Maybe I am on some kind of farewell preaching tour. I don’t know and I hope not, but I had the opportunity to preach in another one of my former churches this past Sunday – First Baptist Church of Camden, SC. I was pastor there from 1971 to 1980. It was a blessed experience and a joyous reunion with people we have known and loved through the years.

After the sermon, I gave the invitation and was encouraged to see a large number of people come to the altar. After three or four verses of the invitational hymn, “Jesus is Lord of All”, and thinking most people had already responded to whatever the Lord was impressing upon their hearts, I left the platform and went to the second row to sit with my wife as the associate/youth pastor concluded the service.

As the pianist played softly and the people who had come to the altar were returning to their seats, there was a little boy – no more than three or four years old – who walked down the aisle past me and went to the altar. He was neatly dressed and at the altar knelt down in the most reverent manner, folded his hands in prayer, and remained there for maybe two minutes.

As the pianist concluded playing the invitational hymn, the little boy quietly stood up, turned toward the congregation, and went back to his seat. It was one of the most precious sights I have ever seen.

I wish I had taken a photo of his kneeling there, but it would not have been appropriate to do so although I have since thought it would be an inspiring picture for others to see.

Seeing that small boy reverently kneeling at the altar was such a beautiful reminder of child-like faith, and urged me to recall the words of Jesus in Mark 10: 15: “Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein.”

I don’t mean to be boastful, but I think I was a child like that once. I grew up in a Christian home and was sensitive to spiritual things at a very early age. My mother used to tell me that I would preach to my teddy bears when I was but a small child.

One day my uncle came to our house and said, “If you can guess how many one-dollar coins I have in my hand, I will give them to you.”

I said, “You have five one dollars in your hand.” (Five dollars was a lot of money in that day and according to the inflation calculator that would be worth almost $67 today).

He never supposed I would guess the correct number of dollar coins he had and in what seemed to be a measure of displeasure that I had guessed accurately, he threw the dollars at me. I thanked him, picked the dollars off the floor, and told him that I was going to give them to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions.

Sometimes I wonder if my faith and devotion is as strong now as it was when I was a child. Am I as passionate about preaching? Am I as generous as I was the day I decided to give those five-dollar coins to missions?

As I stood there I prayed, “Dear Lord, give me the devotion of that little boy. Give me a pure heart. Give me a belief that will never wither. Give me the spirit of generosity. Help me to seek you with all that is within me. Help me to have the wonder of a childlike faith.”

Standing left to right Robert Byington, Jr., Suthern Smith, Chuck Smith, Chase Gregory, and Pastor Robby Foster break ground for the church’s new building project that will include a 1,200-seat sanctuary, glas walk-around atrium, and 92-seat choir. NBC/Special

VALDOSTA — We live in a postmodern age that values pluralism, the experiential, relativity, diversity, creativity, globalism, and environmentalism. Many wonder if the church can survive in this cultural milieu.

While most churches struggle in this postmodern age some congregations thrive. The key to not just maintaining the status quo, but experiencing spiritual and numerical growth, is leadership and followship.

When churches have loving pastors who are filled with the Spirit, who preach the undiluted Gospel without fear or favor, and possess an indomitable work ethic, those churches typically not only survive, but thrive.

In 2013 Robby Foster became the pastor of Northside Baptist Church. And since his arrival in Valdosta, the church has taken on new life.

Bill Middleton, a member at Northside since 1960, explained, “Pastor Robby came to our church when we were at a low ebb and God used him to energize our church. I can’t tell you what he means to our church. He loves the Lord and he loves the people. That has translated into the people loving each other.”

Four years of movement

Northside Baptist Church in Valdosta found in Robby Foster a leader they could follow, and God has been moving significantly in the church since Foster arrived nearly four years ago.

A large crowd stretches across the worship center at Northside Baptist, holding hands on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the church’s founding. NBC/Special

Sally Burkhalter, Foster’s administrative assistant and financial secretary, commented, “Jesus Christ is unequivocally the head of this church and He is working through the human instrument of Dr. Foster, our senior pastor. He is without question a spirit-filled, anointed-of-God, passionate, inspirational preacher and a gifted and personable pastor to all.

“We also have a firm foundation of median and senior adults who have been committed to the success of Northside through thick and thin.”

Burkhalter also cited the church’s outreach ministry as being key to the its growth. She stated, “Fighting the good fight of faith through committed, ongoing regular outreach/home visits and contacting those who have stepped onto our property – including visitors to our Sunday services, Sunday School, and to ministries like Awana, Upward Basketball, etc. – has enlivened our church.”

Honoring the past, building for the future

In the past three years Northside has experienced unprecedented growth, baptizing 259 new believers and receiving an additional 308 new members into the fellowship. Northside has also experienced a 45-percent increase in Sunday School attendance.

Four men carry out the chest containing the $87,000 First Fruits Offering for the expansion of the worship center at Northside Baptist in Valdosta. NBC/SPecial

On Sunday, June 4, the church celebrated three special events: homecoming, the 65th anniversary of the church’s founding, and the groundbreaking for the expansion of the worship center.

Just one year after organizing as a church on June 21, 1953, a small group of believers gathered to break ground for Northside’s first building. Last Sunday on June 4, a much larger and more diverse group gathered to break ground for the much-needed expansion of the place where they gather to worship.

Wallace Greene, a member of Northside for 47 years, commented, “Years ago there was a group that gathered to build a larger sanctuary than the one originally constructed. They were thinking of the future growth of the church. On Sunday we demonstrated that we were looking to the future by breaking ground to enlarge our sanctuary.”

Greene continued, “The people were packed into our sanctuary for worship on Sunday and the service was videoed for the overflow crowd in the chapel and I understand it was packed as well.” (There were 738 present for worship on June 4).

“One of the reasons our church is growing is because of our pastor. Brother Foster is a very good preacher. He is always well prepared. He gives us the Word of God and doesn’t chase rabbits. I love the guy.

“When my wife, Wanda, died two years ago, the pastor was a great source of comfort to me. He was there for me during that time. He is as good outside the pulpit as he is in the pulpit.”

Greene concluded, “Pastor Robby has been instrumental in revitalizing our church, but he wouldn’t take credit for any of the successes we are enjoying in our fellowship. He gives all the glory to God.”

Planning ahead

According the The Valdosta Daily Times, Lowndes County’s population, currently at 109,000, should grow to 149,000 by 2040. Northside’s long-range planning group carefully measured the church’s growth pattern over the past three years and the projected population growth for the Valdosta/Lowndes County area and recommended to the church the expansion plan.

Pastor Robby Foster prays at the groundbreaking service after the homecoming/anniversary meal at Northside Baptist Church. Foster arrived at the south Georgia congregation in 2013. NBC/Special

The church body unanimously voted in approval of the $2.5 million proposal in March. They further demonstrated their support by presenting their First Fruits offerings of nearly $87,000 and pledges totaling $1.1 million during the Homecoming Celebration service on June 4. All of that is in addition to the $250,000 the church had already saved for the expansion.

The additional space will create a 1,200-seat sanctuary, a glass walk-around atrium with two-sided access to the sanctuary, a 92-seat choir and orchestra area, as well as new pews, sound system, lighting, and interior design elements.

Construction on the project should begin soon with the projected completion date in March 2018. Northside deacon Chase Gregory of Studio 8 prepared the architectural design of the project and (deacon) Chuck Smith and Son Construction will complete the work on the new facilities.

Foster has taught the church to “Live with purpose, leave a legacy.” His message is there is a ministry for everyone. The goal is to equip the body of Christ to grow in their relationship with the Lord and the gifts the Lord has given them and develop a passion to reach out to those who need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it is all working.

Tom Rush, Georgia Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit until I had been a pastor for almost ten years. I don’t recall a course in college or seminary about the doctrine of pneumatology (Holy Spirit). I had been in church all my life, but I don’t know that I remember hearing a sermon about the gifts of the Spirit.

In 1972 I went to a conference at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis during the early days of Dr. Adrian Rogers’ ministry there. The emphasis of the conference was on the Holy Spirit. It was an experience that literally changed my life and ministry.

Since those days I have come to understand and believe the words of Zechariah 4:6: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.’”

No Christian and certainly no pastor should seek to live his life or render service to the King of kings without the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

Tom Rush, Georgia Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit that is practical, profitable, and powerful. The author devotes significant attention and space to each gift and explains and illustrates each gift with biblical understanding and truth.

Rush beautifully explains the ministry and motivational gifts in detail, but does not hesitate to address the manifestation gifts as well. You will find his approach to these manifestation gifts to be both biblical and balanced.

For example, the author’s ability to forthrightly address the gift of tongues is heartening and his caution about having a personal prayer language is clearly addressed with clarity and spiritual insight.

Also, in his chapter on “The Gift of Mercy” Rush outlines the characteristics of the gift, then highlights the misunderstandings and misuses of the gift, pointing out how biblical characters illustrate the gift. Rush finally describes how Jesus demonstrated the gift of mercy.

Rush’s command of his subject is extraordinary and his ability to communicate it in a compelling manner should win the favor of each reader.

Best of all, Rush emphasizes that when everyone is faithfully and effectively utilizing his or her gift in the church there is harmony, because all the gifts fit together like a beautiful mosaic in the stained glass window of a grand European cathedral and all the gifts function to make the church an efficient model of ministry.

Your Reasonable Service: Understanding Your Motivational for Ministry is a 300-page publication of Westbow Press. Go here to secure your copy of this excellent book.

Republican Karen Handel, left, and Democrat Jon Ossoff are currently vying for the congressional seat in Georgia’s Sixth District, a race that has garnered attention nationwide. Screen grab/wsbtv.com

Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff are in a slugfest as they come down to the wire in their effort to win the congressional seat for Georgia’s Sixth District. Their recent debate was worth seeing, but the most interesting point in the debate came when Karen Handel, former Georgia secretary of state, asked her Democratic opponent: “Exactly, who are you going to vote for in this election?”

It was a pertinent and penetrating question, because Ossoff lives outside the Sixth Congressional District and cannot vote for himself. In other words, the law apparently permits a candidate to live outside a district he wishes to represent, but the law does not permit him to vote if he lives outside that district.

That is like shopping at Home Depot, but wanting to be on the board of directors at Lowe’s or a student at The Georgia Institute of Technology while running for president of the student government at the University of Georgia.

Having someone outside your district representing you in Congress is like having your next door neighbors planning your budget, your purchases, your vacations, your health care, buying your groceries, and decorating your house.

However, it could also be like the person who wants to represent the interests of Holy Hills Baptist Church, but never goes to that church.

In the church I pastored during my seminary days (1964-1967) there were some men in the church who were staunch segregationists. There was going to be a wedding at the church on a Saturday and the bride asked me if she could invite a dear African American lady who had worked for their family for years. I did not see how in the world that could be a problem, so I told her, “Yes!”

I conducted the wedding ceremony with delight and during the reception in the fellowship hall I met the friend who had been invited by the bride’s family to come to the wedding. She was a sweet Christian lady who obviously loved the Lord.

The next day was Sunday and I was immediately accosted by a self-appointed committee of three men who were obviously incensed that a black woman had been inside the four walls of our church and they proceeded to call me everything but a child of God.

Those men said they were calling for a business meeting to discuss the issue and my future as pastor of the church. The meeting was to be on the following Wednesday night and I was shocked when I saw the large number of people that showed up.

We generally had 25-30 people on Wednesday night, but that number had nearly tripled by the time the meeting was to start. I was promptly informed that everyone present was a member of the church with the right to vote in the business meeting.

