By Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Baptist Press hosted its Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting blog again this year, and — for the first time — sent out Twitter updates about the meeting.

The blog, dubbed “Instant News,” is available at www.bpnews.net/blog and provided readers the nuts and bolts of news about the meeting nearly instantly, seconds after events on the convention floor take place.

Additionally, the blog utilized Twitter this year. Subscribers to BP’s Twitter account (Twitter.com/baptistpress) received “Tweets” of the meeting’s highlights, such as the election of officers, the discussion over the proposed Great Commission Resurgence statement and the results of proposed resolutions. The Tweets provided only the highlights from the blog.

The blog and the Twitter account provided readers the basics of stories while Baptist Press’ reporters developed more in-depth reports.

“We have had great feedback from the first two years of the blog, and we believe the Twitter account provides readers another way to stay-up-to date in a timely way about the annual meeting,” said Will Hall, executive editor of Baptist Press.

Compiled by Michael Foust, an assistant editor of Baptist Press.

Samples of Twitter Entries during the SBC meeting

SBC annual meeting gaveled to close

June 24, 2009 – 9:24:00 PM

SBC President Johnny Hunt has gaveled the 2009 annual meeting to a close. Next year’s meeting will take place in Orlando, Fla. Read More…

Hammond: goal of every SBC church planting churches by 2020

June 24, 2009 – 9:21:00 PM

North American Mission Board President Geoff  Hammond concluded his moments ago and gave messengers an update on the God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) initiative, which has launched and has a goal of seeing every Southern Baptist church planting churches by 2020.

Read More…

Registration at 8,790; Ky. leads way with 1,597

June 24, 2009 – 7:25:00 PM

The registration total has reached 8,790, Registration Secretary Jim Wells reported minutes ago. Kentucky leads the way with 1,597 messengers, with Tennessee (805) and Georgia (730) second and third, respectively.

Read More…

Mac Brunson to preach 2010 convention sermon

June 24, 2009 – 7:18:00 PM

Messengers moments ago approved a recommendation from the Committee on Order of Business that Mac Brunson, senior pastor of First Church in Jacksonville, Fla., preach the 2010 convention sermon. Michael Catt, pastor of Sherwood (Ga.) Church, will serve as the alternate.

Read More…

By David R. Lema Jr.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Several hundred Hispanic pastors, missionaries and leaders gathered at the annual National Hispanic Celebration June 21 to celebrate church planting and evangelization — and chart new directions.

The evening’s focus — “Live with Urgency: Sowing Together for the Harvest!” — also served as the official launching for Hispanics of the North American Missions Board’s (NAMB) new evangelism initiative for North America, “God’s Plan for Sharing,” or GPS.

At Parkland Church, NAMB President Geoff Hammond welcomed the crowd in Spanish, “with a strong dose of Portuguese,” he laughed, reflecting his former missions work in Brazil.

“Together we can do a lot, sowing with urgency for the glory of God,” Hammond said, emphasizing that more than ever before, North America is a mission field. Hammond explained the basic framework of GPS, underscoring the need for Southern Baptists to sow the seeds of the Gospel into peoples’ lives in order to see a harvest of salvations.

Bob Sena, resource development and delivery coordinator in NAMB’s church planting group, presented new resources available to Hispanic leaders and church planters for their work across North America.

Noting that “never in our history have so many resources been made available in Spanish to facilitate the task of the Great Commission for Hispanic Christians,” Sena said Hispanic church leaders can access the resources online at www.gps2020.org.

“God bless our nation with a great revival — this has to be our prayer,” Sena said.

Johnny Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said in addressing the celebration, “You are part of the largest minority in our nation, and we are thankful for your involvement and support of Baptist work and in international missions as well.”

Manuel Jesus Tec, a church planter from San Diego, captivated the crowd with his harrowing story of survival after being kidnapped from Tijuana, Mexico, in October 2008.

Tec said he was deprived of food for 11 days as bandits demanded a $1 million ransom from his family.

