Word of God can transform the world, speakers tell African-American conference

DESOTO—The Bible provides words that can transform individuals and—in turn—the world, speakers told worshippers during the African-American Fellowship of Texas Conference.

The Bible’s teachings can make an impact on lives if people allow them to, featured speakers said. They can penetrate hearts, changing them for God. Transformation takes place as a result of the immense love God shows each person.

No manmade creation deserves the “eighth wonder of world” designation as much as the simple truth that a holy God loves sinful mankind, said Gaylon Clark, pastor of Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church in Austin.

Clark drew his message from a passage in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus’ disciples stood amazed at the ability he had granted them to cast out evil spirits in his name, but Christ told them they should instead rejoice in the fact that their names were written in heaven.

The greatest wonder in the world, the greatest miracle of all and the greatest reason for rejoicing is that human beings can enter into a relationship with a God who loves and accepts them, Clark stressed.

“The greatest miracle is not that God uses us but that God wants us,” he said. “The greatest miracle is not that demons run from us but that the Father ran to us. The greatest blessing is not the resources but the relationship.”

John Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, and his wife, Evelyn, noted the salvation the Bible teaches about not only transforms a person’s thoughts and deeds, but also saves families.

Families are falling away from Christianity, Evelyn Ogletree said, and into moral failure.

“Our homes have been in a spiritual recession for some time,” she said.

African-American Fellowship President John Ogletree of Houston addresses the fellowship conference in DeSoto.

John Ogletree prescribed a cure for the ailment—salvation through Jesus Christ. As a result of a relationship with Christ, people follow biblical teachings and lead their families to do likewise.

“Salvation doesn’t just come to the church,” he said. “It comes to the home.”

If people will allow themselves to be transformed by God’s word, their impact can reach far beyond their families, said Denny Davis, pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Grand Prairie. They can change the world a person at a time.

The church is meant to serve as a “change agent” in the world, the pastor said. Through God’s power, it can expand his kingdom around the globe, transforming lives as it moves.

“If transformation is going to take place, it’s going to come as a result of the church taking its proper place in the world,” Davis said.

During the James W. Culp Banquet, Louisiana Baptist Convention Pastoral Leadership Team Director Bill Robertson said he has seen the church transform a community.

In 2006, nooses were hung from a tree on the high school campus of Jena, La. Shortly after, six African-American students beat a white student. The trial that followed sparked international media interest, as well as a large protest that drew the world’s attention to the apparent racial tension in the town.

Participants in the African American Fellowship Conference worship during one of the sessions.

After the trial and media coverage ended, Robertson and Jimmy Ray Young, pastor of L&A Baptist Church in Jena, La., said God transformed the community. Congregations held nine weeks of revival services, and the community was brought together.

African-Americans attended largely Anglo churches. Anglos attended overwhelmingly African-American congregations. At one point, more than 1,000 people in a town of 3,000 gathered for a service.

People put aside their differences, forgave each other and embraced. Twenty-nine white men tore down the dilapidated fellowship hall of an African-American church and rebuilt it in one day. The town became unified, Robert-son said.

“God did miracles like that week after week,” he said.

Throughout, crime went down, Robertson said. Calls to the police decreased. Har-mony increased. If the rest of the nation would allow God to work in their lives as the people of Jena, La. did for nine weeks, the country could be transformed, he em-phasized.