The majority of those men and women present may have had their names on the church roll, but they had not been to the church in the 18 months I had been there. I had begged some of them to come and they were resistant to the idea of being present for Sunday School or worship.

It was not long until it was obvious the majority of people were present to vote me out as pastor of the church. A discussion ensued and it seemed apparent that the segregationist contingent had the votes necessary to accomplish their purpose.

Fifteen minutes into the discussion there was a man by the name of Curtis Finch who stood to speak. He was the most respected man in the church and the community. I don’t remember all he said, but he read several passages of Scripture and made a plaintive appeal for peace in the flock and support for the pastor. I do remember that he reminded everyone present that it was a black man who carried Jesus’ cross up Golgotha and asked, “Would you dare prevent Simon of Cyrene from coming into the doors of this church?”

He essentially took matters into his own hands as he said, “Now, I am going to pronounce the benediction for this meeting and after I finish I suggest you all go home and get on your knees and ask God to forgive you for becoming interlopers in the house of God.”

At that time I didn’t know what an “interloper” was, but I soon found out that an interloper is “an intruder, an encroacher, a trespasser, a person who enters a place without a legitimate or ethical reason for being there.”

I am not accusing Jon Ossoff of being an interloper, but it is very strange indeed that a person can represent a congressional district without actually living in that district. It’s like a church member trying to represent the interests of a holy God without ever going to His house for those spiritual blessings that nurture the soul.

Every Baptist wants to know that the money he/she places in the offering plate goes to worthwhile causes. Georgia Baptists can express gratitude for the way their Cooperative Program dollars are being allocated through the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

The Executive Committee gets to hear periodic reports on the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget, but many of you are not aware of the leadership position Georgia Baptists hold in gifts to missions.

Baptist state publication editors get the monthly reports from the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee regarding the various state conventions’ contributions to the Cooperative Program as well as to designated missions.

In May 2017 Georgia Baptists led the way in giving to the Cooperative Program with $1,520,236.14. The Texas (SBTC) Convention was second with $1,290,911.36. Alabama was third with $1,228,751.66 and Tennessee was fourth with $1,129,426.54.

Georgia also led the way in designated missions giving in May 2017 with $1,490,028.33. It is quite remarkable that Executive Director J. Robert White was able to forward $2,997,114.50 on to the SBC Executive Committee in just one month.

Georgia was also the leading state in Cooperative Program gifts for May of 2016 with $1,476,878.36.

These giving records are notable in that Georgia Baptists have significant missions and ministry responsibilities opportunities, which must be funded in the state – more than many of the other state conventions.

University of Georgia-Athens sophomore Kenneth Brock, left, believes BCM is a vital part of his academic and spiritual development at college. JOE WESTBURY/Index

For example, one of the most extensive and expansive ministries the Georgia Baptist Mission Board has been able to develop over the years is our Baptist Collegiate Ministries, touching the lives of thousands of students on nearly 50 campuses. Joe Graham recently reported that for every three students involved in the BCM, one unbeliever is won to faith in Christ.

Under the direction of Butch Butcher, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is engaged in an ambitious church planting effort, currently assisting scores of churches by providing a church planting school, church planting development, start-up funds ,and financial support to church plants that qualify.

Additionally, the Intercultural Church Planting and Missions Ministry of the GBMB, under the leadership of Jerry Baker, is endeavoring to connect with the growing ethnic population of Georgia.

Current population statistics indicate that 41 percent of the people in Georgia are not white. The Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article on Feb. 12, 2015 projecting that by 2040 white voters will no longer be a majority. Georgia Baptists are working hard to show the love of Christ to the black and ethnic population of the state.

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board also has a team of missionaries under the direction of Larry Wynn prepared to help churches in need of revitalization. Statistics tell us that 8 1/2 out of every ten churches have either plateaued or are in decline. Near the end of his ministry, the great expositional preacher Stephen Olford stated, “The churches in America are hemorrhaging at the rate of 50,000 souls per Sunday at the hands of a watered down Gospel that fails to enliven its hearers with a steadfast, Spirit-wrought faith.”

With so many churches struggling, the church revitalization ministry of the GBMB is prepared to help assist leaders in seeing the potential for revitalization, assess where they are, help them dream again, and help them determine where they want to go.

Georgia Baptist missionary Stuart Lang provides leadership in GBMB’s Disaster Relief ministry and says, “The purpose of disaster relief is to serve Christ in crisis. Did you know that 95 percent of the meals that the American Red Cross serves are prepared by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers? Georgia Baptists have been at the forefront of this ministry for years. The ultimate goal of disaster relief is to point people to Jesus Christ; and every year souls are saved through this ministry.

Georgia Baptist have a mobile health ministry designed to bring “help now and for eternity”. The mobile health care unit travels all across the state to help churches and associations reach out into their community through health care. However, this ministry provides not only health services, but a Christian witness to the underserved persons of Georgia.

It would be impossible to communicate in one article all that the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is doing to serve the churches of the state. However, you may be assured that the leadership of the GBMB is committed to the principles of good stewardship and spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Shelly Johnson, a member of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, has become a noted Contemporary Christian songwriter and artist. Part of her work relays the pain and grief her family experienced when her father, Jerry, died from cancer. SHELLY JOHNSON/Special

WOODSTOCK — Shelly Edwards Johnson grew up in Marietta and was from a wonderful Christian home. Shelly and her parents, Jerry and Cathy Edwards, were faithful members of Eastside Baptist Church.

As a young teenager it was obvious that Shelly was gifted to sing as she also played the piano with excellence and ease. Those who knew her well sensed  she was destined for a special place of service in God’s divine plan.

“He was a great picture of a loving husband and a loving father,” Shelly Johnson says of her father, Jerry. SHELLY JOHNSON/Special

Shelly attended Belmont University in Nashville, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Music. Upon graduating from Belmont in 2007, her songs began to gain the attention of the Christian music industry.

Her global musical hit “Power of the Cross” was awarded Song of the Year by the Gospel Music Association, and her song “Draw Near” was awarded Scripture Song of the Year.

According to Shelly’s website “Power of the Cross” has been recorded by Natalie Grant, Steve Green, and is being used by churches worldwide. Shelly has served as worship leader alongside Beth Moore, Tony Nolan, Andy Stanley, and toured North America with renown Irish Hymn-writers Keith and Kristyn Getty.

Shelly signed her first publishing and recording deal with LifeWay Worship in February 2011. She continues to write music that thrills the soul and makes her one of the most popular Christian songwriters and female worship leaders in the nation.

A mission born out of tragedy

Shelly recently wrote, “As many of you know, when I was 14 years old I lost my daddy to cancer. God used that event to drastically alter the course of my life and set me on a path of ministry. I wrote the song “Mosaic of Grace” in 2008, reflecting on that dark and painful season of my life.”

Shelly recently produced a video that tells the story behind “Mosaic of Grace.” She explains that her dad’s death plunged her family into a dark, crazy season of life.

“My dad was such a great man,” Shelly declared. “He was so much fun. He had the best laugh. He loved Jesus. He loved us so well. He was such a hard worker. He was a great picture of a loving husband and a loving father.

“But even though it was a dark and painful season for me as a 14-year-old, it marked the beginning of this wonderful new journey with God. I was filled with such wonder of what God was doing inside of me and the calling He put upon my life to start writing. And I was so focused on what was happening inside of me that I don’t think I fully grasped what had actually happened in my life.”

The journey after a loss

Shelly then reflected upon the birth of her child, Mary Carson, two years ago when she and her husband, Jack, and her mother, Cathy, were in the room with the nurses. She said, “When the nurses handed her (Mary Carson) to me the first thought that I had was, ‘I wish he (dad) were here. I wish he were here to hold her. I wish he were here to experience all that we were experiencing together. There was that moment of missing him.

“One of my favorite things as a little girl was to stand on top of his feet and he would hold my little hands and we would twirl around and dance around the living room. I remember as a little girl thinking, ‘I can’t wait to dance with him at my wedding.’

“When you lose someone, there is an ongoing journey throughout your life when there are all these things that pop up that make you miss them all over again. There is a closeness and beauty that you can only experience through deep pain.”

Shelly then began to illustrate life as being like a mosaic of glass in a stained glass window. The broken pieces of glass by themselves seem to be so plain and insignificant, but when they are placed together in a specific design they become a beautiful mosaic of light, color, and meaning.

From the pain and loneliness Shelly has frequently experienced from her father’s death, she wrote the following words that should encourage and brighten the path of those who have lost their fathers or who have experienced the broken fragments of a shattered life.

Just a pile of broken glass
Pieces of a painful past
Shattered by the storms of life
This is all that’s left inside
He can take the fallen pieces
And lay them in the perfect place
When His work is finally finished
You will be a mosaic of grace
In your pain you may not see
The beauty of the masterpiece
But there’s a great work of art
Than what each piece alone imparts
Allelujah, Allelu
To the God who makes all things new
Hallelujah, Allelu
Allelu

Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, gives a brief sermon June 13 during the afternoon session on the first day of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center. Believers must develop a passion like the apostle Paul’s to win lost people to faith in Christ, Hunt said. BILL BANGHAM/Special

PHOENIX — Johnny Hunt, former Southern Baptist Convention president and pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, delivered a powerful message from Romans 9:1-3 at the beginning of the Tuesday afternoon session of the annual SBC meeting in Phoenix on June 13.

Hunt typically preaches with fire and passion and his message on this occasion was accented with the same fervor that has characterized his pulpit ministry for 41-years.

The Woodstock pastor was asked to preach on the significance of soul winning and his topic was “Paul, the Soul-Winner.” Hunt proclaimed, “The Apostle Paul writes (Romans chapter 9) with a burdened heart, because his own brethren, those near and dear to him had refused to accept the Lord Jesus as their own personal Savior and Messiah.”

Hunt continued, “It is not without significance that Paul’s words in chapter 9 follows hard after chapter 8, for only a man who knows the Spirit-filled life of Romans 8 can appreciate the evangelistic heart throb of Romans 9.

“I have come to believe through my own experience that you can never win people to the Lord unless somehow you develop deep down in your heart a genuine real life burden and compassion that they come to know the Lord.”

Melt down the saints

The fiery preacher indicated that at one point he confessed to his church, “The longer I am in the faith the further removed I seem to become from those for whom Christ died… The crying need today is for us to have a burden for people who are on their way to hell. We must lovingly urge them to follow Christ and flee the wrath to come.”

Hunt made reference to George Sweeting’s book on witnessing and the story he told about Oliver Cromwell. During Cromwell’s reign, there was a shortage of currency in the British Empire. Representatives carefully searched the nation in hopes of finding silver to meet the emergency.

After one month, the committee returned with its report. “We have searched the Empire in vain seeking to find silver. To our dismay, we found none anywhere except in the cathedrals where the statues of the saints are made of choice silver.”

To this, Oliver Cromwell eloquently answered, “Let’s melt down the saints and put them into circulation.”

Hunt added, “We need a meltdown brought on by the burning compassion for lost sinners and a fiery zeal motivated by the love of Almighty God to lead others to Christ.”

A union with Christ, a passion for souls

“There are three brief statements I want to highlight in this passage. Notice the sincerity of Paul’s passion for the lost. First, he calls for the witness of the Son of God. He said, ‘I say the truth in Christ.’ This speaks of his union with Jesus. Paul had a testimony based on a changed life in Jesus Christ. His union with Christ was an inseparable part of his passion for lost souls.

“Then Paul calls his own conscience as a witness. He says, ‘My conscience also bearing me witness’ – that inner voice coincides with the Spirit of God in man. We must pray that our conscience will be ever sensitive to the needs of the lost.