“I knew thousands were praying for me, I could feel their prayers,” Tec said. “When I heard other prisoners being executed, I asked Jesus to come be with me. Immediately I sensed a presence next to me … [a] weight against my shoulder. I looked and saw no one and knew that Jesus was right there with me and He was not going to let me alone.”

Tec was released by the captors in poor health and weak. He was found in a ditch on the side of the road by police and returned to his family and given professional care. Soon, Tec, who also had been diagnosed with cancer, was back in church sharing his testimony and thanking the many people who prayed for him.

Rudy Gonzalez, dean of Southwestern Batpist Theological Seninary’s San Antonio center, delivered a sermon on “Sharing the Urgency of Ministry” based on Mark 1:9-34. “God wants that the message be told with urgency and thus communicate the passion of God for the lost person,” Gonzalez said.

Citing Acts 13:1-3, Gonzalez concluded by noting that “Paul and Barnabas were literally ‘released’ or more like ‘thrown out’ by the church. The attitude of the apostles was that they had been freed to do the work — they went out with urgency, like a horse ready to run. Urgency, above all, is a characteristic that does not lie about the task of true servants of Christ.”

Praise and worship for the celebration was provided by the family group Caballero, from Cornerstone Church, Windsor, Colo.

David Raul Lema Jr. is director of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Center for the Americas in Miami and a correspondent for Baptist Press.

By Tim Ellsworth

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–An absence of morality, not a lack of money, is responsible for many of the problems facing the United States, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told the 2009 Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference June 22 in Louisville, Ky.

Mike Huckabee, former Republican presidential candidate and host of "Huckabee" on the Fox News Channel, speaks June 22 at the afternoon session of the 2009 Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky. The theme of the Pastors' Conference is "What If? One Mind. One Love. One Spirit. One Purpose." Photo by Kent Harville.

“Wall Street did not melt down because it was a money problem,” Huckabee said. “It melted down because there was a moral problem, and it’s high time we address that what really is breaking this country is not a lack of money. It’s a lack of morality, and without righteousness and character our nation will perish.”

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and now host of a program on the FOX News Channel, compared the role of a politician to that of a pastor and said it’s important for such leaders not to amass power themselves, but to empower the people they are leading.

“We are creating an entire nation in which people are increasingly turning to a new god — the god of government — to do for us what we ought to be doing for ourselves, starting with raising our kids, taking care of our families and protecting and preserving life and the institutions of this great nation,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee used the story of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, in Judges 9 to warn about the dangers of concentrating too much power in the hands of too few. Abimelech was a power-hungry man who promised to simplify the lives of his followers. But instead, Abimelech killed 70 of his brothers.

Placing too much power in the hands of too few is a sure way to collapse an organization, Huckabee said, whether it is a church or a nation.

“It is not wise for pastors to believe that all of the power should rest solely in them,” Huckabee said. “The purpose of the pastor is not to retain power but to embolden and empower those to whom he is equipping, so that they will in fact do the work of the ministry.

“We today need to recognize that real leadership is not about bringing power to ourselves, but it is about bringing power to those that we are to serve.”

Huckabee acknowledged the challenges that come with serving as a pastor. He led a Southern Baptist church for 12 years before assuming public office, and told pastors he understood how difficult their work often is.

“The toughest politics I ever faced was not running for president or running for governor or lieutenant governor, it was being a pastor in a Southern Baptist church,” Huckabee said. “Folks, them are some tough politics out there if you’ve never experienced it.”

What’s often frustrating for pastors, Huckabee said, is not the enormity of their role, but the smallness of it. A pastor may believe he is leading a warship into battle, only to discover that the expectation of church members is for him to captain the love boat and make sure everyone is having a good time.

As in churches, Huckabee said Christians cannot afford the luxury of thinking small in the culture in which they live — because so much is on the line, starting with families. The family is the most basic unit of government that God ordained, Huckabee said, and that’s where government should begin.

“A mom and dad ought to be raising kids,” he said. “And they will always raise better kids than any nanny state or any government because it is God’s responsibility given to those parents to raise those kids.”

As the leaders in the home, Huckabee said the purpose of parents is to build independence in their children so they will self-govern and learn to make the right decisions on their own.

