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AMARILLO, Texas?”If you’re looking for a career, for a profession,” advised Jack Graham, “being a pastor ain’t it. ? It is life’s highest calling?the calling of God,” the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano told the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Pastors’ Conference meeting in Amarillo Oct. 23-24.
Graham, Southern Baptist Convention president from 2002-’04, was one of six pastors who preached at the conference preceding the SBTC annual meeting at The Church at Quail Creek. Others who preached were Stan Coffey of the host church, Ivy Shelton of Sherwood Baptist Church of Odessa, retiring LifeWay President Jimmy Draper, Johnny Funderburg of FBC Pampa, and Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Arlington.
Graham, relating how God called David to shepherd with the integrity of his heart and skillfulness of his hands, told the pastors: “I think we ought to eliminate all whining from the ministry. Can we just do that? Let’s get rid of the whining because we get to do what God has called us to do. We get to wake up every day and do something that matters for eternity. We get to put our knees on the floor, pray before the holy of holies, open God’s book, read and prepare, then stand before God’s people and proclaim the gospel.” Graham said although David didn’t look the part of king, he had cultivated his heart for God.
“God takes ordinary people like you and me and does extraordinary things.”
From the parable of the shepherd searching for one lost sheep that wandered away from the other 99, Graham said the love of the shepherd is revealed.
“The love of God is so great that he cares about just one that is lost because every person matters to God.”
Graham admitted that pastoring a church is sometimes similar to “herding cats” as the sheep are “belligerent, angry and wander off.” Still, they all matter to God, he said.
“Keep going. Don’t quit on them. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Graham challenged the notion that churches are built by reaching people in a community “who look like you, think like you and act like you.”
Through the principle of homogeneity, congregations formed for baby boomers, Gen Xers and emergents have been started, he explained.
“I don’t find any of that in the Bible. We are to go into the highways and hedges to people who are broken, bruised, hurting and lost?not just to people who look, think, act and smell like me.”
Recent ministry to hurricane evacuees has jump-started the Plano church’s desire to cross over barriers of race and ethnicity, Graham said. The church assisted about 300 displaced families with transportation, jobs, furniture and other necessities of life.
“Guess what’s happening? Those folks who have seen the love of our church are pouring in and our church is looking a lot more like heaven than it used to in terms of the way we look and respond.”
If the power and blessing of God is to be on the pastor, Graham said it is not going to come because of position, titles, credentials, communication skills or even competence.
“It will come because of character and integrity in that life. My private life has everything in the world to do with my public life, my platform life. There is no place for the stain of this world in the pulpit, so I must guard my heart and my character. A great pastor is not measured by the size of the sheepfold, but by the depth of his character.”
Graham warned that integrity is lost not just in big things, but also in “the little foxes that spoil the vine.”
He added, “There’s nothing more draining, more depleting, more exhausting in ministry than having to fake it. Guilt is exhausting, but integrity is powerful. But if I have to fake it, shake it and bake it?make people think I’m something I’m not?that will absolutely burn you out, wear you out, play you out. Any way, you’re out.”
David’s own big failure occurred at a point of strength, not weakness, Graham noted. “Somehow, David allowed his position to turn to pride. He thought he was above his sin, not vulnerable. That’s why we need to stay with our knees on the floor, nose in the book and eyes on the Lord.”
Telling the truth in the pulpit requires preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word?the good things as well as the bad things they may not want to hear,” Graham added. “I believe in being friendly to seekers, but accommodating the message in some way as to never offend? There’s an offense to the cross. Preach the whole counsel of God.”
By guiding with “the skillfulness of his hands,” David exercised leadership, Graham said, preparing for his kingly role through development of his skills and talents, fighting the lion, bear and giant.
“It’s a big job leading a church, feeding, teaching, praying, caring, administrating, evangelizing. There’s no place in the pulpit, in our ministries for lack of preparation.
“We all don’t have the same gifts or talents, but we can all prepare to do things with excellence so that with skillfulness we discipline ourselves, discover our gifts and do what God has called us to do.”
Johnny Funderburg, PAMPA
Funderburg said God’s promise in John 12:32 that he would draw all mankind to himself is dependent on Christ being lifted up. He warned Christians to avoid quenching the Holy Spirit and to instead repent and humble themselves so that God may bless them.
“If in my life I will allow him to reign as Lord, allow him to release himself through me so that lost men will see that there is something about that unconditional love that I have?the wonderfulness, preciousness of the Savior showing himself through me so that they will be attracted?they will want to come.” In the midst of recovering from a fire that destroyed his home, Funderburg said he experienced healing from traumatic childhood events in his life.
“Jesus Christ was no longer just a savior. He washed me, filled me and brought to me the beauty of the Lord that I had not known. And by his grace I began to get him up in my life to reign as Lord.” Soon, other men in his church began relating experiences of inner healing and an air of expectancy characterized church services, he said. Despite “the enemy’s backlash against us” as Satan shot arrows that “hurt us for a period of time,” Funderburg said outsiders responded.
“Mankind was being drawn, wanting to know what was happening, what spirit was stirring the church there in that community.”
“The key has always been, ‘not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.'”
But, Funderburg warned, “Through our rebellion, through our selfish flesh, through our need to please mankind, through ? sinful flesh, we stop him cold from the revival renewal, blessing, and spirit-induced power he wants to bring. It may well be that one of our greatest needs today is to come before the Lord in a holy repentance that God might be pleased to release us from our hard-heartedness toward him and bless us again.”
Dwight McKissic, ARLINGTON
“Katrina and her baby sister, Rita, did not create poor people in America, but revealed the reality that there is a significant and substantial population of poor people among us,” McKissic told the conference.