“Then he calls the Spirit of God as a witness. He says, ‘In the Holy Spirit.’ The Holy Spirit activates the conscience to have a passion for the lost.”

Hunt then emphasized the second statement – The sorrow of Paul’s passion for the lost. “Paul said, ‘I have great sorrow’ or great pain or grief for the souls of men.

“The text indicates that every day the pain, the burden Paul felt grew heavier and heavier,” Hunt explained.

Hunt thundered, “So often, when we get saved God gives us a burden for souls, but over the years that burden becomes lighter and lighter. That was not true with Paul. His burden for the souls of men grew heavier and heavier. So, we need to pray for God to give us the same sorrow for the lost that Paul had.

“John Knox had that kind of passion. He cried out to God, ‘Give me Scotland or let me die.’ And when he was old he was led to the pulpit and he would begin to pray for the lost of Scotland and almost shook the pulpit to pieces as he prayed for them.

“David Brainerd wrote, ‘I was making my way through the snow and God burdened my heart for the Indians. I prayed for them until sweat poured from my body. It was like a fire burning inside for souls.’”

To get people saved

“The third thing is Paul’s sacrificial heart of Paul’s passion for the lost. He wrote, ‘I could wish myself accursed from Christ.’ Paul is saying that he is willing to be separated from Christ and spend eternity in hell himself if that is what it would require to get people saved.

“Some would say that is impossible for Paul to be accursed from Christ, because of the Bible’s teaching on the eternal security of the believer and Paul had just written Romans 8 describing that nothing can separate us from the love of God. However, Paul was simply saying, ‘I am willing to do whatever it takes to reach the lost.’”

Is his own inimitable way Hunt soared to the height of ardent oratory when he explained, “Don’t try to analyze Paul’s statement, for it is not spoken under the coolness and calmness of logic; and maybe sometimes there is too much coolness and too much calmness of logic. Here is the eruption of a man who is so in love with lost people that he loses all sense of reason and logic and his heart bursts out in compassion and in substitutionary flames and he says, ‘I would be willing to go to hell to reach them.’”

Good news gets there on time

Hunt related that after he was saved that he was eagerly seeking to win folks to Christ. One of his professors at Gardner Webb College described his newfound faith and passion for the lost as “ignorance on fire.” When Ken Hemphill, who had been a member of the Woodstock church for seven years and was aware of that description of Hunt, once introduced Hunt by saying, “I had rather be ignorance on fire than an intellect on ice.”

Hunt concluded by saying, “We must proclaim the Gospel, but remember, it is not good news unless it gets there on time.

“The powerful soul-winner and founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, was once asked, ‘Do you think you have the best training program to teach people how to witness for Jesus Christ and win souls to Jesus?’

“William Booth replied, ‘No, I don’t think my methods are the best methods. I think the best method of giving people a burden for lost souls would be to take them to the devil’s hell and allow them to experience what it is to be lost in hell, separated from God for an eternity in the fire that could never be quenched. Then I believe men would truly have a burden and know what it is to be soul-winners because they would see what it is to be lost.’”

At the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix I talked to a young pastor who was recently called to a church that was founded in the 1950s and within the last ten years had transitioned from a traditional style of worship to a more contemporary style of worship.

The young pastor indicated that he was going to add a more traditional worship service to accommodate a sizable number of older members who were longing for a worship service that “met their needs.”

This editorial is not about traditional worship versus contemporary worship. It is about vision, planning, and implementation, because the same principles would apply to a pastor who wanted to add a contemporary worship experience for those who preferred that style.

In fact, the principles outlined in this editorial would apply to any vision whether it pertained to worship, Christian education, growth in stewardship, creating an evangelism strategy, or just about anything else.

First, a pastor must have a vision. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without a vision, the people perish.” Some pastors are very attuned to the will of God and are able to get a heavenly vision for their church or their church’s ministry rather easily. Some times it takes prayer, fasting, searching the scripture and wise counsel to determine what God wants for the church.

I realize that the lack of achieving the goals or desires I had as a pastor came from a lack of a clear vision. Once I had a clear vision in precise detail I could then move on to how that vision could be accomplished.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc., said, “Define your vision down to the smallest detail. Many people find this is the time to write it down. Write it down until you can’t describe it anymore, and then write some more.

We have been told that Walt Disney was fired as a cartoonist from the Kansas City Star newspaper, because his editor concluded that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before he found the right filament for the light bulb.

In 1978 Michael Jordan, a high school sophomore, was just another kid in the gym and cut from his school’s basketball team.

What led these successful and talented people to press on despite failure and rejection? They were motivated by a vision.

Vision gives us an idea of what is possible. It creates a desire to grow and improve. It feeds our hopes and dreams. It establishes a purpose.

Helen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision.”

Second, a pastor must have a plan to achieve his vision. Once the vision is articulated, planning must follow. The planning process provides the information the church leaders need to make effective decisions about how to allocate the resources and people in a way that will enable the church to reach its objectives.

The Time-Management-Guide states, “A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards fulfilling your vision and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.”

When I was pastor of Peachtree Corners Baptist Church in Norcross Bill Bryan was our minister of education. He knew how to grow a Sunday School. He had experienced success at First Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Oklahoma during the ministry of Bailey Smith, at Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta during the ministry of Nelson Price and he did the same thing at Peachtree Corners.

Bryan knew how to create a roadmap for achieving our goals and equipping the people to help accomplish the desired objectives. While every church must depend upon the Holy Spirit to undergird their efforts and while our omnipotent God can still work miracles, there are few fantastical stories of instant success. Growing churches generally require vision, planning and – hard work.

So, third, a pastor must work hard and challenge his people to work hard in order to accomplish their objectives. In most cases the people won’t work, if the pastor doesn’t lead the way. The Bible says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Laziness never built a strong church. In fact, God tells us to consider the work habits of an ant in order to find out how to be successful (Proverbs 6:6).

For example, those of us who knew Dr. R.G. Lee regard him as a peerless pulpiteer, but according to E. Schuyler English’ biography of the famed preacher (Robert G. Lee A Chosen Vessel), in addition to preparing matchless sermons, caring for the sick and administrating a large church, Dr. Lee made ten visits a day to those who were prospects for Bellevue Baptist Church. He was a tireless worker.

Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

A vision doesn’t become reality through fanciful dreams or vain wishes, but through sweat, determination and hard work. Ignatius, early Christian writer and bishop of Antioch, reportedly said, “Pray as if everything depended upon God; work as if everything depends of you.”

The point is that God will bless vision + planning + hard work and use it all to help build up His church.

Dennis Nunn, founder and president of Every Believer a Witness Ministries, shared the following story communicated to him by Jeremy Atwood, a pastor in Kentucky who had hosted a “Pastor Equipping Conference” in his church.

Nunn explained, “Jeannie Krebs, age 47, walked down the aisle in response to the pastor’s invitation at New Harvest Baptist Church in Caneyville, Kentucky on Sunday morning, April 30, and gave her heart to Jesus. At first, Cara, the pastor’s wife counseled with her and indicated that Jeannie prayed a beautiful and heart-felt sinner’s prayer.

“Cara told Jeannie she needed to share her salvation testimony with the pastor. Jeremy heard Jeannie’s testimony and he asked her how she felt after experiencing Christ’s forgiveness. With the burden of sin lifted and the peace of God flooding her soul, she stated, ‘I feel so wonderful.’”

James Krebs, Jeannie’s brother also made a profession of faith that day and was baptized three weeks later on May 21. However, Jeannie’s profession of faith was followed by an horrifying moment that will be etched in the memory of those present for the rest of their lives.

Pastor Mitch Clements prepares to give an invitation from the altar of Summerhill Baptist Church in Thomas County in this 2011 file photo. MITCH CLEMENTS/Special

Following the invitation, the church was going to observe the Lord’s Supper and as Atwood faced the congregation, his wife screamed. The pastor immediately turned around and discovered that Jeannie Krebs had collapsed. The pastor and others attempted to perform CPR, but the woman was unresponsive. She was taken to Twin Lakes Regional Hospital and pronounced dead.

She trusted Jesus as her Savior and shortly thereafter (Atwood suggested two minutes later) she was with Him in heaven. This story of Jeannie Krebs illustrates the urgency of trusting Christ and the importance of the invitation.

When I prepare a sermon I start with the invitation. I ask the Lord, “What kind of invitation do you want me to extend to the congregation in the upcoming worship service?”

Sometimes the invitation has been a call to service. On occasions it has been a call to surrender. From time to time the Lord urges me to extend an invitation to call the worshippers to pray for revival; and sometimes the invitation is to call people to be more faithful witnesses. Several times a year I have issued a call for couples to devote their marriages or families to be more fully committed to Christ. However, in every worship service I have extended an invitation for lost people to be saved.

What if your community was afflicted with some kind of terrible plague that would result in widespread death if not properly treated? Suppose you had been diagnosed with the plagues, but you managed to find a doctor who had the cure and you experienced an immediate restoration to health?

On your way home from the doctor’s office you met a man who had the same life-threatening plague. You tell him that your symptoms were similar to his symptoms, but that you found a doctor who had a miracle cure requiring only one inoculation. After the shot you immediately began to feel better and the disease was no longer causing you pain or suffering. You had been gloriously healed.

Kentucky pastor Jeremy Atwood told Georgia Baptist Dennis Nunn, while both were at the recent SBC meeting in Phoenix, about a woman who prayed at Atwood’s church to become a Christian literally minutes before she collapsed and died. DENNIS NUNN/Facebook

So, you have seen a dying man. You have told him that you suffered just like he was suffering, but you found a doctor able to provide the cure to his illness. And, this physician is able to rescue him from certain death and provide the cure, but you go away without telling him where he can find this remarkably effective physician.

Each time the church assembles, whether on Sundays, Wednesdays, or during any Gospel meeting, the faithful Gospel preachers who stand before their congregations have an obligation to conclude their sermons with an invitation and appeal for the lost to be saved.

The invitation is not a “church ritual” or “an old fashioned tradition,” but a scriptural and appropriate way to conclude a message from God’s Word.

Consider Christ’s invitation in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Georgia Baptist evangelist Keith Fordham called to tell me about a conversation Ray Deeter, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Evansville, IN, had with a fellow pastor in his association. I called Deeter to get a first-hand report on what he told Fordham and thought the conversation interesting enough to share.

A younger pastor happened to see Deeter and said to him, “You church is always a leader in baptisms in our association. How do you manage to have so many new converts to baptism?”

Deeter responded by asking, “How often do you give a Gospel invitation in your church?”

The young pastor said, “Oh, I suppose we average giving an invitation about every six weeks.”

Then the younger pastor turned the tables on Deeter and asked, “How often do you give a Gospel invitation?”

The Grace pastor, answered, “I give a Gospel invitation every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. We give an invitation at church musical programs (cantatas) and children’s programs. Our purpose as a church is to exalt the Savior, equip the saints, and evangelize the lost.”

About three weeks later the two pastors met again and the younger pastor said to Deeter, “I have been giving an invitation as you suggested and in the past two weeks we have had ten people saved and baptized.”

Deeter, who has been Grace’s pastor 12 years, stated, “The lost are not likely to be saved if they are not given the opportunity. I guess I am old fashioned, but as we continue to baptize new converts our church is getting younger every year.”

If you need an example of a compelling invitation consider the following sermon on Psalm 2:12 by Charles H. Spurgeon, preached on July 3, 1859 at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens in London, England.

“And I conclude now by noticing that this is an open salvation. Every soul in the world that feels its need of a Saviour, and that longs to be saved, may come to Christ. If God hath convinced thee of sin, and brought thee to know thy need to come, come away, come, come away, come now; trust now in Christ, and thou shalt now find that blessed are all they that trust in Him. The door of mercy does not stand just ajar; it is wide open.