“Something is horribly amiss in which we are afraid to tell our kids that some things are always right and some things are always wrong,” Huckabee said. “Folks, the moral absolutes of this universe are critical if we’re going to have succeeding generations who can survive, thrive and pass on any semblance of human life.”

Huckabee also touched on several moral issues of the day, denouncing abortion and homosexual marriage, and he encouraged pastors and Christians to remain faithful in their work until the end — because no matter how world events play out, Huckabee said Christians have no reason to be timid or afraid.

“The Bible makes it very clear that the outcome is a good one — maybe not as we see it here, but in the end, Jesus wins,” Huckabee said. “And I’m willing to say that for those of us who will, standing with Him is never a mistake. Standing for what He stands for will never lead us wrong, and being who He calls us to be will never leave us embarrassed or ashamed.”

Tim Ellsworth is director of news and information at Union University.

By Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–On the second day of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville June 22, speakers exhorted pastors to lead with “One Love,” “One Spirit” and “One Purpose.”

Passionate, funny, pleading — speakers Mike Landry, Ed Stetzer, Francis Chan, Tom Elliff, Michael Catt, Fred Luter, Dennis Swanberg, Alvin Reid, David Platt, Johnny Hunt and Mike Huckabee (see related Baptist Press stories on Hunt and Huckabee) — referred to the Great Commission, tertiary issues, humility, and accountability.

Tom Elliff, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, pastor and International Mission Board vice president, shares a story of forgiveness in the relationship between him and his 90-year-old father, J.T. Elliff, who is standing behind him. Elliff spoke during the June 22 morning session of the SBC Pastors' Conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky. Photo by Van Payne

The pastors also elected officers for the 2010 Pastors’ Conference in Orlando, Fla.: Kevin Ezell, pastor of Highview Church in Louisville, Ky., president; Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of First Church, West Palm Beach, Fla., vice president; and Ben Mandrell, pastor of Englewood Church, Jackson, Tenn., secretary-treasurer.

ONE LOVE

Mike Landry, pastor of Sarasota (Fla.) Church, pointed to the Book of Jonah for a lesson on maintaining the same love of Christ the Apostle Paul mentioned in Philippians 2:2. A lack of love, Landry said, turns a Christian into a judge as displayed in Jonah, judging the people of Nineveh and desiring punishment for them more than reconciliation.

A lack of love also makes a Christian arrogant and proud. “Is your agenda more important than God’s agenda?” he asked.

The solution, Landry said, is to view the Great Commission as a relational mission as opposed to seeing it as a spiritual task on a to-do list. Enter the lives of people and make a difference in their relationships with God, he urged.

“What if at this convention we chose to ramp up our mission efforts by maintaining this same love? Do you know what I think would happen? I believe we would do, with abandon, whatever it takes to connect people to Jesus Christ,” Landry said.

“I believe we would see far more people come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. I believe we would find the team that’s called Southern Baptists to be far more effective working together to accomplish the Great Commission. And lastly I believe we would witness and experience a Great Commission resurgence.”

Preaching from Ephesians 4:1-6, Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, urged Southern Baptists to share a love-driven unity.

“God has already made us oneÖ . We just have to live it out,” Stetzer said. The decline in membership and baptisms in the SBC is “not a matter of debate; it’s a matter of math,” he said, calling Southern Baptists to set aside “tertiary” issues to join hands in ministry.

Stetzer encouraged pastors to “walk worthy, display right attitudes and live in the unity God has already created.” Walking worthy, he said, calls Christians to walk in who they already are in Christ. “God is not honored when there are divisions and factions among us,” he said.

Southern Baptists often are guilty of wrong attitudes that undermine the work of the Gospel, Stetzer said. If Southern Baptists followed the biblical mandate to consider others more important than themselves, “we would not be engaged in debates” about worship styles, methodologies and other issues.

“God is using all kinds of churches for His glory and honor, and we cannot and must not look down our noses at each other,” Stetzer said, closing with a call to repentance and renewed commitment to cooperate with others who share a common statement of faith.

