EMPOWER ’22: As conference wraps, a question lingers: ‘Will you tell them?’

IRVING—Speakers and breakout leaders at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s 2022 Empower evangelism conference, held February 28-March 1 at the Irving Convention Center, challenged in-person and online attendees to go “all in” for Jesus by sharing the gospel.

Monday kicked off with the Classics luncheon featuring songwriter and humorist Mark Lowry and the Classics session with Matt Queen of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Jim Richards, SBTC executive director emeritus; and Herb Reavis of Florida’s North Jacksonville Baptist Church. Music was provided by The Erwins gospel group.

Author Jen Wilkin and songwriter Laura Story headlined Monday afternoon’s Empower Ladies Session while breakouts led by 11 speakers on topics from Christian comedy to next-generation issues, new pastor orientation, and social justice and the gospel provided something for everyone. Breakouts continued Tuesday afternoon with 17 presenters offering hour-long sessions on such subjects as mobilizing teens, disaster relief, online worship, campus evangelism, discipleship, and LGBTQ issues in the church.

Main sessions featured worship led by Initiative Worship.

Monday: Going “all in” for Jesus

South Carolina evangelist Clayton King and his son Jacob, a college student, both from Clayton King Ministries, kicked off the main session Monday night.

“I’m assuming if you came here that you love the gospel. And you want to see people cross over from death to life,” the elder King told the crowd, adding that since mid-January, he had seen more than 1,200 people make first-time professions of faith. Today people seem more open to the gospel than before, he said. “We just have to share it.”

King said the “most effective tool of evangelism” for men and women in ministry involves family witness. Spiritual mothers, fathers, marriages, and children “can be a great testimony to the people around you that Jesus Christ is real,” King said.

Caleb Turner, co-pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, followed the Kings, bringing a message from Matthew 21:18-22, Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree. The tree, filled with leaves, merely gave the “façade” of fruitfulness, a danger that churches must avoid. Turner cautioned against “warm pews and cold hearts” and urged pursuing the “faith of the fruitful” through prayer.

Jonathan (J.P.) Pokluda, pastor of Waco’s Harris Creek Baptist Church, rounded out Monday evening’s main session with a message from Luke 18, “the rich young ruler,” on reaching the next generation. Pokluda also guested at Late Night afterward.

“If you’re not reaching the future of your church, your church has no future,” Pokluda said, recalling his early days as a 21-year-old new Christian balancing faith and the world. Young people are “looking for that example of someone who says, ‘You know, I don’t need the world. I’m going to follow Jesus. I’m gonna go all in, for Jesus,’” he urged.

Tuesday: But God…

Tony Mathews, SBTC Missional Ministries senior strategist, opened Tuesday’s main session with a challenge: “No matter how bad your circumstance is, God can use you to advance the gospel. So trust him.” Mathews continued, “Trust him with joy,” reading and preaching on the apostle Paul’s experiences in Philippians 1:12-16.

Evangelist Greg Stier, founder of the Denver-based Dare 2 Share Ministries, which trains teens in evangelism, regaled the audience with tales of his own family and the power of the gospel.

“I don’t come from a typical religious, church-going, pew-sitting, hymn-singing family. I come from a family filled with body-building, tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking thugs,” Stier said. The Denver Mafia even nicknamed his uncles “The Crazy Brothers,” he added. All that changed when a “hillbilly preacher” nicknamed “Yankee” visited Stier’s Uncle Jack—a “dangerous man” often in and out of jail.

Jack, and eventually Stier’s whole family, were saved, all because Yankee went outside his comfort zone.

“The gospel changes everything,” he exclaimed, urging believers to “go outside the camp” and meet non-believers where they are.

A poignant moment occurred Tuesday morning onstage as Jeremy Freeman, pastor of Newcastle Baptist Church near Oklahoma City, and his son Caleb shared the story of Caleb’s miraculous survival after a horrendous rainy-night collision with an 18-wheeler on Interstate 35 on Dec. 19, 2017. Despite suffering a severe traumatic brain injury, with residual physical effects, Caleb has recovered remarkably, attends college, and shares his testimony often.

“In your life, people are going to say a lot of stuff to you,” Caleb said. “But God will always have the final say.” The pair presented a breakout session at Empower that afternoon.

On his first official day as the president of NAMB’s Send Network, Vance Pitman concluded Tuesday morning’s program, first describing his move from being pastor/planter of Hope Church in Las Vegas to his new position.

“I don’t think you can accomplish the Great Commission without planting new churches,” Pitman said. “When you engage cities with the gospel and disciples are made, then churches are born as a by-product.” He discussed the first “church plant in Jerusalem” from Acts, where 3,000 were saved. Within six months, Pitman said, there were 100,000 new followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Pitman called on Christians to be “a praying people … a united people … a witnessing people and … a generous people.”

Tuesday afternoon concluded with a message from Ed Newton, pastor of Community Bible Church in San Antonio. “I believe God wants to do a new thing” in this post-pandemic world, Newton said, describing the “up-in-out” lifestyle of imitating Christ.

Galvan and Simmons honored

In other highlights, the W. A. Criswell Award for Pastoral Evangelism was presented to David Galvan, a SBC and SBTC leader who recently retired from his long tenure as pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in Dallas.  Joe Simmons, crusade evangelism veteran and SBTC evangelism consultant for 12 years, received the Roy Fish Lifetime Achievement Award for Vocational Evangelism.

Empower 2022 registrations numbered 1,964 in-person and online.

Empower 2023 is scheduled for Feb. 27-28 at the Irving Convention Center.