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Pastors, Scholars Encourage Peers to ‘Fan the Flame’
11/14/2011
FLORENCE – During the 2011 Kentucky Baptist Pastors' Conference, pastors and Bible scholars from across the country challenged their peers in Kentucky Baptist churches to "Fan the Flame" for spiritual renewal in the commonwealth.
Many of the messages heard Nov. 14 at Florence Baptist Church at Mt. Zion focused on the three points of the theme: purity, preaching and passion.
Adam Greenway, a professor and associate dean at Southern Seminary in Louisville, preached from 2 Chronicles 7:14.
Click here to listen to the sermon.
Kentuckians "have not seen genuine spiritual awakening for 150 years," said Greenway, who is expected to be nominated as the next KBC president at the Nov. 15 annual meeting, also held in Florence.
"Many think we're never going to see revival again because the culture has changed," he said, speculating that if Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," today, "the church would be shocked and angered."
The associate dean of Southern's Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism, Greenway said believers must demand purity among themselves for revival to come.
Humility is another component Greenway said is missing in the contemporary church.
"If we make that commitment to be pure and holy people before the Lord God (He) promises that He will send revival."
Native Kentuckian Tony Merida spoke on "Christ-Centered Preaching" from Colossians 1:28-29. Merida is lead pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C.
Click here to listen to the sermon.
"There seems to be a misunderstanding about what Christianity is about today," said Merida, a graduate of University of the Cumberlands. "It is about Christ. Preaching Christ is to preach Christ incarnate, His person and His work."
Preaching Christ is about "preaching authentically," Merida said, citing four challenges from the Apostle Paul.
He encouraged pastors to "preach Christ from His Word. … The minister of the Word is known as a steward. It is about taking what has been delivered to us and delivering it to the people."
Pastors should also "preach Christ pastorally" through proclamation, warnings and teaching.
He also encouraged preaching with energy. "Preaching is work."
Referencing Mark 8:27-30, Jim Shaddix, senior teaching pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Denver, posed the question, "Is there a time that you ought not to preach?"
Click here to listen to the sermon.
In the passage, Christ warns the disciples not to tell anyone that He is the Messiah. Speculating on several reasons why, Shaddix said unless a preacher is prepared to proclaim the unvarnished truth of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, the message of salvation will be compromised.
"Our Christ-centered preaching must be rooted in the cross-centered preaching," he said. "There's (no) greater danger than a salvation message that is not rooted in the cross."
Shaddix cautioned against a salvation message "that doesn't involve death. In our recent Christian culture, we've risen to worship the God of application.
"The Gospel is not a crutch to boost your self-esteem," he added.
Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, spoke about how pastors must stay committed to the cause of Christ even during tough times. He preached from Matthew 11:1-6.
Click here to listen to the sermon.
"I want to see if I can encourage you to press on to the glory of Christ despite your particular circumstances," Smith said.
Having the attitude of a "supporting" cast member is necessary to shift a believer's focus from himself to Christ.
As an example, Smith said John the Baptist once "had been on center stage," but eventually took on the roll of "a supporting character."
Although John had said publicly about Jesus, "'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'… later (John) had to ask if Jesus was the Messiah," Smith noted.
In the Scripture passage, "We are looking at the inconsistent passions of a man Jesus commended as a great man of the faith. Sometimes God doesn't change our circumstances because it's not that important to the mission," Smith said.
"We are not the star of the show, Jesus is."
Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., talked about the need for believers to be "branded for Christ."
Click here to listen to the sermon.
Referencing Galatians 6:17, Traylor quoted the Apostle Paul who wrote, "I bear on my body the brandmark of Jesus."
Branding is "how our light shines, our works produce," he said.
There are four "brandmarks" that God wants to see in His followers.
The brand of holiness means "you are either full of the Holy Ghost or full of yourself."
Traylor said the brand of humility is so vital that Jesus mentioned it three times in the New Testament. Paraphrasing, Traylor said, "He that exalts himself is coming down, and he that humbles himself will be lifted up."
The brand of pain also is important. "God never wastes a hurt," Traylor said.
The final brand Traylor spoke of is the brand of passion.
"We've got to get passionate about our Lord," he said, encouraging pastors to embrace ministry among "the least" of society.
"I got into this for transformation," he said. "The only thing (that transforms) is Jesus. It's time we boast on the cross."
Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., preached from Colossians 1:9-14.
Click here to listen to the sermon.
The grandson of Billy Graham, Tchividjian said longtime believers, including pastors and ministers, often compartmentalize the ministry of the gospel primarily to evangelistic endeavors.
The common attitude is "people outside the church need the gospel; people inside the church need something else," Tchividjian said.
"What I've come to discover is that once God saves us, He doesn't move us (somewhere else), He moves us more deeply into the gospel," Tchividjian said. "The gospel doesn't just ignite the Christian life, it is the fuel that keeps Christian people going and growing."
Believers must come to learn that "we need the gospel just as much today as we did the day we were saved."
As Christians strive to live holy lives, often they become "morbidly introspective," Tchividjian said. Using himself as an example, he said he finds that "the sin I need removed most on a daily basis" is that "I think way too much about how I'm doing and if I'm growing.
"The more I focus on my need to be better, the worse I actually get."
Returning to the truth of God's "undomesticated grace," which requires nothing from a believer but everything from Christ, frees followers to live more closely to God.
"When you realize you don't have to do anything for Jesus, you begin to want to do everything for Jesus," Tchividjian said.
During the conference, Wesley Noss, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Versailles, was voted by acclamation as next year's president-elect. Kevin Milburn, pastor of Union Baptist Church was elected by acclamation as the next secretary/treasurer.
Jeff Noffsinger, pastor of Dripping Spring Baptist Church in Olmstead, will preside at next year's meeting, Nov. 12, at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.
All of the messages from the Kentucky Baptist Pastors' Conference will be available online at www.kybaptist.org later this week.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
by Dannah Prather, KBC Communications
