know what? You’re not going to be alone anymore because today we are here to tell you that you are not alone.”

The woman began crying and told the students she had asked God to send her a sign because she needed someone to walk with her, feeling alone and tired. After Constante shared the gospel, the woman said, “I want to receive Christ in my life right now,” and prayed to profess her newfound faith.

Constante recalled the woman saying, “‘I just want to hug you all. Thank you for coming to my door. I needed a sign and God sent the Bible to my door.’”

After giving the woman a Bible and connecting her with a local Southern Baptist church, the students told her to start reading the Book of John. She responded by saying she’d start reading that night and would be at church on Sunday. “You could see her face change completely,” Constante said. “It was very encouraging.”

Launch churches affiliated with SBTC included First Baptist Euless, First Baptist Irving First Baptist Keller, Tate Springs Baptist in Arlington, Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, First Baptist Dallas, First Baptist Church of Farmersville and North Richland Hills Baptist.

“I’m not here to talk to you about religion,” Southern Baptist Evangelist Greg Laurie told the crowd of an estimated 35,000 people gathered at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on June 10. “I’m here to talk to you about a relationship with God that you can experience,” he said.

“Christ can fill that big hole that is in your heart right now. We all need him. We all need a Savior. There’s so much stuff to distract us and emptiness to make us feel alone. Yet, Jesus, who created us, also gives us purpose. Jesus loves us all—no matter what we do or say or have done before—so much.”

“People might say crusades are over but all you have to do is look around,” Prestonwood Baptist Pastor Jack Graham of Plano said of the thousands who gathered on a Sunday night. “It works because it brings people together in a time when we have so much dissonance and division.

“I believe in invitational evangelism,” Graham said. “We invite many to come to know and follow Christ in our churches. And in a great environment like AT&T Stadium, a crusade can bring churches together and allow a great evangelist to proclaim the gospel and invite people to Christ in an effective way.”

“This was a great opportunity for people to hear, ‘God loves you,’” said attendee Brian Cole, minister of communications and worship at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Cedar Hill.

Pruitt said Crossover provided a firsthand opportunity to see that the greatest forces in the world are God and his church unleashed in unity to advance his Kingdom. “We got to see the church mobilized to reach thousands.”

What I saw at the 2018 SBC

I’ve attended nearly every SBC annual meeting since 1982 and the experience of it coming to your home county is very different than travelling hundreds of miles to attend. On the positive side, the convention gives local ministry a boost and gives Southern Baptists a little notice in the media. This year’s meeting was unusually interesting because of several issues the messengers discussed and considered both during our business sessions and in hallway conversations. Even before the last-minute announcement that Vice President Pence would speak, attendance by non-Baptist media was higher than it has been in years. Our business was on public display well before we convened in Dallas. Here are some thoughts on some of the more prominent issues that we considered.

The presidential election-This has been the biggest issue for many years of our history. It was not this year. Although this race was a true campaign and both candidates really wanted to win, the distinctions between them were minor compared to the races of the 1980s. Both men are inerrantists, practice missions and evangelism, and have demonstrated an ability to lead. Ken Hemphill and J.D. Greear were gracious and dignified in their comments about each other, though some of their partisans struggled with this. It was an important election but the outcome was neither the end of the SBC nor the assurance of our future.

Crossover Dallas-This was a big deal. Hundreds of Dallas-Ft. Worth Southern Baptists went door to door in hot weather to share the gospel with their neighbors. Our seminaries provided 175 students and professors to help with this effort during the week before the convention—Southwestern Seminary provided 100 of those. These volunteers knocked on nearly 20,000 doors and recorded 340 professions of faith. Saturday events and an enormous rally Sunday night added strength to this earlier effort and brought the total professions to 4,229, the largest number recorded during the history of Crossover efforts. Lives, families, businesses and communities were blessed because the SBC came to Dallas and God used our people to preach the gospel across the region. This is puzzling, maybe boring, to outsiders looking on but it should never be to us, and it certainly is not to the people whose lives God transformed.