Francis Chan, teaching pastor at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., said radical love for one another was a defining characteristic of the early church, and should be for Christians today.

“Here’s what’s supposed to happen when someone walks into a gathering of believers: An unbeliever who has never seen God should walk into a group of us as believers and see so much love amongst us that they actually see God there,” Chan said.

Chan recounted a time in his ministry when he was discouraged about the lack of power he saw in his church. Although it looked from the outside to be a growing congregation of thousands, he saw a vast divide between it and the church described in the Book of Acts.

That realization motivated Chan to temporarily step away from Cornerstone, re-evaluating the kind of church God wanted. When he returned, the leadership team moved forward with an emphasis on the church loving each other like family members. They began to look more at their collective identity in Christ.

“You used to not be a people group,” Chan told the pastors, referencing 1 Peter 2:9. “But the moment you got saved, you became this race. You became a priesthood. You became a holy nation. It’s not that you became an individual Christian, but you joined a group.”

Tom Elliff, a former pastor, SBC president and vice president of the International Mission Board, shared the power of forgiveness from the vantage point of personal experience. He told how he forgave his father, J.T. Elliff, a pastor who left his wife for another woman. Elliff called pastors to forgive those who have betrayed and wounded them in order for Christ to be exalted and their ministries to be more effective.

“An unforgiving spirit is like an acid that eats the container from the inside out,” Elliff said. “For you or for me to be unforgiving is the same as drinking poison and hoping the other person dies; we become the victim.”

Elliff said forgiveness is a matter of faith. “If you will not forgive, you are denying the truth that God is sufficient for you,” he said.

At the end of the morning session, conference attendees were given a free copy of Elliff’s book, “The Red Feather,” which tells the forgiveness story between Elliff and his father.

ONE SPIRIT

Michael Catt, widely known for his church’s work with Sherwood Pictures, which produced the movie “Fireproof,” shared his concern over the lack of respect between the older and younger generations of believers in the SBC.

The senior pastor of Sherwood Church in Albany, Ga., said the SBC stands at a seminal moment in its history.

“You and I need to care about the lost; listen more than we speak; pray more than we talk; groan more than we gossip; plead before God instead of pointing fingers; set an example for the next generation; stop burning bridges and start building them,” Catt said.

Catt said the current generation has modeled a lack of respect for authority and the older generation. Blogs are an example of this, he said.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants, and somebody paved the way before we got here,” Catt said.

Of younger people, he said, “I may not like what they dress in or the style of their music, but if they can get on their knees with me before Jesus and ask God to give us a heart for people and for Him … we can be of one spirit.”

Drawing from Acts 1:4-8, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Church in New Orleans, said early Christians “turned the world upside down” because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

“They were plain, ordinary people who did extraordinary things for the Kingdom of God,” Luter said passionately. “These plain, ordinary people were empowered by the Spirit of God.”

Luter said when believers wait on God’s Spirit they become new people, develop new purpose and receive new power. After Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples and followers showed new boldness as they shared the Gospel. They were new men and women with a new purpose, Luter said. They gave up their own agendas, and sharing Christ became their purpose.

“We can’t win the lost by ourselves,” Luter said. “We must be filled with His Spirit. We must be led by His Spirit.”

Combining humor with a prescription for healthy relationships, comedian Dennis Swanberg encouraged pastors during the afternoon session. His jokes focused on the close relationships that have shaped him, and he urged pastors to develop friendships and interpersonal relationships that lead to a balanced, fulfilling life.

Based on his book “The ManCode,” Swanberg told men their first priority is a one-on-one relationship with God, a principle he learned from his own father.

Men also need three close friends for accountability, he added, and a larger group of 12 friends with whom they can socialize or work toward a common goal. Swanberg used the number 120 to represent the local church, emphasizing “a man needs the church more than the church needs him.”

The final number in Swanberg’s code is 3,000, which refers to the number of people saved on the Day of Pentecost, and the impact a man can have on his community when he is seeking to serve and be in relationship with people around him.