“The gates of heaven are not merely hanging on the latch, but they are wide open both night and day. Come, let us go together to that blessed house of mercy, and drive our wants away. The grace of Christ is like our street drinking fountains, open to every thirsty wanderer. There is the cup, the cup of faith. Come and hold it here while the water freely flows and drink. There is no one who can come up and say it is not made for you; for you can say, ‘Oh, yes it is, I am a thirsty soul; it is meant for me.

“’Nay,’ says the devil, ‘you are too wicked.’

“It does not say over the fountain, ‘No thieves to drink here.’ All that is wanted at the drinking fountain is simply that you should be willing to drink, that you should be thirsty and desire. Come, then,

“Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream;

All the fitness he requireth,

Is to feel your need of Him.”

“He has given you this: come and drink, drink freely. “The Spirit and the bride say come; and let him that heareth say come; and whosoever is athirst, let him come and take the water of life freely.”

Georgia Baptist Convention President Thomas Hammond challenges messengers during his report at the 2016 Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting held at Calvary Baptist Temple in Savannah. Hammond recently announced “Win Georgia” as the theme for the 2017 annual meeting, to be held Nov. 12-14 at North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville. JOE WESTBURY/Index

ALPHARETTA – Georgia Baptist Convention President Thomas Hammond is a visionary leader with more ideas than a football stadium full of inventors and entrepreneurs.

If you were to go into his office on the campus of First Baptist Church Alpharetta you would see a rather large space with desks and books, acrylic boards and magic markers where Hammond writes his sermon outlines. This is where he charts his vision for the church and projects his plans for the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting in the fall.

Hammond is a thinker, a dreamer, a visionary, an almost quixotic character. His idealistic dreams are driven by a faith that endeavors to convert everyone to Christianity. In a society based on drugs, sex, anarchy, and depravity, Hammond still believes the world can be reconciled to God and wickedness can be defeated.

Hammond is so likable and positive he makes all those who know him believe victory is on the horizon and that the most hopeless sinner can be rescued from the clutches of Satan. He wants to see Georgia Baptists win in the battle for souls.

Uniting to win

Under Hammond’s leadership last November’s annual meeting was one of the most inspiring and challenging Convention sessions in memory. The meeting was accented by the song of the most charming cowgirl in the country, Elizabeth Bailey, the appearance of Black Hawk Down Ranger, Jeff Struecker, and Georgia Tech football chaplain Derrick Moore.

The theme of the year was “Unite Georgia,” facilitated by five Georgia Baptist Pastors’ Luncheons, an emphasis on pastors connecting in prayer for one another and a shared vision and passion to win the lost in Georgia.

Numerous pastors have testified that the prayer connections with other pastors have been a godsend. Pastors need prayer support and fellowship with other pastors who can encourage them and make them accountable.

Recent surveys indicate that:

• 90 percent of pastors work 55-75 hours a week.
• 80 percent of pastors say the ministry negatively affected their family
• 33 percent of pastors say the ministry is an outright hazard to family life

Unite Georgia was all about encouragement, prayer and unity.

This year’s theme will be “Win Georgia,” with a more pronounced effort to win the lost and baptize new believers. Hammond is seeking to rally Georgia Baptist pastors to continue striving for unity and significantly push back the lostness across the state.

Additional luncheons are being planned for pastors across Georgia this year. President Hammond and the GBC vice presidents will be hosting these meetings. The following luncheons have been already been confirmed.

• Monday, Aug. 14 – Thomas Hammond (Pres.)/FBCA, Alpharetta
• Thursday, Sept. 14 – Rick Statham (4th VP)/Salem BC, McDonough
• Monday, Oct. 16 – Levi Skipper (3rd VP)/Concord BC, Clermont
• Monday, Oct. 23 – Jim Perdue (1st VP)/Second BC, Warner Robins
• Tuesday, Oct. 24 – Joey Taylor (2nd VP)/Springhead BC, Adel

Pushing back against lost influence 

These pastor prayer luncheons will help prepare the way for a momentous and God-honoring Georgia Baptist Convention, when hundreds of messengers and guests gather in Lawrenceville’s North Metro Baptist Church Nov. 12-14 for the Convention’s annual meeting.

GBC President Hammond stated, “Our state is becoming increasingly lost. And as the percentage of lost people grows, so does their influence. As this trend continues a secular worldview becomes more widely accepted than the biblical worldview.

“The only thing that can stop this is the Gospel. We must proclaim the gospel for the sake of souls.

“My hope and prayer is when we meet together in November, we will experience a defining moment that will kindle our passion for sharing the gospel like never before and result in a tremendous harvest. Win Georgia!”

DULUTH — Life at the Georgia Baptist Missions and Ministry Center generally consists of serving churches, encouraging pastors, preparing for ministry assignments, facilitating church plants, equipping church leaders, etc. But occasionally, the staff celebrates some personal blessing like an employee becoming a parent or a grandparent.

Recently, the staff had a wedding shower for Alicia Simpson and her fiancé, Josh Hollis. Alicia works in Information Services, but most of the staff met Josh for the first time at the shower. The shower was a happy experience, but very few, if any, were privileged to observe the courtship of Alicia and Josh at close range. The fact that the mission board staff was not able to monitor that growing relationship on a daily basis is something for which that charming couple can be forever grateful.

However, there has been a blossoming relationship between two GBMB staff members that has attracted the attention of just about everyone employed at 6405 Sugarloaf Parkway for a long time – an exceedingly long time.

Shea Elrod, who works in the financial services department, has been dating Karen Wheeler, an administrative assistant in the executive offices, since May 2012.

In his fiance’s office, Shea Elrod gets down on one knee to reenact his marriage proposal to Karen Wheeler. GERALD HARRIS/Index

National surveys indicate that the average couple dates for approximately 25 months before getting engaged. However, women who get engaged at 35 or older tend to date for a shorter period of time than those aged 21 to 35. Therefore, Shea was violating the norm and pressing his luck by waiting to pop the question.

Everyone knew that Shea would be wise to seal the relationship with Karen with a marriage proposal. But, Shea was slow on the draw. Many of the men in the building attempted to nudge him in the direction of an engagement and some even suggested an intervention to get him off dead center before some Lochinvar rode in on a white horse and whisked Karen away before his very eyes.

However, Shea, perhaps because of certain perceived obsessive-compulsive tendencies, was extremely cautious, deliberate, and methodical in his approach to solidifying the relationship.

In fact, the courtship was over a year old before almost anyone at the Baptist Mission Board found out about the budding relationship. Shea and Karen had their first date at a Longhorn’s Steakhouse on May 12, 2012 and dated for more than a year before Preston and Judy Hinesley let the cat out of the bag and revealed that they were dating in June 2013.

The playful banter and good-natured tantalizing of the couple probably started soon after it became general knowledge that the “Romeo and Juliet” of Georgia Baptists were dating.

Danny Watters, who is gleefully celebrating this engagement from the portals of heaven, was likely one of the chief mischievous tormentors urging Shea to “give the girl a ring.”

After more than five years, the proposal took place at Fort Walton Beach on June 10. Surely it was a starry, moonlit night, with the Gulf waters sparkling like someone had sprinkled the sea with diamonds and Carly Simon singing “I Only Have Eyes for You” somewhere in the background.

Shea gave evidence of his romantic bent when he explained to The Christian Index the reason he proposed, “Karen is just so beautiful, wonderful, caring, and loving. She touches my heart and warms my soul. I believe the major factor,” he reasoned, “is that Karen just completes me. I see such a wonderful life ahead with her and look forward to so many delightful times together.”

Debbie Gaines, who works with Karen in the executive offices, commented, “Good things happen to those who wait! Shea and Karen waited a while and we got impatient, but now two good people will be together as one. I am so happy for them.”

Daphne Youngblood, who works in Woman’s Missionary Union, exclaimed, “My heart was overjoyed and my prayers were answered with the news of Shea and Karen getting engaged. I am glad they each have someone with whom they can divide the joys of life. Mark Twain said, ‘To get the full value of a joy you must have someone to divide it with.’”

“Shea, like the rest of us married guys, is out-punting his coverage with Karen,” Dr. J. Robert White, executive director, proclaimed. “We are all excited about this engagement. We have all kidded Shea so much about moving slowly that I am not sure what we’ll talk about now. I know at least 30 ministers who have offered to do the wedding if Shea would ever put the ring on Karen’s finger. These are two wonderful people and I could not be happier for them, or more excited.”

Any news publication loves to get an exclusive and The Christian Index is pleased to be the first to announce that the wedding will be January 6, 2018. Congratulations to a splendid Christian couple!

When one thinks of our great country the words “united,” “indivisible,” and “one nation under God” come to mind.

However, the very freedom that has united us for more than two centuries seems to be under attack – not from without, but from within.

For example, I am more concerned about the radical left in America than ISIS. Alright, both are concerns, but since 9/11 we have, for the most part, been able to structure our society in such a way that we can preempt the Islamists’ terrorist attacks. At least Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are doing a reasonably good job of circumventing such atrocities.

However, there is no attempt to bridle the liberal teachings of our secular colleges and universities. Many of them do more indoctrination and propagandizing than teaching. For example, Columbia Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City is regarded as the premier graduate school of education in the country. Yet the students are expected to be “participants in a larger struggle for social justice.”

Protesters in support of President Donald Trump clash with anti-Trump protesters on the campus of the University of California-Berkley in mid-April, 2017. Screen grab/CNN

The term “social justice” may seem vague, but, in short, the college has become a template for socialist propaganda. David Horowitz, in his book One Party Classroom, insists, “Teachers are expected to share a radical view of American society and to consider their mission to be not educating the young but attacking the legitimacy of the social order.”

Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, has stated, “A professor’s job is not to tell students what to think: it is to help them to think carefully, critically, and for themselves. There is a legitimate place for the catechist, the preacher, the social activist, and the community organizer; but that place is not the university classroom.

“Professors who seek to indoctrinate their students violate a sacred trust. They should be forcefully challenged and publicly held to account.”

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is a national organization which has departed from its original purpose. Today it instructs professors to provide students with divergent opinions on “controversial matters.”

The indoctrination of students by college professors inflames many of them and rioting is the result. While rioting may be routine at the University of California at Berkeley, it is also becoming commonplace in many other institutions of higher learning across the heartland of the nation.

Bob Lange, associate professor emeritus of physics and an adjunct associate professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management, stated, “It is not terrorism to kill representatives of a government that you are opposed to.”

Statements like that could have prompted Madonna to suggest “blowing up” the White House. It could have incited Kathy Griffin to produce a simulated decapitated head of our president. It could have inspired the off-Broadway production of Julius Caesar to feature a character resembling President Donald Trump as Caesar, who was assassinated. It could have motivated James Hodgkinson to shoot U.S. Representative Scalise.

Samuel Abrams, a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, believed that liberal professors outnumbered conservatives and decided to do some extensive research to prove his point. He discovered that in the South and throughout the Great Plains, the ratio of liberal to conservative professors hovered around 3 to 1. On the liberal left coast, the ratio was 6 to 1. However, in New England there are 28 liberal professors to every one conservative professor.

Chris Sweeney, writing for Boston Magazine, declared, “At a time when Donald Trump is setting up camp inside the West Wing, our ivy-gilded campuses in the foothills of Vermont and the suburbs of Boston are emerging as some of the most contentious ideological beachheads in the country.

“In response to Trump’s ascendance, campus politics are primed to swing even more to the left,” he added. “New England’s college campuses are a powder keg ready to blow.”