The SBC #metoo moment-The issue of respect for women was intermingled in nearly everything we did. It was mentioned in sermons and reports, was a frequent question of SBC leaders, spawned a leftist rally outside the convention hall, and was the subject of panel discussions and resolutions. Clearly, the churches of our convention have struggled to teach both biblical complementarianism (the doctrine that men and women are equal before God but assigned different roles in church and marriage) and equal respect. As often happens, a cultural moment is helping us examine our own hearts. But I would add that this is not a moment wherein our churches or their cooperative ministries are reconsidering our convictions about women pastors. Our new president made clear during his press conference that this was no part of the agenda, for his part. Al Mohler of Southern Seminary also drove home this point during his report. Abandoning complementarianism is a completely different discussion, and one we’re not having.

Mike Pence-In a surprising dust up, a significant number of messengers favored disinviting Vice President Pence the day before he was to speak to the convention. Reasons varied from the company he keeps to sensitivity toward minorities to the disruption the visit would cause for our Wednesday morning session. Mr. Pence did speak but I doubt any national political figure will speak to us live again for a while—if for no other reason than its significant impact on our program. While many who opposed honoring the invitation said this pushback was not personal, it did appear to largely be just that. It’s one thing to say, “Let’s not do this in the future”; it’s another thing to be churlish and disrespectful after the matter is decided.

The firing of Paige Patterson-This was probably the most uncomfortable aspect of our convention discussions. It was present from the first introduction of business until the last session of the convention. Multiple motions were introduced calling for some members of the SWBTS trustee board to be removed from service. The Committee on Order of Business scheduled debate on a motion to remove the board’s Executive Committee for Wednesday afternoon. The motivation for the motion was the committee’s May 30 termination of Patterson and revocation of all titles and benefits granted by the full board on May 23, following a marathon 13-hour meeting. It was a tense but clarifying conversation that ended with an overwhelming vote against the motion. This action completed the general discussion of the Patterson firing. Though many things about this event are grievous, the seminary’s response to the accusations against Paige Patterson, and the convention’s response, is behind us.

Many have said silly things about our Dallas meeting. No, J.D. Greear is not going to remake the denomination (no one does that during a two-year presidency). Neither did convention messengers do anything to signal that they wanted to resign from the culture war, as one outlier suggested. We came out of Dallas committed to missions and still committed to biblical doctrine–including doctrine related to sexual morality, order in our churches and a biblical understanding of gender. Our convention has challenges, big challenges in our future, but those who were committed to our common mission going into that week came out of the week with some reasons to be encouraged.

Missouri Baptists send additional funding for Harvey recovery

DALLAS–The Missouri Baptist Convention has contributed another $60,000 for the continued recovery of victims of Hurricane Harvey. Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Director John Yeats delivered the check to Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Director Jim Richards while attending the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas, June 12.

“Missouri Baptists are generous people because first, our Lord is generous with his grace toward us,” Yeats said. “Even before Hurricane Harvey blew ashore, Missouri Baptists were checking on our Texas Baptist friends and began sending offerings through our convention offices to help the victims.

MBC sent an earlier check for $275,000 for victim relief through the processes developed and managed through SBTC. “Missouri Baptists under the leadership of Dr. John Yeats continues to help Texas rebound,” Richards said. “We are eternally grateful for their generosity.”

He added that state conventions across the nation sent volunteers to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. “Churches through their state conventions sent literally millions of dollars to aid in the work of relief and rebuild,” referencing the more than $2.6 million given.

Yeats said Missouri Baptists “learned through the storms that have ravaged our landscape, the best way to help is with our hands and with our dollars. If we cannot go then we help with our dollars through our state Disaster Relief.”

REVIEW: Don”t miss the marvelous message about parenting in “Incredibles 2”

It stinks when you have superhero powers and can’t use them.