ONE PURPOSE

Alvin Reid, professor of evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the Southern Baptist Convention is far too comfortable in a world racing toward hell.

Reid said the convention has reached a tipping point from which it cannot go back, but instead, must move forward for the sake of the Gospel. He said the SBC has “tipped” in how it views relationships, the Gospel, the future, the culture and success. Instead of seeing people as numbers and money as the goal, Reid said the thinking must be turned around so that people being saved is the goal.

“When we put anything above the Gospel we are in error,” Reid said.

David Platt, lead pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., preached from Hebrews 13, a text he said demands readers to answer the question: “Are we going to die in our religion or are we going to die in our devotion?”

“This is a question God’s people have had to face throughout history,” Platt said. “I believe this is the question the people in the Book of Hebrews were facing, and this is the central question facing the church today.”

Platt said Christians today, like the original recipients of the Book of Hebrews, have two options: They can retreat from the mission God has given them or they can risk everything for it.

“There is so little risk for the mission. We have retreated into our nice, big buildings where we sit in our nice, cushioned chairs … where we are insulated and isolated from the inner city and the spiritual lostness of the world. We can either retreat from the mission of declaring the glory of Christ to all nations into a land of religious formalism or we can risk everything for the mission.

“Let’s risk it all.”

Platt recounted stories of believers worshipping and teaching in underground churches in Asia, noting the hunger of believers there to learn the Word of God.

“They have gotten the idea that the Word of God and the Spirit of God are enough to accomplish the mission of God, and they are right,” Platte said.

Compiled by Gary D. Myers of New Orleans Baptist Theological and Keith Collier of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, with reporting by Erin Roach and Mark Kelly, Baptist Press; Rob Phillips, LifeWay Christian Resources; Meredith Day, North American Mission Board; Shannon Baker, Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware; Lauren Crane, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Garrett Wishall, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

By Jerry Pierce

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Encouraged by attendance exceeding 8,600 registered messengers on the first day of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 23 — twice as many as he expected — SBC President Johnny Hunt said there is a “sense of urgency” among the brethren.

Hunt attributed much of the interest at this year’s meeting to his Great Commission Resurgence initiative. In a news conference following his re-election to a second term, he also addressed questions ranging from his opinion of controversial Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll to his view of Calvinism among Southern Baptists.

“I feel there’s a lot of energy in the halls,” said Hunt, pastor of Atlanta-area First Church in Woodstock. “Everybody’s talking the same talk: ‘We need this Great Commission Resurgence.’

“We are saying times have been desperate,” Hunt added. “Now I really do sense fellow Southern Baptists are saying we need to get serious.”

Asked about Driscoll, Hunt responded: “I don’t know him, never met him. A lot of young men like to follow his blogs and podcasts. It’s just been interesting.”

Referring to motions from the floor placing Driscoll and the network he founded, Acts 29, in a bad light, Hunt said, “he entire premise of being a Baptist is sort of thrown under the bus when you start telling someone who they can or cannot fellowship with.” He said it is a matter that it should be left to the conscience and the priesthood of the believer.

About church methodology, Hunt said the SBC is a “great family fellowship” using varied methodologies which provide a healthy balance.

Hunt said it might be that some of the perceived tension across generations of Southern Baptists is rooted in several things, including methodology, dress and music.

Encouraged by what he said is the turnout of younger Southern Baptists, Hunt said, “f we can move beyond our perceptions” and begin to “listen to heart of some of these young leaders,” Southern Baptists might be encouraged “to catch their passion.”

Hunt relayed his experience at a recent International Mission Board appointment service in Denver where 101 mostly young missionaries were sent out, with the “majority going to extremely hard and dangerous places.”

“With that type of commitment to Jesus Christ that they’re willing, many of them, to write their will before they leave with the understanding some of them will probably never return, I have a very difficult time spending my time talking about their jeans, whether hair is spiked or colored” or their musical tastes, Hunt said.

By building relationships with younger leaders, “if we see some areas of concern, at least we have earned the right to speak into them.”

