Pastors' Conference hears Falwell plus younger preachers
___By Charlie Warren
___Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine
___NEW ORLEANS--"It is amazing what God can do with one visionary person who is not at all interested in Harris or Gallup polls, who is not interested in being popular, who is interested only in being faithful," Jerry Falwell told the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference June 11.
___Falwell, the former independent pastor who led his Virginia church to affiliate with the
Southern Baptist Convention in recent years, urged his fellow pastors to become anointed visionaries who will "ask God to double our denomination."
___The only way to change the world is through vision, "the difference between mediocrity and brilliance," Falwell said.
___He explained that his vision in founding Thomas Road Baptist Church was based on claiming Lynchburg, Va., for Christ.
___"Claim your city for Christ and spend your life going out to capture it for him," Falwell urged the pastors. "Ask him for the whole city. Ask him for everybody in it. Ask him for the counties around it."
___Falwell's message on vision fit the overarching theme of the June 10-11 Pastors' Conference. Every speaker addressed the urgency of evangelism. The conference theme was "Until He Comes, Go."
___Evangelist Bailey Smith warned the crowd that even Southern Baptist churches are full of people who never have had a genuine saving encounter with Jesus Christ. Preaching from Matthew 13, Smith spoke of Jesus' parable of the tares among the wheat.
___It is possible even for pastors to be unsaved without realizing it, he warned.
___Smith closed with an invitation urging those in the Pastors' Conference audience to ask the Holy Spirit to convict them if they never had truly professed faith in Christ. About 30 people responded to the invitation.
___In addition to Falwell and Smith, the Pastors' Conference featured a number of lesser-known preachers from across the nation, including several younger pastors and evangelists.
___One of those was Dan Spencer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Thomasville, Ga., and son of Pastors' Conference President Jerry Spencer.
___"God is calling out people today to have the boldness of John the Baptist," Spencer said as he preached from the third chapter of Luke.
___Another was Texas native Rick Gage, who is an evangelist.
___Evangelism is best done as Christians work together, he said."I've seen with my own eyes the unlimited potential we have for winning the world for Christ. Yet our greatest need is for us to go together, with a broken heart and a passion to reach those who do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ."
___Ernest Easley, pastor of First Baptist Church of Odessa, told the pastors to "go courageously."
___He compared his own battle with cancer to the Old Testament king Hezekiah's illness and near death.
___Like Hezekiah, he has learned to maximize his time to honor God, Easley said.
___Easley had cancer of the tonsils that had moved to his lymph nodes. Through 44 radiation treatments, he lost about 50 pounds because he could not swallow due to ulcers on his tongue. He was tube fed. He also lost his ability to taste, almost lost his voice and experienced some nerve damage.
___Now, however, his voice is restored and he has been declared cancer free.
___"God taught me the greatest opportunity for bringing glory to God is during the crises of life," Easley said. "When the storms come, you praise God from whom all blessings flow."
___He asked what Southern Baptists would do if God said only 15 years remained. "Would our priority be winning souls?" he asked. "We have become an issue-driven convention rather than a soul-winning convention while people are dying by the thousands without Christ."
___Ken Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., was elected president of the Pastors' Conference by acclamation. Michael Claunch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Slidell, La., was elected vice president. Charles West, pastor of First Baptist Church of Bethalto, Ill., was elected secretary.
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