But that’s the situation that Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible), Helen Parr (Elastigirl) and their three children find themselves after they tried to catch a bank robber – the Underminer – and ended up destroying a city street instead. The bad guy got away with the cash, and the Incredibles made the front page of the newspaper for all the wrong reasons.

The money was insured, so what did they have to gain by chasing the villain?

“If you had simply done nothing,” an official says, “everything would be proceeding in an orderly fashion.”

Of course, superheroes already were banned in their world. This just made things worse.

Now living in a cheap motel, Bob and Helen Parr seem destined for a life in the real world, with a genuine job and actual responsibilities. That is, until two mysterious and wealthy people – the brother-sister tandem of Winston and Evelyn Deavor – enter their lives, promising a return to superhero fame. The Deavors blame politicians for the negative perception of superheroes. Their solution: body cameras, which will record the brave actions of superheroes. The footage then will be fed to the media, which will subsequently change the public’s perception for the better. Politicians will be forced to change the law!

It’s a good plan, but the Deavors want to test it on only one superhero: Elastigirl. This will require Mr. Incredible to be a stay-at-home dad and raise three kids: the moody Violet, the energetic Dash, and the gets-into-everything baby Jack-Jack.

Will it work?

Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (PG) opens this weekend, some 14 years after the first installment – which still ranks in the Top 20 all-time in animated film gross – opened. It stars Craig T. Nelson (Coach) as Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter (The Big Sick) as Helen Parr/Elastigirl, Sarah Vowell (This American Life) as Violet, and Huck Milner as the new voice of Dash. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Frozone.

I took my 10-year-old son with me to watch Incredibles 2, and we laughed as much during the two-hour film as we did during the first one. It’s just as funny as the original, and the family-centric message is back, too.

Still, it’s not as clean as Incredibles was, and it contains some elements that might prevent parents from taking small children.

Warning: minor spoilers!

(Scale key: Minimal, moderate, extreme)

Violence/Disturbing

Moderate. It’s bloodless animated violence, but the film contains more punching and kicking than most animated films. There also is a flashback scene in which we learn a father was shot and killed in his bedroom. (We see the robbers and the gun but don’t see the bodies.) Jack-Jack turns into a demonic-looking creature when angry. The film’s most disturbing moment involves a villain named Screenslaver who uses hypnosis (through television and special glasses) to turn people into his subjects. It’s eerie.

Sexuality/Sensuality/Nudity

Minimal. Violet dates a boy. Bob and Helen kiss. Everyone’s suits (as you know) are skin-tight.

Coarse Language

Minimal. About five coarse words: OMG (2), h-ll (1), d-ned (1) and misuse of “oh Lord (1). It’s jarring to hear a curse word in a kid-friendly animated film. Why include them at all, Pixar? Also: crap (1), suck (1), jeez (1) and an unfinished “what the.”

Other Positive Elements

The Incredibles, as we learned in the first film, are a close family that supports one another. That’s the case in Incredibles 2, also.

Other Stuff You Might Want To Know

Helen and Evelyn drink alcohol together. Some of the superheroes travel from dimension to dimension. As previously noted, a villain performs hypnosis.

Life Lessons

When is it OK to break an unjust law? In Incredibles 2, Helen breaks the law in hopes of changing it.

The movie also has plenty of lessons about the family. See Worldview, below.

Worldview

Theologians calls the family God’s first institution. Before He designed anything else – the church, the government – He created the family. Thus, it must be important!

And in Incredibles 2, family is preeminent. Bob and Helen love each other. They love their children. And the kids love their parents. In fact, everyone is willing to risk their own lives for everyone else.

But the bigger message in Incredibles 2 concerns parenting. It’s as important as being a superhero! Some moviegoers even may see a message about the traditional role of moms and dads. After all, Helen is great at being a superhero, but she misses her kids. Her children, in turn, miss her, too, and they want her back. (Her absence means she misses a key moment in Jack-Jack’s life.) Mr. Incredible struggles mightily at being a stay-at-home dad. It’s simply not his forte.