On the continuing banter between Calvinists and those critical of the doctrine that attempts to describe God’s work in salvation, Hunt said the debate has raged for more than 400 years and is part of Baptist history.

“We have wonderful men and women on both sides. I think the Baptist tent is large enough for both,” he said.

Asked by a reporter if an invitation was made for President Barack Obama to address the SBC, Hunt said he knew of no such invitation.

But Hunt, the first known Native American SBC president, said, “I feel like we will have a resolution to really honor our president, especially in the context of being the first African American to be elected. We have much to celebrate in that.”

Hunt said he had ample opportunity to invite Republicans to speak, “but we felt that would send a wrong signal because we wanted to send prayer support to the new president and we are mandated to pray for our president.”

Speaking to proposed federal hate crimes legislation that some say could infringe on biblical preaching, Hunt said he was not overly worried as long as pastors “stay in the context of preaching biblical truth. And if the day comes that we would be imprisoned for the proclamation of the Gospel becoming that much of an offense, we would join about two-thirds of the rest of the planet.

“God forbid that I would travel to the Middle East to encourage those already in hostile settings while at same time being afraid to proclaim the message that I encourage,” Hunt said.

Returning to the Great Commission Resurgence, Hunt answered a question regarding media access to the meetings of the proposed GCR task force. He said media presence would be “counterproductive because we want people to be at liberty to share their heart.”

It could be “embarrassing where we’re just seeking wisdom,” Hunt added, “but we would love to have any and all of you at the meetings and as soon as it is over we’d be delighted to share what we came to by way of context.”

Hunt said he has “no desire whatsoever to touch the structure of the SBC and the truth is, I couldn’t if I wanted to. It would violate policy.” Hunt said perhaps more clarity in his early statements about the GCR document could have helped ease fears of drastic change.

Even if the GCR task force were rejected, traction already has been gained by efficiency studies at the Georgia and Florida conventions and at the Southern Baptist mission boards, Hunt said.

In responding to the first question asked at the news conference, Hunt predicted if the GCR were to pass that evening, he likely would name the members of the task force June 24 and it would include several seminary professors, a college president, an associational director of missions, pastors of churches of varied sizes spanning the country and ethnically diverse members.

“I don’t have all the names so I’d probably miss some,” Hunt said. “But I’d be quick to say it will be a very fair committee.”

Jerry Pierce is managing editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN, newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. With additional reporting by Tammi Reed Ledbetter, TEXAN news editor.

By Tammi Reed Ledbetter

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–”Getting serious doesn’t mean you adopt something,” Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt said in his presidential message June 23 at the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky.

Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., delivers the presidential address the morning of June 23, during the first session of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, being held at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville, Ky. Photo by Baptist Press.

Anticipating discussion on his call for a task force to study how Southern Baptists can more effectively serve Christ through the Great Commission, Hunt asked pastors to recognize “there’s gold in them there pews,” and to gain a vision for what God’s people can do if yielded to Him.

“Talk is cheap. So we’re not here to get anything adopted,” Hunt insisted during the SBC’s opening session. Instead, he said, “It’s about all of us starting with the local church,  taking a look to see if we’re doing the best we’ve ever done in our lifetime to fulfill the Great Commission.”

Hunt, pastor of the Atlanta-area First Church in Woodstock, expressed gratitude to God for “men of wisdom” who offered advice following his April 27 release of a Great Commission Resurgence document. “I take to heart so much you shared with me,” he said, referring to input from seminary presidents, the SBC Executive Committee president, state convention executive directors and leading pastors.

“When it comes right down to it, you have to get on your face before Almighty God and ask, ‘What in the world am I doing in attempting to lead this convention for such a time as this? Is there an assignment from heaven that God has placed me here ?’” Hunt said.

With that mandate in mind, Hunt delivered an exposition of 2 Chronicles 7, weaving into his address key questions he said pastors and laymen should ask themselves about their ministries and mission.

Hunt pled for a Great Commission resurgence that begins in the pulpits of more than 44,000 local Southern Baptist churches and filters through local associations, state conventions and national entities to reach the world for Christ.