And, I might add, conservatives are becoming even more entrenched in their ideological position.

The partisan politics in America is creating a divide as volatile as the rioting on college campuses. Watching Bernie Sanders, a product of the liberal University of Chicago, question Russell Vought and attack his Christian faith was disgraceful and unbecoming of a United States senator. He demonstrated a total disrespect for Christians and voted against him as deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget because of his faith.

David French of National Review wrote, “This is a disgraceful and unconstitutional line of questioning from the man who came close to being the Democrat for president. He’s not only imposing a religious test for public office in direct violation of Article VI of the United States Constitution, he’s gone so far as to label this decent man – who is seeking to serve his country in a vital role – as not someone who this country is suppose to be about.”

While Bernie Sanders did not participate in a violent riot, his inflammatory language could incite a riot. We need leaders, including the presidents of our nation’s universities, to focus on uniting the United States rather than fomenting dissent and chaos.

Thankfully, Georgia Baptists have three presidents of our institutions of higher learning who are outstanding educators and who represent the Prince of Peace.

Allen and Kara Rea met while students at Brewton-Parker College, then grew closer while on a mission trip before dating. They’ve been married since 2006 and now have four children: Katie, 9; Hosanna, 7; Bella, 2; and Isaiah, 1. REA FAMILY/Special

The Christian Index is aware there are many dynamic young Georgia Baptist pastors in the Peach State. These pastors are faithfully preaching the Word of God and tending to the flock entrusted to their care. While we often highlight the ministry of pastors of large churches, there are pastors of small and medium size churches doing a great work and honoring the Lord through their faithfulness and surrender to Christ.

The revivalist Vance Havner said, “We won’t know who the big preachers are until we get to heaven.” Allen Rea, pastor of Higgston Baptist Church, is one of those dedicated young pastors. Index editor Gerald Harris recently reviewed Pastor Rea, because Georgia Baptists need to know the heart and mind of some our dedicated young servants of God.  

Pastor Rea has only been pastor of the Higgston Church for approximately one year, but the church has experienced significant growth during those 12 months. In fact, the church is already expanding its facilities and God is blessing the ministry of this young pastor                   

The Christian Index: Allen, we want Georgia Baptists to know about some of our younger pastors. Tell me a bit about your family background.

Allen Rea: I was born and raised in Hazlehurst. My parents are Michael and Patty Rea. I was the youngest of three children. I have two older sisters. I grew up around my grandparents and adored them. They were both good and godly examples to me. My home church is Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Hazlehurst. I was licensed to preach in that church when I was 17 years old.

Index: Allen, how did you come too know the Lord? What was your conversion experience like?

Rea: I grew up in a family that faithfully attended church. I remember the Sunday of my conversion experience very well. Robert Russell, who has since gone on to his heavenly reward, was pastoring Mt Zion. I remember vividly coming down the aisle during the altar call. He took up a lot of time with me after the service.

He did not rush me. He did not simply want me to fill out a card. He shared the Gospel in detail, and answered all my questions. He became a model for how I needed to share the Gospel, especially with children that meet with me. I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. I was baptized by immersion shortly thereafter.

Index: What was your call to the Gospel ministry like? How did you know God was calling you into the ministry?

Rea: When I was 15 I began to study the Bible for myself. I had become very serious about my faith in Jesus. My grandmother had always said that I would make a preacher. For over a year, I simply loved Jesus and shared His love with others. I began strong daily devotional habits that become very foundational for me in the years ahead. I had an overwhelming burden to do more for Christ. I had a thirst to preach and teach the Bible.

I become enamored with listening to Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley, and David Jeremiah. I wanted to do what they did. One Friday evening, I set out on a hike with a Bible and a journal. As I sat down to rest I was reading in 1 John. I came to John 2:15-17. I did not want to love the world; I wanted to do the will of God. I remember simply praying something like this: “Jesus, if You will let me preach, I promise to do the very best that I can. Please let me use this burden to share Your Word with others.”

From then on, my one desire was to pastor, preach, and teach the Word of God. The next Sunday I met with my pastor, Dewitt Corbin, who became a strong mentor to me. I simply walked into his office during Sunday school and said: “I think I’m supposed to preach the Gospel.” Much of this burden had matured through a previous pastor, Bill Stone. These men were used by the Lord to lay the foundations for me.

Index: Tell me about your educational experience at Brewton-Parker College and Luther Rice Seminary. Have you completed your doctor of ministry degree?

Rea: During my senior year in high school, I only applied to one school: Brewton-Parker College. My pastor was an alumnus and encouraged me to attend. I visited the campus and met Dr. Jerry Ray. I knew then that BPC was the place for me.

Allen Rea has served as pastor of Higgston Baptist Church, west of Vidalia, for a year. ALLEN REA/Special

Over the next four years, I made friendships that will last a lifetime, met the girl who would be my partner for life, and learned lessons I am still harvesting today. College can be a confusing time, but I matured a lot spiritually during those years. There are some gloriously hallowed halls in Mt. Vernon! And I am so thankful for the work that Dr. Steve Echols is doing there now.

I began my seminary studies as I was pastoring my first church. I began the online program at [Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary]. I completed many courses with my first daughter crawling around my feet. Through much prayer and discernment, Kara and I starting thinking about transitioning to Atlanta so I could continue my education at Luther Rice. One of my favorite preachers, Dr. Jerry Vines, is a Luther Rice alumnus. I simply applied, and we moved to Atlanta to attend on campus.

We pulled away from the parsonage with almost no money, but a strong sense that God was leading. God was so faithful! I do not have the time or capability to say all the wonderful things I’d like to say about Luther Rice and its President, Dr. James Flanagan.

I received the best seminary education possible. I worked hard through long nights as I worked graveyard shifts at a local Kroger. I sat under great men of God who had a lot of pastoral experience. Online or on campus, Luther Rice was the best seminary education possible for me.

I am currently working on my doctor of ministry degree through Luther Rice as well. I am nearly at the “Doctoral Research Project” stage; and I envision a dissertation centered on expository preaching. Should the Lord tarry His coming, I will finish the program in a year or so.

Index: How did you meet Kara? Tell me about your children.

Rea: I met Kara the first day of the first class of my freshman year at Brewton Parker. Later that year we went along with a group on a mission trip. We sat right next to each other on the plane ride across the Atlantic. We were simply friends for a long time. We eventually dated, and I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. She is my best friend, greatest encourager, and most trusted confidant. We were married in 2006.

We have four children. Kara is very busy, because we homeschool our children. Katie is our oldest child at nine. She is an avid reader. Hosanna, age 7, is our second daughter and a wonderful bundle of energy and enthusiasm. Bella, age 2 1/2, is our third daughter. She is determined to do anything her older sisters can do. Isaiah is our little surprise boy at one and-a-half. He and I are buddies for life!

Index: Who were the men (preachers) who influenced your life?

Rea: I have had the blessing of sitting under some very faithful preachers who were never were asked to speak at a conference or pastor a megachurch. I have always been a faithful listener to Dr. Adrian Rogers. I never met him personally, though he has certainly discipled me through the years. I have loved the books and sermons of Dr. Vines. He has been a tremendous encouragement to me. I especially enjoyed his autobiography he wrote a few years ago. Dr. Charles Stanley’s preaching ministry has also been a blessing to me through the years.

More recently, I have gained much from the friendship of Dr. Len Turner. I love preachers! Music is not my forte. I would much rather hear preaching than singing! Dr. Randy White, who pastors in Taos, NM, has been a great friend since we met at the SBC a few years ago. Grace Evangelical Society, headed up by Dr. Bob Wilkin, has been a tremendous blessing to me.

Index: I understand you embraced a Reformed theological position for a short period of time. What circumstances or influences caused to you to embrace that doctrinal position?

Rea: Calvinism was and continues to be very popular among my generation of pastors. I embraced Calvinism in college, due to its popularity and the textbooks I was reading. I had suffered much through a car accident that nearly took my life. It was essentially the physical, spiritual, and emotional chaos after the crash that lead me to embrace Calvinism.

Many have said that my critiques of Calvinism are simply not correct, and that I misunderstood the theology. I assure people that I rejected Calvinism because I finally did understand it. I embraced it because I did not understand it.

Index: What brought you back to the position you now embrace?

Rea: One summer in college I went back to the place where I should have started in the beginning of my search for truth. I studied the Scriptures. I spent a lot of time studying the doctrine of limited atonement. One evening I wept over 1 John 2:2 as I translated it from the Greek. Limited atonement crumbled under the power of the Word of God, and the rest of the four points quickly followed. The Word of God brought me back. Later, during seminary, I was thrilled when the Traditional Statement was made. I came in contact with Connect316, and I am the GA state director for that ministry.

Index: What are your ministry goals now as pastor of Higgston Baptist Church?

Rea: Our vision at HBC is: “loving Jesus while sharing His love with others.” I just completed my first year here, and it has been an incredible time. We are nearing completion of our new sanctuary. My goal weekly is to pastor by means of grace, to preach and teach only the Word of God, and to be an example to the flock. I serve an amazing congregation. The church and I are blessed to have an amazingly wise body of deacons to aid in leadership.

My vision of ministry can be summarized by two Bible verses. One is spoken by John the Baptist, and one is in reference to John the Baptist. In John 3:30 John says: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Ministry is about Jesus constantly increasing, and me constantly decreasing. It is His parade, and I am just happy to be in it! (II Corinthians 2:14)

The other verse is John 10:41: “Then many came to Him and said, “John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true.” I would love for this to be my epitaph. Ministry is not about performance, but only about speaking the truth about Jesus Christ. My vision for preaching comes from Mark 12:37b: “And the common people heard Him gladly.”           

Amidst America’s celebration of 241 years of freedom and independence on July 4, there was also much talk of North Korea launching another ballistic missile toward Japan. The most recent launch was part of a string of recent test-firings as the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un works to build a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the United States.

According to the Associated Press, this latest missile reached a height of 1,740 miles and traveled 580 miles before falling into the sea.

While news channels explained that the missile could not have reached the United States mainland or the Hawaiian Islands, it could have reached Alaska.

Earlier this year Kim threatened all-out war with America after U.S. Senator John McCain called the obese dictator a “crazy fat kid.” The communist country retorted by saying McCain’s fat jibe was “a little short of a declaration of war.”

The situation with Kim is unstable to say the least and his volatile behavior was most noticeable when he showed favor to ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman to discuss a variety of topics including peace. Rodman is one of the most unlikely persons to offer diplomacy to the North Korean leader since his only experience outside of basketball is his outlandish behavior and dressing in drag.

So, who knows when the North Korean leader might push the red button or pick up the red phone to order a nuclear attack on South Korea or some other country including the United States?

So, for that reason and others we need to give serious attention to the pending legislation concerning the National Defense Authorization Act 2018 (NDAA). National security should always be the federal government’s top priority. Reading the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, or our Founders’ other writings confirms the priority they placed on “providing for the common defense.” They were also clear that the goal of a strong national defense is not war, but peace.

President Ronald Reagan presided over the biggest peacetime defense buildup in history, from high-tech weapons systems to larger training ranges and military pay increases. Journalist Tom Bowman explained, “It was Reagan’s steady focus on the military that helped bring down the Soviet Union and expunge the malaise and hollowness that infected the American military during the 1970s.”

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler of Missouri is playing a key role in advancing policies to strengthen our military. The 2018 NDAA is the national legislation that determines policies and funding levels for the U.S. Department of Defense and other national security entities.