At one point, a fellow superhero asks Helen/Elastigirl, “How do you balance superhero stuff with the life stuff?” She never answers the question, but the answer is obvious: She doesn’t balance the two. She spends 100 percent of her time in the superhero world, and her family suffers. In the end, Elastigirl learns she can’t save the world by herself, and Mr. Incredible learns to respect his wife’s motherly skills.

Incredibles 2 is filled with messages about parenting and family. Such as children need a mom and a dad. And it takes a village to raise a child. (Which we see when Edna assists Mr. Incredible.) And “you don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent” – as the radio commercial puts it.

“Parenting is a heroic act,” Edna says.

Incredibles 2 teaches us a lot about the family. Not bad for an animated film.

Sponsors

McDonald’s is a leading sponsor and already has Happy Meal toys. You’ve been warned.

What Works

The humor. It’s everywhere in this film, even in the cereals the kids eat. (Bob switches out Sugar Bombs for Fiber O’s).

What Doesn’t

We expect Pixar films to be 100 percent kid-friendly, but Incredible 2 is not. The violence and disturbing elements may be too much for little ones. It’s also disappointing to hear coarse language.

Discussion Questions

List three lessons about the family from Incredibles 2.
Do you agree that “it takes a village to raise a child”? Why or why not?
Why did Mr. Incredible struggle with his duties at home?
Why do moviegoers like The Incredibles so much? Is it due to the humor, or is it something deeper?
Who was right – Bob or Helen – in the debate over unjust laws?

Entertainment rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Incredibles 2 is rated PG for action sequences and some brief mild language.

SBC messengers refuse call to remove SWBTS executive committee trustees

DALLAS—As Southern Baptist messengers considered a motion June 13 to dismiss the executive committee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board, trustee Bart Barber of Farmersville, Texas, asked them to “not rob the trustees throughout our convention of their spine” as they “keep our entities accountable to you.”

The motion submitted by Thomas Hatley of Rogers, Ark., was soundly defeated by messengers in a show of ballots. In light of the committee’s May 30 decision to fire Patterson a week after the full board had named him president emeritus, Hatley said, “I fear the loss of our organizational integrity.”

The former SWBTS president’s tenure was cut short after trustees dealt with concerns regarding the counsel he gave years ago to a woman in an abusive situation. “My motion is not seeking a reversal of anything, but declaring that this set of leaders is not a good option for the future of the school.”

He outlined seven concerns he had with the committee’s action, including lack of proper investigation, neglect of founding documents, abandonment of established procedures, failure to properly call the last meeting, disrespect of the binding vote of the full board, failure to allow the accused an opportunity for a response and possible violations of the law.

Hatley drew applause when he added, “Social media and secular press should never find us critical of one another. We should settle our issues biblically.”

Messenger Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark., countered, expressing concern that “removing duly elected trustees would destroy our own system of governance” and could cause concern and hesitation by all Southern Baptist trustees when faced with “troubling decisions.”

SWBTS trustee Wayne Dickard of Easley, S.C., favored removal of the committee, saying, “If we can be overruled by the Executive Committee why serve?”

Barber gained a point of personal privilege as one of the trustees subject to removal, disclosing much of the basis for his decision-making process. As background he referenced a board review last fall of the seminary’s financial condition led by the chairman of the business administration subcommittee. “Shortly after the review began, Dr. Patterson began to question the legitimacy of that trustee’s eligibility to serve as a trustee and made efforts to have him removed,” Barber said.

He then shared that board chairman Kevin Ueckert had asked the president to receive his input before making any public reply to the allegations.

“Dr. Patterson disregarded this request from the chairman of the board and issued a press release without the chairman’s input,” Barber said, characterizing the reply as damaging to the reputations of the the board, seminary and Patterson.

The Texas trustee also claimed that Patterson “refused to attend meeting after meeting of the Executive Committee as we attempted to work through these problems despite formal requests that he do so and as I continued to say, ‘Let’s wait to hear from the president.’ But he refused to meet with us and refused to give us his side of the story or any of the facts,” Barber said of the timeframe leading up to the called board meeting.