“We will have to give an account for what we have done with what God has given us,” Hunt said in laying out the challenge for every Christian.

Reminding messengers of God’s promise to hear the prayers of believers as noted in verse 12, Hunt appealed for perception that moves Christian believers to compassion.

“God uses external events to bring His own dear people to the point of humility and remind us that He has sovereign control over our lives,” Hunt added, citing verse 13 as an example.

Convinced God can use economic turmoil to get the attention of Christians, Hunt asked, “Have the financial surpluses of yesteryear caused us to act unfaithfully? Has the declining health in America become an indication that we have lost self-control and that we have been given over to greed and gluttony?”

Hunt, recounting God’s provision when believers humble themselves and call upon His name, acknowledged he must keep his own temper in check.

“I flat need Jesus, every hour, every moment. The only thing worse than pride is being prideful and not knowing it,” Hunt said.

Citing the 13-year-old who won the National Spelling Bee when given the word “Laodicean,” Hunt said much of America could not define a word drawn from the biblical context of Revelation 3:15 to describe someone who is lukewarm and indifferent. “America has not heard of the word Laodicean, but I’m afraid the church has not perceived . There’s a vision problem.”

When asked how First Woodstock is doing, Hunt said he might be tempted to compare his church to others in the local Baptist association. “That’s not the standard. How’s the SBC? Well, compared to other denominations ‘we’re rich, we have increase, we have need of nothing,’” he answered, parroting the excuse of Laodiceans cited in Revelation 3:17.

Proper perception must be discovered by way of Jesus’ depiction of the “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked,” Hunt said, rather than merely comparing one’s condition with that of others who appear to be in worse shape.

“You can walk to the pulpit, you can lead music, you can teach a Sunday School class and the attitude is, ‘I have been there and done that.’ There’s no tear in your eye, no fire in your soul, no anticipation after delivery. We don’t preach intentionally. We challenge the people, and  go home and forget what we preached just as quickly as they do,” Hunt said.

“I’m of a deep conviction that one of the greatest needs in the pulpits of America is more emulation of the truth of Almighty God to match the exhortation and proclamation of the Almighty God’s Word,” Hunt continued. “One of the greatest statements that can be made about someone who is in a place of leadership is that they are the same out of the pulpit as they are in the pulpit.”

Hunt reminded the audience of Jesus’ provision of “gold refined in the fire,” recognizing God may use suffering to cause His people to examine their position and priorities. Once that responsibility has been recovered, God expects a response, Hunt said, returning to the appeal of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to pray, seek God and turn from wicked ways before rejoicing in revival.

“I really do believe we need revival in the Southern Baptist Convention, in our churches, in the hearts of our leaders, starting with your president. It’s what I’ve been praying for,” Hunt said, having joined with other friends by fasting in order to seek God’s will.

“If God were to break the hearts of us, the pastors, and we were to stand behind the sacred desk and realize there’s gold in them there pews, it’s amazing  God’s people will rise up and take a challenge,” Hunt said. Instead of seeking a program to follow, Southern Baptists long for a vision to embrace that will draw all of the nations to honor God, he said.

Sharing his view that urges a movement beginning with believers in the local church and moving to SBC entities and reaching full potential in the Kingdom of God, Hunt urged Southern Baptists to answer four questions:

– “What if every individual took a close look to see if we are doing the best we can do with all He has given us?

– “What if every pastor, regardless of the size of his church, saw his church as a missionary-sending unit?

– “What if every pastor saw his church as a church-planting church?

– “What if we all did our best to reach the ‘lostness’ of our world?”

Hunt said his own church had increased Cooperative Program giving 13 percent in two years at a time when their budget remained flat. “It’s the right thing to do and all of us ought to do more,” Hunt said, describing Southern Baptists as having “a vision problem” rather than “a money problem.”

“If we commit greater amounts to reaching the nations, church planting in America and intentional evangelism in this nation, the Cooperative Program will rise in such a way that we will think it was a Cooperative Program resurgence instead of a Great Commission Resurgence,” Hunt said.

Tammi Ledbetter is news editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN, newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.