This year Hartzler has offered an amendment to the NDAA to roll back the requirement that the military recruit people who identify as transgender, to stop taxpayer dollars from funding gender transition efforts, and to include conscience protections for service members who do not wish to provide or affirm gender transition efforts.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has addressed this issue in one of his letters to his constituents. I want to share his thoughts in the remainder of this column:

 “While the Department of Defense has delayed the implementation of the Obama-era policy for six months, the military will soon be forced to begin recruiting personnel who identify as transgender for military service. This is despite the fact that those suffering from gender dysphoria have a psychological and medical condition that until one year ago made them ineligible for military service.

Allowing people who identify as transgender to serve in the military, much less be recruited for the military, will have a negative impact on readiness, recruitment, and retention, as well as unit morale and cohesion. This is particularly true because personnel who identify as transgender are expected to receive exceptions to policies and medical requirements that their peers will still be required to meet. These exceptions may be applied to policies about everything from physical and mental fitness standards to dress and presentation standards. And, they create unfairness in the military that will undermine unit cohesion and morale.

Taxpayer dollars also need to be protected from funding sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy efforts intended to change a person’s gender. Estimates for these efforts, including the amount of time lost for the transition process, are about $3.7 billion over the next ten years. This is not a good use of taxpayer funds.

The military can better use these funds, for example, by purchasing 22 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Planes, which cost $166.7 million each; 116 Chinook Helicopters, a cost of $31.8 million each; 3,700 Tomahawk missiles, $1 million each; or a new Destroyer for the Navy, which would be about $3.5 billion. It’s irresponsible to spend billions of dollars on transgender surgeries and treatment plans when the military has other priorities that would actually ensure its effectiveness in war.

In addition, the Obama-era transgender mandate does not provide conscience protections for medical and counseling providers, like chaplains, who do not think it is in the interest of the patient to attempt to undergo gender transition. The policy also does not provide conscience protections for military leaders or personnel who may have objections to being required to share sleeping or bathing facilities with persons of the opposite biological and anatomical sex. Therefore, the House Armed Services Committee must act to secure conscience protections and the freedom to believe for service members who disagree with the Obama-era transgender policy.

The House of Representatives will likely vote on Representative Hartzler’s amendment next week. Tell your Representative to vote for Mrs. Hartzler’s amendment to roll back the Obama administration’s transgender mandate on the military by calling your Representative at (202) 224-3121 or through email. Go here to locate your representative.

Urge Your Representative to Vote for Mrs. Hartzler’s Amendment to Roll Back the Obama Administration’s Transgender Mandate, Provide Service Members Conscience Protections, and Protect Taxpayer Funds from Being Used for Sex Reassignment Surgery.” 

ATLANTA — R.A. Dickey, an overcomer well-known for his knuckleball, is a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are seeking to create a franchise that will match the transcendent grandeur of SunTrust Park, their brand-spanking new stadium overlooking the freshly designed interchange of I-75 and I-285 that now rivals Spaghetti Junction for its multiple overpasses.

R.A. Dickey pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers at SunTrust Park on June 24 in Atlanta. The Braves won 3-1. Photo by Patrick Duffy/Beam Imagination/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images

During the offseason the team’s management began the rebuilding process with the pitching staff. According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com “they started looking for some veteran arms who were willing to accept a short-term deal and essentially serve as a bridge toward the club’s future.”

Dickey, a former Cy Young winner, started his major league career with the Texas Rangers but had his award-winning season with the New York Mets in 2012 when he posted a 20-6 record with a 2.73 ERA. From New York he went to the Toronto Blue Jays and pitched north of the border for four years.

Dickey, 42 and a native of Nashville, was looking for a chance to pitch closer to home. The Braves’ offer provided that opportunity as well as gave him a chance to extend his career.

One of the most attractive things about Dickey to the Braves organization was his durability and record of being able to pitch deep into the games he started. He completed at least 200 innings in six of the past seven years and seems to be on track to add another year to that impressive statistic in 2017.

Bowman added, “He’s a good person and southern boy that has come back to where it all started.” For The Christian Index readers it should also be noted that he is an unashamed follower of Jesus Christ.

When Dickey’s parents separated he felt lonely and began to struggle with his identity. At age eight, he was molested by his babysitter and later violently raped by a male stranger. He commented, “When you are abused you feel less than human. I began to feel like, ‘Do I even matter? Why should I be here?’”

Baseball success, and then …

At age 13 Dickey made a profession of faith in Christ, but even that did not bring the emotional relief he sought. However, his interest in baseball and pursuit of excellence as a pitcher in high school brought another focus into his life, which offered some relief.

The Nashville native was awarded a baseball scholarship to the University of Tennessee, where he excelled. Afterwards the Texas Rangers selected him in the first round (18th pick) of the 1996 Major League Baseball draft. The Rangers offered him a contract of $810,000 with the promise of additional money if he decided he wanted to go back to school.

Unfortunately, a physical exam revealed that Dickey lacked an ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, resulting in the Rangers reducing the contract offer to $75,000. He spent much of the next nine years in the minor leagues, fighting for his baseball life.

The velocity on his pitches was declining and he began working on his knuckleball. In 2006 he made the Texas Ranger’s roster as a knuckleball pitcher and in his first game set the ignominious record of giving up six home runs in one game.     

Consequently, he was sent back to the minors and was so depressed he decided to take his life. Dickey duct-taped a hose to his car’s exhaust pipe, connected it to the driver’s side window, stuffed towels around the top of the window to seal the flow of oxygen into the car, and placed his hand on the ignition.

“The only thing that saved me in that moment was that I sensed God was with me and telling me not to turn that ignition – that He had something else for me,” Dickey stated.

One last breath

“Ultimately, our lives hinge on the ability to make right choices and decisions. By God’s grace, I made the most important decision a person can ever make,” says Braves pitcher R.A. Dickey, here delivering a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals. Photo by Logan Riely/Beam Imagination/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images

In 2007 Dickey was pitching for Omaha, an AAA minor league club, and one day decided to try to validate himself in front of his teammates by swimming across the Missouri River. The current was so swift that he was swept several hundred yards downstream and began to suffer exhaustion.

At one point he was about to give up and submit to the wrath of the river and resign himself to death by drowning. Before opening his mouth to take in the water that would hasten his death he surrendered himself anew to God. He suddenly got an adrenalin rush and managed to get back to the bank of the river where a teammate reached out his hand to rescue him from the water.

Dickey explained, “After that experience I centered my life on trying to live the next five minutes well. For the first time, I told my wife Anne about my abuse and my story. I was totally ready for her to walk out, because I felt like that is what I deserved. However, she did the opposite and completely embraced me, despite what I felt like was the ugliest things about me.

“I began to risk things, risk relationships, risk trusting other people, risk trusting other men, which I had never been able to do. And I began to discover that God was in the middle of all of it.”

Dickey credits his baseball resurrection to God’s grace and empowerment. Over the next five seasons, he continued to refine his knuckleball and pursue excellence on the mound. In 2012, 16 years after he was told he was not good enough, he was given the Cy Young Award as baseball’s best pitcher.

God’s promises

“My Christian life has been full of ups and downs,” Dickey testifies. “God does not promise you will never again experience trials, instead He tells us ‘rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us’ (Romans 5:3-5).

“Ultimately, our lives hinge on the ability to make right choices and decisions. By God’s grace, I made the most important decision a person can ever make. I invited Jesus Christ to be the Lord of my life and made a commitment to follow Him. God offers each of us the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus by ‘confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead’ (Romans 10:9). It is a wonderful and peaceful feeling to serve a God who loves me and cares about every detail of my life.”

R.A. Dickey has allowed only one run or fewer in four of his last five starts and has not surrendered a home run in his last 20 innings. He is scheduled to pitch against the Washington Nationals on Friday, July 7.

DULUTH — Has your pastor asked the people present in your worship service to stand up by age groups recently? If he has, the results may have been surprising. You may have been made painfully aware that your church has aged and the number of children and youth are exceedingly small.

Steve Parr, Georgia Baptist Mission Board vice president of Staff Coordination and Development, addressed the GBMB staff recently and indicated that he plans to do that in the church where he is serving as interim pastor in an upcoming Sunday.

Many of our churches are aging, not just in facilities and ideas, but also in the average age of the members. A pastor recently stated that unless his church is able to get some young families into his church, it would only be able to continue for about ten more years before it has to close its doors.

What do the demographics of your church look like? Most churches are not reaching and baptizing a significant number of children and teenagers. The average number of teen baptisms per church in Georgia last year was “one.” The median number was “zero,” meaning half the churches did not report a teen baptism. The number of children baptized was only slightly better.

That is precisely why Georgia Baptists are focusing on “reaching the next generation.” The emphasis is being called U2019, or #ReachingNextGen – an initiative designed to reach students with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Parr has been urging churches to engage in “Seven Sundays of Prayer” for the next generation and some churches have already piloted this prayer emphasis. Britt David Baptist Church in Columbus is one of the churches that has just concluded their seven weeks of prayer for the next generation.

Tim Jones, pastor of Britt David, reported, “We completed our seven Sundays of prayer emphasis this past Sunday, which led us right into Vacation Bible School.

“Each Sunday was uniquely special, but this past Sunday with me simply giving an analysis of where we are currently and a challenge for where we need to be was incredible. The altar filled with people coming forward to pray and to commit to an anything-necessary kind of strategy. Thank you for leading in this effort. We are looking forward to how God uses U2019 at Britt David.”

Reaching others is going to take some creativity. It could even involve sacrificing some clean clothes, as Jones recently demonstrated in explaining an invitation emphasis for Easter. 

Georgia Baptists must band together to reach the next generation! Why?

• Fifty years ago a counter-cultural revolution began.
• It was a revolt against the conservative, godly values of parents.
• Prayer was removed from the schools.
• Pornography and abortion was legalized.
• The gay rights movement started.
• The sexual revolution emerged.
• More liberal universities began to propagate their agenda.
• Fifty years ago, what was unacceptable in a non-Christian home is now acceptable in many Christian homes.
• Researchers say that only four percent of this current teen generation will be Bible-believing Christians.
• Up to 40 percent of high school seniors say they have used illegal drugs in the past year.
• Seventy-two percent of teenagers have consumed alcohol by the end of high school and 37 percent have done so by the 8th grade.
• Up to 90 percent of those who come to Christ do so before they are 20.
• Within five years most of this generation will be in their 20s
• Ninety-three percent of boys and 62 percent of girls are exposed to Internet pornography before the age of 18.
• One in 10 has been raped, but only 31 percent of sexual abuse cases are reported.
• One million teenage girls are pregnant.
• Up to 340,000 teenagers have an abortion every year.
• Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 young people attempt suicide every year.
• Statistics show that 35 percent of adults are Bible believing Christians; but at the present rate of evangelism that number will drop to four percent.
• Whatever we do in the next five years will lay the course for the next 50 years of American history.

Just imagine what the church could do if we stood united in prayer, repentance, and humility with an unwavering commitment to be clothed in power of the Holy Spirit to love the next generation into a personal relationship to Christ.

I was reading an article entitled “Are American Friendships Superficial” recently. The article was about a woman from Germany who came to the United States. It described her likes and dislikes about the U.S. in comparison to Germany. For example, she expressed pure delight in the opportunities for work and advancement in America.

She complained, however, that American friendships are superficial. She said, “I do not see any deep friendships and people form and dissolve relationships too easily.”

The writer of the article, Jefferson M. Fish, stated, “American individualism means that we give more emphasis to our own needs in forming and dissolving relationships than do cultures organized around traditional forms and relationships.”

As I read the article in Psychology Today I began to wonder if the idea of superficial friendships carry over into the spiritual realm. Is our relationship to Christ superficial? Is that why so many church members are so sporadic in their church attendance, giving, Bible study, and prayer? Is it possible for us to form and dissolve our relationship to a certain church too easily? Is the average American deeply committed to anything?