He shared that trustees received an email from Patterson’s attorney days after the May 22-23 meeting, questioning the legal validity of the board’s decision. “What is your seminary to do with a president emeritus who is working to undermine the legitimacy and validity of the seminary’s board of trustees?”

Describing himself as “an old-time Baptist congregationalist,” Barber said, “It is a part of our polity that our entity heads don’t get to remove trustees, that entity heads have to answer to their boards both when they want to and when they don’t want to, and that seminary employees have to abide by board decisions.”

He added, “We all have to serve as people under accountability. Baptists don’t have popes and I’m accountable to you,” he said. “We’re there to keep our entity accountable to you.”

Barber drew widespread applause throughout the hall after closing by saying, “We have that charge and if you rob the trustees of their spine you rob the messengers of their voice.”

Southwestern Seminary’s board will consider another motion referred to them by the convention that asks the full board to review the recent deliberations of the executive committee.

Juan Sanchez addresses 2018 Pastors” Conference: needs, concerns and confidence characterize Paul”s parting advice to Timothy

DALLAS Juan Sanchez, pastor of Austin’s High Pointe Baptist Church and president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, issued a Texas welcome and delivered the opening sermon of the 2018 Pastors’ Conference, speaking on 2 Timothy 4:9-22, calling the final lessons of the apostle Paul especially applicable to pastors.

“Paul is writing his last letter and he has come to the end of his life and his ministry,” Sanchez said, referencing 2 Timothy 4:7-8, read earlier by conference president H.B. Charles, Jr. Sanchez reminded the audience that the conference theme, “Fulfill Your Ministry,” was also the heart of Paul’s parting advice to Timothy.

Paul “exposes” needs, concerns, and confidence at the end of his life, Sanchez proclaimed, calling the apostle’s message appropriate for pastors in all stages of ministry.

“What will our ministry look like when it is fulfilled…when we come to the end of our ministry?” Sanchez asked the crowd, urging them to consider their needs, concerns and source of confidence.

Sanchez mentioned several needs outlined by Paul in the passage, including physical needs such as the apostle’s desire for a cloak.

Sometimes we forget God has made us “whole persons”: body, spirit and soul, Sanchez continued, emphasizing the need for care of the physical self.

Paul’s other need was for “deeply-rooted gospel friendships,” Sanchez said, noting the apostle’s urging of Timothy to “come soon” and specific mention of both faithful and faithless friends. He highlighted Paul’s response of forgiveness to those who turned against him: “May it not be charged against them,” reminiscent of the prayer of Stephen in Acts 7.

“We need to have thick skins and soft hearts,” Sanchez proclaimed, recommending forgiveness and grace toward critics and emphasizing the restoration of the relationship between John Mark and Paul.

“At the end of your life and ministry, who will you call on to be by your side?” Sanchez asked, admitting his prior failure at developing deep friendships and noting his current commitment to accountability “brothers.”

“We are not meant to be isolated. It is tragic if we are isolated. Connect,” Sanchez urged. “Look for others you can encourage,” he said, recommending networking among pastor friends.

“Paul’s heartbeat was for the continuation of the gospel ministry,” Sanchez said, likening Paul to a general directing the spread of the gospel even from prison.

“As pastors, we should be thinking how we can prepare others” for gospel ministry, Sanchez added.

Paul always remained a student of God’s Word, Sanchez said, reminding listeners to study Scripture: “We never finish our theological training and education.”

As Paul warned Timothy of opposition, Sanchez cautioned his audience to expect the same from within and outside the church. “Ministry is not easy,” he said, encouraging pastors to faithfully preach the Word and leave a “gospel legacy.”

Paul’s “ultimate confidence rested in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Sanchez continued, cautioning against placing “confidence in ourselves,” or in numbers, buildings or locations. He closed by encouraging pastors to not become discouraged but to remember the “eternal plan of God.”

