Bonnie and I had a long day! There were three sessions of the Pastors' Conference today! Nonetheless, I must say that this was a wonderful day. There were a total of ten speakers at the conference today. I am not going to go into the detail that I did yesterday on the three that I listened to last night. Here is the list of the speakers that presented sermons for the day:
Monday Morning: What if we had the same love?
1. Mike Landry, Pastor of First Baptist Church Sarasota, FL.
Outline:
I. What does missions look like without love? Bottom Line: read the book of Jonah
II. How do we maintain missions and have "same love"?
A. View the Great Commission as a relational mission.
B. Know God Intimately
C. Value People
2. Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research and Interim Pastor of Hendersonville First Baptist Church.
Outline: from Ephesians 4:1-8
Main Point: God has already made us one, we just need to live it out.
I. Walk Worthy
II. Display Right Attitudes
A. Humilty
B. Gentleness
C. Patience
D. Accepting in Love
III. Live the Unity God has already Created
IV. One in Christ
3. Francis Chan, Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California
Did not get much of an outline from Pastor Chan, but he did an amazing job. Francis is a native of Hong Kong, China and is a pastor in California. I enjoyed his genuine, no-nonsense approach.
4. Tom Eliff - did not get to listen to his sermon. Bonnie and I went to eat lunch.
Afternoon Session - What if...we were One in Spirit?
1. Michael Catt, Pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA (the church that did Facing the Giants and Fireproof)
Michael did not have a full outline and he basically preached an encouragement sermon for young and old pastors alike. Good words.
2. Dennis Swanberg also spoke. He is a Christian Comedian and he was hilarious. He started off the bit by imitating Billy Graham and he sounded just like him! Swanberg has just written a book called, The Man Code.
3. Fred Luter, Pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Fred Luter is an African American pastor of a Southern Baptist Church and he was the highlight of the afternoon. He was ELECTRIC!!! Here is his outline:
What happens when we wait on HIS spirit? - Acts 1:8
A. You Become a New Person
B. You have a New Purpose
C. You will have a New Power
4. Mike Huckabee: everyone knows who he is. He spoke mainly about the roles of the family, the pastor, and government. He made the basic point through his speech that we are not to be like Abimilech in Judges 9.
Monday Evening: What if...we were one in Purpose?
1. Alvin Reid, Professor of Evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Outline: Tipping Points (Acts 19:8-10)
I. Relationships
II. The Gospel
III. The Future
IV. Relating to Culture
V. Defining Success
2. David Platt, Pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL.
David Platt, in my opinion, was by far the best preacher of the conference and he is only thirty years old and a pastor of a vibrant church in Alabama. David Platt told the conference that the one purpose for us is the GLORY OF GOD! His text was out of Hebrews 13:11-14. The major question that he offered was: Are we going to die in our religion, or are we going to die in our devotion? I simply stopped writing notes and sat down and listened to Platt preach the gospel. He really drove home the need for global missions awareness and the fact that the Gospel of Christ is on the march among the nations.
3. Johnny Hunt, Senior Pastor First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA. Johnny Hunt is the current and presumed re-elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention. I did not take notes on his speech, but it basically was an exegesis of Malachi and was a stirring sermon on being dependent upon the LORD.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the Pastor's Conference. Tomorrow, I am looking forward to the first day of the actual Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Tomorrow morning, it has been announced to my Seminary class that we will be asked to join the leaders of the convention on the platform of the annual meeting of the SBC for us future pastors, pastoral staff, missionaries, and denominational leaders to be prayed over by the convention. Since the convention is at Louisville, KY Southern Seminary, its leadership and students are being spotlighted.
Another neat feature of my involvement in the SBC is that each of the students of the Southern Seminary students, including myself, will have to serve as microphone monitors for the convention business sessions. My session will be on Wednesday morning and will be manning microphone 5. This means that we have the responsibility of manning the microphones and operating a digital microphone computer box that will indicate to the chair of the convetion (Johnny Hunt) what the person at the microphone will be doing (making a motion, speaking for or against the motion, making an amendment, and making a point of order). This is the first year that the microphones will be digitally connected to the platform and the system is simple, yet complicated (sort of like touch-screen voting machines). I anticipate that it might get complicated.
Tomorrow starts the convention. The proceedings will be on live streaming video online at this address:
http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc09/sbcam.asp?cat=home
The recognition of seminary students should be at 9:00am EDT (that is 8:00AM central).
No comments:
Post a Comment