Do we embrace the church only when it is convenient, only when it meets our felt needs, only when it doesn’t intrude too much into our personal lives, only when it makes us feel good? Would we continue to be true to our faith when it really began to cost us something?

Kelly Shattuck, writing for ChurchLeaders.com, published data on the worship attendance in the U.S. in Orthodox Christian churches (Catholic, mainline and evangelical) and revealed that only 17.7 percent of the population (52 million people) attend church on any given Sunday.

This may shock you, but according to multiple sources there are more Christians worshipping the living God on Sunday in China than there are Christians worshipping the living God in the United States. There are not quite as many professing Christians in China as the United States, but a much higher percentage of Chinese Christians attend church services on a weekly basis even though millions of them must attend underground churches. According to BBC News, up to 100 million Chinese worship the Lord on Sundays.

Interestingly, The London Telegraph reported on July 4 that China is on course to become the world’s most Christian nation by 2030. The Telegraph also reported, “Officially, the People’s Republic of China is an atheistic country, but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.”

Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule, exclaimed, “By my calculations, China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon.”

Yang believes that the number of Christians in China will swell to around 160 million by 2025. He explained, “That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million protestants in 2010, but whose congregations are in decline.

“By 2030, China’s total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil, and the United States as the largest Christian nation in the world.”

Pastor Samuel Lamb, one of the great men of China’s underground house church movement, commented, “Persecution [is] good for [the] church.” He knows from his firsthand experience. During his more than 20 years in Communist Chinese prisons, his church grew exponentially.

Richard Wurmbrand, in his book Tortured for Christ, stated, “Persecution has always produced a better Christian. Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious, dedicated Christians such as are rarely seen in free lands. These people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet.”

It must be that the reason for the growth of the Chinese church and the decline of the American church is that there are no nominal, halfhearted, casual, lukewarm Christians in China.

Pastor Jim Perdue of Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins speaks of the godly influence given to him by his parents, Sonny and Mary Perdue. Praying over his parents, he thanked God for the couple’s “faithfulness and their example.” SBCWR/Special

WARNER ROBINS — Sonny Perdue, former governor of Georgia, was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States. On Sunday evening, July 9, Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins commissioned Sonny and Mary Perdue as missionaries to Washington, D.C.

The Perdues are members of Second Baptist where their son, Jim, serves as pastor of the strong, influential church. He stated that the commissioning ceremony was held to recognize his parents for the “mission” they are undertaking as they embark to serve the nation.

Missionaries are often thought of as those who go to the far-flung corners of the earth to spread the Gospel, but the Kingdom of God would be mightily advanced if every church member became a missionary in his/her sphere of influence. The Second Baptist pastor expressed delight in commissioning his parents, explaining that Washington needs more missionaries.

As part of the ceremony, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee addressed the hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony and remarked, “I’m ecstatic that my good friend and the longtime governor of Georgia is now the Secretary of Agriculture in the Trump administration.

“I don’t believe the president could have picked anyone in American who is better fitted and able to do this job than Sonny Perdue – someone who has worked in agriculture all his life, somebody who understands the issues, but somebody who is a true statesman and who knows how to get things done and knows how to get them done right. Sonny Perdue is the perfect choice.”

When God promotes

Pastor Benny Tate of Rock Springs Church in Milner, a longtime friend of the Perdues, spoke and commented, “I commend Sonny and Mary Perdue for not following a road map [to retirement], but following a relationship and wanting to please the Lord.”

Left to right, Benny Tate, Jim Perdue, and Johnny Hunt stand at the service commissioning Sonny and Mary Perdue as missionaries to Washington D.C. Sonny Perdue was named earlier this year by President Donald J. Trump as Secretary of Agriculture. Tate serves as pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Perdue of Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins, and Hunt of First Baptist Church in Woodstock. SBCWR/Special

“The only reason for power is to empower. The only reason God promotes us is to put us in a position so we can help other people, and I know that’s what Sonny Perdue will do. He will take that position and use it to help other people.”

Johnny Hunt, pastor of Woodstock’s First Baptist Church and the Perdues pastor during their tenure in the Governor’s mansion, also spoke at the commissioning service. Hunt stated, “We have identified 400 leaders in the Bible. Only 80 of those 400 leaders finished well – only 20 percent.

“Fifty percent of the men who go for theological education in our denomination will never enter a ministry position. Only 10 percent of the ministers in America will actually retire doing what God called them to do. So, if someone will stay the course I want to know all I can about their spiritual virtues and characteristics.”

Hunt then delineated the five characteristics of those who finished well. Those characteristics are (1) humility, (2) intimacy with God, (3) obedience, (4) faith, and (5) the ability to receive counsel. The Woodstock pastor intimated that Perdue possessed those characteristics and stated, “One reason I feel so encouraged about this country and its leadership is because one of the people who sits on the cabinet with President Trump I know knows God.”

‘Significant kingdom ways’

At the conclusion of the service pastors, deacons, and church leaders gathered around the Perdues. Jim Perdue prayed for his parents: “I thank You for Mom and Dad, for their faithfulness and their example. I thank You for the joy in the journey of taking steps of faith no matter what; and I thank You that You have [two more] missionaries in Washington, D.C. … I pray that You would use Mom and Dad in significant Kingdom ways to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We, the body of Christ, send out Sonny and Mary Perdue to be missionaries in this next endeavor… Lead them, guide them, and protect them … and may their theme continue to be ‘I’d rather have Jesus.’ We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

The commissioning service for the Perdues was inspiring and challenging to all in attendance, but Georgia Baptists can celebrate the fact that we have a political insider in Washington who can influence the nation’s president and the policies of our government with his steadfast faith and unwavering commitment to God’s Word. Sonny and Mary Perdue deserve the prayers of all Georgia Baptists as well as the intercessions of faithful believers across the width and breadth of our land.

First Baptist Dallas Pastor W.A. Criswell delivers his “Whether We Live or Die” sermon at the 1985 SBC annual meeting. YOUTUBE/Screen capture

We must never forget those great men of the faith who preached the Word of God with such passion and power. I want to be sure our wonderful younger pastors are made aware of some of the heroes of the faith who have gone on before us.

Therefore, for several years I have wanted to provide our readers young and old with a personality sketch of some of Southern Baptists’ greatest and most notable personalities – preachers who have gone on to be with the Lord. The idea of such a project began to take shape when I encountered Jack Pogue at the W.A. Criswell Sermon Library booth at the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix last month.

Mr. Pogue, owner of a Dallas commercial real estate company, was the close personal friend, partner in ministry, and confidant of Dr. Criswell, legendary pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. Dr. Criswell is remembered by many of us for his electric preaching style and frequently acknowledged as the greatest preacher of his generation. For the last four years of Dr. Criswell’s life, Jack Pogue took the iconic pastor into his own home and became his personal caretaker.

An interview with Mr. Pogue provided a personal and unique perspective on the life of Dr. Criswell. I believe you will find it both informative and inspiring.

By J. Gerald Harris

The Christian Index: What were the circumstances that led you to First Baptist Church of Dallas and to the ministry of W. A. Criswell?

Jack Pogue: I grew up in a very liberal church in another denomination in Sulphur Springs, TX, and when I moved to Dallas in 1965 I attended another liberal church. In all those years, I never heard a preacher preach a sermon from the Bible. Their sermons were always on the issues of the day, our responsibility to treat the “down and out” with love and respect, suggestions of current books to read, relevant movies to go see, and the need to be conversant with certain political issues.

A friend encouraged me to start reading the Bible and to begin praying every day. I had never done either. I started reading the Bible over and over from Genesis to Revelation. The more I read the Bible, the more I wanted to be in a church where the Bible was proclaimed with authority.

Finally, one Sunday after listening to another liberal message in the liberal church I was attending, I decided to go the very next Sunday to hear Dr. Criswell preach. I told no one I was going to hear Dr. Criswell preach.

W.A. Criswell served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX from 1944-1991. He was named pastor emeritus in 1994, a title he held until his death on Jan. 10, 2002.

Index: Your experience with liberal theology and your search for the truth was the experience of many in the 1960s and 70s. What was the result of your visit to Dallas’ First Baptist Church?

Jack Pogue: When Dr. Criswell got up to preach on that Sunday morning in November 1970, he said, “Before I introduce my sermon, I just want to say one thing to you dear people. As long as I have been your pastor for these 27 years, every sermon that you have heard me preach has been from the pages of this Holy Book; and I promise as long as I am your pastor, every sermon you will ever hear me preach will be from the pages of this sacred Book.

As he spoke he held the Bible above his head; and at that moment the Lord said to my heart, “This is the church I want you in and this is the pastor I want you to be under.”

Two or three months later I asked a dear friend, Jim Ray Smith, a deacon at First Baptist Church, to introduce me to Dr. Criswell. On Feb. 19, 1971 Jim introduced me to Dr. Criswell and when I shook the pastor’s hand I knew he and I were going to have a very special and close relationship.

Index: How did your relationship with Dr. Criswell develop and mature?

Jack Pogue: As the days and months passed, Dr. Criswell started using me as a member of the church to negotiate the purchase of all the properties that the church needed to buy in order to build a future sanctuary when he would no longer be the pastor of the church.

During all of the negotiations he and I became good friends. He gave me the opportunity to be involved in the work of the Lord and I assisted him in other facets of his ministry including Criswell College, Dallas Life Foundation, and the W.A. Criswell Foundation.

Index: To your recollection, what was the most inspiring, moving moment in Dr. Criswell’s ministry in Dallas?

Jack Pogue: On numerous occasions Dr. Criswell commented in his preaching that the most inspiring, moving moment in his ministry was when he preached a sermon entitled “The Scarlet Thread Through the Bible.” He started that sermon on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1961 at 7:00 p.m. and the message continued until after midnight on January 1, 1962. The church was jam packed from start to finish and even after midnight the pews were full and people were sitting in the aisles and along the walls of the sanctuary.

“W.A. Criswell: The authorized biography” by Billy Keith was published in 1973. GERALD HARRIS/Index

The Christian Index: What was Dr. Criswell’s greatest challenge as pastor of First Baptist Dallas?

Jack Pogue: I think his greatest challenge was when the church was $7 million in debt in the 1980s because of the Ross Avenue parking garage. Dr. Criswell called me one night absolutely in tears. He felt that God had given him the vision to build that garage, but he asked me to help him find a solution to this heavy financial burden that was on him and the church.

God was so very good to us; and we worked out a deal that only God Himself could have done. With God’s guidance we put a deal together that involved:

1.  Selling the air rights above the Ross Avenue parking garage for $7 million to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Lincoln Property Company.
2. We sold an option that we owned on the old YMCA property, which was across the street from the parking garage. We bought the other properties in that same block, including a street from the City of Dallas, and the old Baptist General Convention building. We ended up selling all those properties to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Lincoln Property Company – enough property for them to build a large office building.
3. We sold Metropolitan Life and Lincoln Property Company the rights to lease the 1106 parking spaces in the Ross Avenue parking garage. First Baptist has received all the parking revenues from the rental of those parking spaces since 1984 and will continue to receive that income forever.

The money that the church received from the sale of the air rights above the garage and the income from the rentals received on the parking spaces amounts to several times more than the original $7 million debit. All of this was done because of the vision God gave Dr. Criswell to build a garage and because God, through every day and month of these negotiations, led us step by step.

Index: What was the heartbeat, the focus of Dr. Criswell’s life?

Jack Pogue: The heartbeat of his life was preaching the Word of God and preaching that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God. He believed that through the wooing of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the Gospel, people of all ages would be won to Christ. He never failed to give an invitation. Always, his messages closed with an invitation to the young and old alike.