Jack Graham exhorts 2018 Pastors” Conference attendees to finish well

DALLAS Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, began the final Monday morning sermon of the 2018 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference by recalling his first opportunity to preach at the conference in Dallas in 1985, a time Graham called a “tipping point” in the SBC with the Conservative Resurgence.

Graham said he believed this year would mark “another tipping point” in SBC life and that he “expected God to move in a great way” to “energize and fill us with his Spirit to motivate us as churches to fulfill the Great Commission.”

Affirming the conference theme of fulfilling your ministry, Graham said this should be “the goal and holy ambition of all of us.”

He next displayed a Dallas Morning News edition with the headline “Cheers for hope in Christ,” referencing the June 10 Harvest America event at AT&T Stadium. “We haven’t seen a lot of winning from the Cowboys lately but we had some big wins last night as thousands of people came to faith in Jesus Christ,” Graham exclaimed to applause.

Turning to his sermon topic of finishing well, from 1 Corinthians 15:58, Graham noted that June 10 also marked his 29^th anniversary at Prestonwood, adding that he had been in ministry for 48 years and preached his first sermon at age 16. Graham recalled that when his childhood friends wanted to be policemen or firemen, he always wanted to be a preacher.

As for going the distance in ministry, Graham advised, “You just keep showing up,” adding, “it’s not how you start but how you finish.”

Describing a recent conversation with retired and terminally ill SWBTS professor William Tolar, 90, Graham said Tolar confirmed the importance of reliance on Christ, as Tolar had since childhood when he was challenged by a teacher to read “the world’s bestseller,” the Bible.

From 1 Corinthians 15:58, Graham appealed for unity, lamenting that “often the church is divided; we are stumbling over our own teammates.”

Essential to keeping momentum in ministry is to “stay balanced” or to “strengthen the core,” Graham continued, urging the audience to avoid “running after every fad, new trend, hip or cool thing to do” but rather “stay focused on Jesus.”

To pastors facing inevitable criticism, he said, “You have one thing to do: to obey God.”

He also advocated hard work, “toil to the point of exhaustion,” remarking that “some people in ministry quit a long time ago,” yet pastors are to be “always abounding” or “always excelling” because the “stakes are too high not to work hard.” He added with a laugh, “I’ve been tired since 1979,” and urged listeners to excellence.

Graham admitted to being surprised by how quickly his life had passed, proclaiming, “It’s a blur,” but affirming his plan never to “retire from the work of the Lord” although admitting at some point he would no longer be the lead pastor of Prestonwood.

“Keep overdoing it. Keep excelling,” he counseled, reminding all of “shining lights no longer in the race” who did not finish well.

“We ought to run a little bit scared in the fear of the Lord,” Graham said. “If not for the grace of God, we would all be out of the race.”

Essential to continuing “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” is to remember that Christ is coming and that “every faithful shepherd” is promised the “shepherd’s crown,” he added.

Regarding legacy, Graham advised listeners to “live a legacy,” adding that ultimately, “our legacy is not what we leave but where we go,” heaven.

Greear commits to “new face of unity” with no change in mission of SBC

DALLAS Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President J. D. Greear doesn’t think his new assignment represents a repudiation of the past, but rather a sign of new things happening. He told reporters on June 12, “I hope you’ve heard no change in Southern Baptist beliefs, no change in our focus and mission.”

He anticipates a gospel culture more reflective of what Southern Baptists profess, “manifested in transparency, humility, charity and generosity.” With that “new face of unity,” Greear pledged to lead Southern Baptists to present an unchanging gospel.

“What I don’t think is accurate is that this represents some kind of official passing of the baton where now the older generation fades off into the sunset and now the new, young generation is in charge. We walk over together.”

Greear said he wants to be a president that goes forward together with them. “They [the older generation] are a necessary part of the body of Christ.”

Asked how he plans to help women feel welcomed, heard, valued and safe in Southern Baptist churches, Greear said churches must be safe places for women to report abuse. He called for immediate reporting of abuse to government authorities, adding, “To turn a deaf ear toward abuse, minimize or shield the abuser is to be complicit in the abuse itself.”

Local churches must also be places where women sit in seats of influence, Greear said. He stipulated that complementarianism is the recognition that God created men and women differently, as equals made in the image of God, with men given leadership roles in the home, and the church as pastors and elders.

“All the gifts God gives to the body of Christ are given freely to women,” he stated. “For us to not bring them to the table to exercise influence and to lead out is to deprive ourselves of one of the greatest gifts God has given.”

Greear clarified that women serve on his church staff and bear the title “minister,” but they do not carry the same authority as the role of a pastor-elder. “You would not find a woman at our church that bears the title of ‘pastor.’”

Asked how he perceives the role of Baptist state conventions, Greear called them one of the first lines in cooperation. “Every few years we have to ask, what’s the best way to cooperate? What are things we did 100 years ago or 50 years ago that are no longer as effective? Is the state convention doing exactly what it needs to be doing?”

Greear said the question should not be considered hostile toward any convention or association, but compared it to asking the same thing of his own church in deciding whether its money is being spent effectively. “It may have been that 50 years ago people just said, ‘Show me where I should give my money and I’ll give it there.’ Today people say, ‘You show me why you deserve this money.’”

He sees that as a good opportunity for state conventions to make their case. “As I’ve gotten involved I’ve encountered how they guide in church planting, children’s homes and disaster relief – a lot that makes it a great partner,” Greear said.

Asked about a declining number of baptisms among Southern Baptist churches, Greear said, “The fact that these numbers are not going the right direction shows that there are a lot of unhealthy and sick churches.” It’s a problem that has to be fixed at the local church level, he said. “The more we reflect Jesus, look like Jesus and organize our churches like Jesus, the more an individual church will baptize and the aggregate of that will reverse the decline.”

At The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., where he pastors, Greear said he believes there is a correlation between their average 600 to 700 baptisms per year and the preaching of both truth and grace.

“Truth without grace is fundamentalism. Grace without truth is liberalism,” he said. “Neither of them attracts people, but when you preach with grace and truth you have the same effect Jesus had in that he was attractive to people on the outside.”

Greear added, “We’re praying for pastors and members–for the spirit of God to move them to be the church that we need to be in our generation.”

Reiterating the six areas of concern God had put on his heart, Greear said he believes Southern Baptists need to:

keep the gospel above all as the basis of unity and focus of their mission;
elevate cultural and racial diversity in leadership;
continue to focus on intentional evangelism by individual members;
help every Southern Baptist church take on the responsibility of church planting to reproduce itself;
mobilize college students to think of the kingdom of God first as they consider where to live their lives and pursue their careers; and
engage the next generation in cooperative giving and cooperative missions.

“The president should see himself as the chief servant of everybody,” Greear said. “I’m there to serve the pastors who are serving the members who are on the front lines of ministry.”

Seminary students report 340 professions of faith

FORT WORTH—After six days of door-to-door evangelism, 185 students and faculty from Southern Baptist seminaries made 19,464 contacts, initiated 3,180 gospel conversations and reported 340 spiritual commitments as part of this year’s Crossover evangelistic outreach prior to the annual meeting of Southern Baptists. Local SBC churches throughout DFW hosted the groups after students spent their mornings taking an evangelism class at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

That’s when the group turned to the 1Cross app developed by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to provide 3-minute gospel testimonies in over 60 languages. “We let her watch the video and then she repeated it at the end so we knew for sure she understood the gospel and we got to lead her to Christ.

“I had never led someone to Christ before and he was excited, too, asking, ‘What now?’” The students gave the man a Bible and located a nearby Hispanic congregation to follow up.

Constante recalled the woman saying, “‘I just want to hug you all. Thank you for coming to my door. I needed a sign and God sent the Bible to my door.’”