Another heartbeat of his life was encouraging young pastors. He would very often tell the young pastors that the best thing that God did for him was that for the first ten years of his ministry, the Lord let him pastor small country churches. He told them that during those years he learned how to prepare sermons, how to build a church, how to staff a church, and how to build a choir in those small village churches. He also encouraged those young pastors to look upon their assignment as a gift from God.

Businessman Jack Pogue, right, was a close friend of W.A. Criswell, the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. Because of his appreciation for Criswell’s expository preaching, Pogue established academic chairs in his name at four Southern Baptist seminaries. Photo courtesy of Jack Pogue

Index: How did Dr. Criswell prepare his sermons? What was involved in his preparation process?

Jack Pogue: Dr. Criswell studied four hours every single morning from 8 a.m.-12 noon, six days a week. He encouraged preachers everywhere to devote their mornings to God, to be expository preachers, and to bathe their sermons in prayer.

When he went to other churches and convention meetings, young pastors would come up to him and ask, “Dr. Criswell, when you get up on Monday morning after preaching Sunday night aren’t you concerned about what you are going to preach the next Sunday morning?”

The pastor would always reply, “No, I am not concerned. I know what I am going to preach on the next Sunday morning. It will be the next verse after the verse I preached on the Sunday night before. Where I leave off on Sunday night, I will start at the next verse the next Sunday morning.” And he encouraged those young preachers to study those morning hours, to be expository preachers, and to bathe their study and sermons in prayer.

Index: What was the most disappointing moment in his life or ministry?

Jack Pogue: I think the most disappointing thing he encountered in his ministry was the liberalism that was being taught in classrooms and preached from the pulpits across America. That concern motivated him to write the book Why I Preach that the Bible is Literally True. That is also why he preached that sermon “Whether We Live or Die” at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas in 1985. That book and that sermon were the driving forces behind The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention.

(A video of the sermon can be viewed here.)

Index: I have heard that the business meetings at First Baptist Church in Dallas were interesting. What characterized those business meetings?

Jack Pogue: Dr. Criswell would preside and he never took a “No” vote. He would present his vision and his plans for the church to the deacon body, and he would say, “All who are in agreement hold up your hands.” And then he would say, “That is all of us.” He absolutely never took a “No” vote.

Index: I believe he preached his last sermon at the Pastors’ Conference at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL. He preached his sermon on The Old Time Religion. It was a classic, but that was a tremendously significant moment for Dr. Criswell and those in attendance. Tell us about that sermon on that occasion.

Jack Pogue: What most people do not realize is that Dr. Criswell was very, very sick when he preached that sermon. I had just gotten him out of the hospital the day before after his having had two blood transfusions. He was unable to walk without assistance. I had to have a friend to help me get Dr. Criswell to the church that night. My friend and I got on each side of Dr. Criswell to hold him up; and we didn’t stop for anybody to talk to him or shake his hand or pat him on the shoulder. He was so sick that the night before and the morning and noon of the day he was preaching, he was unable to eat.

When he stood behind the pulpit to preach that night, he lowered his head and prayed that the Holy Spirit would give him the strength to preach that sermon. And then all of a sudden, looking up, he started preaching in a powerful voice. Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Jacksonville at the time, would tell you that was the greatest hour in the history of the church. It certainly showed me, and I believe everyone in the congregation, the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

In that sermon Dr. Criswell told about a young cowboy who had been crushed by a horse that reared up and fell backwards, crushing the cowboy’s body. That cowboy had been won to faith in Christ through a message from John 3:16. He asked Jake, the cook, to go get the boss man’s big black Book, and when the cook came back with the Bible, the young cowboy had Jake to open the Bible to John 3:16 and to place his finger on that passage. That is how the young cowboy wanted to die – with his finger on John 3:16.

Then Dr. Criswell said, “That is the way I want to be buried. I want to be buried with an open Bible on my chest.” At Dr. Criswell’s funeral the undertaker allowed me to put my Bible on Dr. Criswell’s chest, above his heart, opened to Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand forever.”

(Below is the first of four videos of the sermon on YouTube. For the sermon in its entirety visit the W.A. Criswell Sermon Library.)

Index: So, the sermon in Jacksonville was his last sermon. Did he ever mention preaching another sermon after that?

Jack Pogue: Two months before he went to be with the Lord, he wanted to preach one more sermon. I have a picture of him sitting at my breakfast table with his Bible before him, a notebook on the table, looking through a magnifying glass, his hand trembling, looking out of the side of his eye. He had macular degeneration in his eyes and he had to look out of the side of his eye.

Unfortunately, he never got to preach that sermon, but I believe the Lord Jesus took note of Dr. Criswell’s desire to preach “one more sermon.”

Index: I understand that Dr. Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist in Dallas during Dr. Criswell’s last days, came to your house to visit with Dr. Criswell prior to his death. Tell our readers about that visit.

Jack Pogue: Yes, Dr. Criswell lived at my home the last four years of his life. Since my bedrooms were all upstairs, he was too weak to get up those stairs, so I put a hospital bed in my den for him, and I slept in that den with him because he would have to get up all through the night.

Many, many times at night when he would go to sleep he would start preaching in his sleep. He would give an invitation for people to come down and give their lives to the Lord, saying, “If the Holy Spirit is moving in your heart, come. Today is the day of salvation.” I marveled at the fact that even in his sleep, Dr. Criswell had his heart and mind on Jesus, on the cross, and on lost people.

Criswell’s most famous sermon – The Old Time Religion – was made available on a 33 1/3 RMP record. GERALD HARRIS/Index

A few days before Dr. Criswell died he lost his ability to speak. Two days before Dr. Criswell died Mac Brunson came to see him. When I opened the door, I said, “Dr. Brunson, Dr. Criswell hasn’t said a word in ten or eleven days and he won’t be able to talk to you. He is asleep in a recliner in my den, but again, he will not be able to speak to you.”

Dr. Brunson said, “I don’t care, I want to see him.” We walked into the den and I awakened Dr. Criswell, and I said, “Dr. Criswell, Dr. Brunson is here to see you.”

And for the first time in those ten days, Dr. Criswell put a sentence together, and it was the last thing he ever said. He pulled his hand out from under the quilts, and in a weak and a very trembling voice, he said, “Oh, are you here for the revival?”

When he said that, I knew he had been dreaming and that in his sleep, and as he was dying, he still had his eyes and his heart on the cross, on Jesus, and on lost people. He never said another word. Two days later he went on to be with the Lord.

That, to me, tells the story of Dr. Criswell’s entire life. From the moment he accepted Christ as a ten year old boy to the moment he passed into eternity, he had his very soul and heart on Jesus, on the cross, and lost souls. I thank the Lord for letting me see that. It made a huge impact on my life.

One last thing – once on the way to the airport, I asked Dr. Criswell, “What is saving faith?” He said, “2 Timothy 1:12: ‘For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Dr. Criswell added, “Saving faith is a committing of my life, my soul, and my destiny to Jesus.”

The Christian Index: You were with Dr. Criswell in the last years of his life and I suppose at the moment of his death. What was that like?

Jack Pogue: Dr. Criswell died at my house on January 10, 2002 at 1:17 a. m. I was reading John 14:1-3 about God preparing a place for those who love Him and Philippians 2:5-11 about the matchless name of Jesus. I am absolutely convinced that either the Lord Jesus Himself or an angel came down to take Dr. Criswell to heaven.

For over two years Dr. Criswell had been unable to lift himself from a prone position to a sitting position in the bed in which he slept. All through that time when Dr. Criswell needed to get up, I would have to put my arm under his back and lift him to a sitting position. But the morning he died, as I finished reading the Bible, I looked up and he was in a sitting position on that bed.

I am convinced that it was either the Lord Himself or an angel that came down and got him.

To find out more about Dr. W. A. Criswell and to read transcripts of thousands of his sermons and also see videos and hear audios of his sermons visit The W.A. Criswell Sermon Library at: www.wacriswell.com

Large numbers of pastors and laymen alike visit this website every day and find amazing insights and inspiration for daily living and their Christian ministries.

Pogue concluded, “You know, a great majority of our Baptist preachers have never been to seminary and do not own libraries or even any research books. We get emails from preachers of the smaller churches who tell us that this sermon library website of Dr. Criswell’s is all the library that they need in preparing their sermons for their small congregations. We got one from a pastor in Moore, TN who said, ‘For me and my generation, Dr. Criswell is the north star of theology.’ Helping the pastors of these churches is something that Dr. Criswell always wanted to do and is now doing through his 4150 sermons.” 

It was noteworthy that one of Dr. Criswell’s quotes was on a banner at the Criswell Sermon Library booth at the Phoenix convention: “To lift Him up, to preach His name, and to invite souls to love Him and to follow Him – it is the highest, heavenliest privilege of human life.”

At left Linda Cooper, National WMU president from Bowling Green, KY, stands with Jackie Hardy, National WMU recording secretary. NATIONAL WMU/Special

SOCIAL CIRCLE — Jackie Hardy is an effervescent, animated, industrious woman who is investing much of her life in missions, prayer, and ministry.

At the recent annual meeting of the National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) in Phoenix, AZ, Jackie was elected as recording secretary for the national missionary organization that meets in conjunction with the annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jackie is the wife of Mike Hardy, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Social Circle.

The WMU presidents from each state or region where state conventions are combined serve as vice-presidents of the National WMU Executive Board. The additional officers of president and recording secretary are nominated and elected by that Board.

The official statement regarding the function of the Board is as follows: “The function of the WMU Executive Board is similar to that of most boards of non-profit organizations. They establish policies and make broad plans for WMU, SBC; elect our executive director and approve executive leadership; and advocate for missions involvement through WMU organizations and ministries in their area, among other responsibilities.”

Jackie explained, “I was blessed to have served as the president of Georgia WMU from 2013-2017. In January of 2017 I also served as the interim recording secretary for National WMU because the current recording secretary had resigned and couldn’t fulfill her term.

“At the recent annual meeting of National WMU, Linda Cooper of Bowling Green, KY was re-elected as the president and I was nominated and elected as the recording secretary. It is a one-year election, for up to five consecutive years.”

Critical role

As the missionary organization’s recording secretary, Jackie will work with the entity’s president and the National WMU staff to record the minutes of the General and Executive Board meetings, which occur in January in Birmingham and in June in the city that hosts the SBC annual meeting.

Jackie’s role is critical, because her accurate documentation of these meetings is essential to the recording of the historical events and conversations of National WMU.

Prior to being elected as recording secretary, Jackie served on the Georgia WMU Executive Board in several roles. She commented, “No matter the role, I have to admit my favorite part of serving is being in the churches with the women (and men and children) all over our state and seeing how they are making Christ known in their own communities and around the world.

“WMU has as its purpose ‘to lead believers to be radically involved in the mission of God.’ I am encouraged by the commitment of those all across our state who are part of learning, praying, giving, supporting, and participating in mission opportunities. There are far more than we will ever hear about or see reported in the media.”

A missions lifestyle

Beth Ann Williams, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s WMU and Women’s Ministry, expressed her confidence in Jackie’s new role in the National WMU by saying, “First and foremost, Jackie loves the Lord and seeks to follow Him.

“She is committed to a missions’ lifestyle and uses her creative abilities to show others how God is moving around the world. Jackie has a special charisma that has inspired and encouraged Georgia Baptist women during her service as Georgia WMU president.” 

The Christian Index commends Jackie Hardy for her election to this significant office with the National WMU and expresses thanks to God for her selfless service to His missionary enterprise.