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By Tony Martin Associate Editor
“Something for everyone” might be the term that best describes the 2010 Mississippi Baptist State Evangelism Conference, held Jan. 31 – Feb. 1 at First Church, Biloxi.
The event, sponsored by the Evangelism Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, kicked off Sunday night. Praise and worship was led by Michael Sharp along with the First Church choir and orchestra. Tony Merida, teaching pastor of Temple Church, Hattiesburg, brought the message. Merida was on the ministry-based faculty of New Orleans Seminary, served as the Dean of the Chapel at New Orleans, and was senior pastor at First Church, Kenner, La.
Merida preached again Monday morning following praise and worship led by Sharp. After a second time of praise and worship, the message was brought by Wayne Hudson. Hudson, Kosciusko, is president of the Council of Mississippi Baptist Evangelists. Preaching from Acts 4, Hudson stated, “If we have been with Jesus, it should be apparent that we have been with Him. It ought to be apparent that God is up to something that is bigger than you and me. And it ought to be apparent that I’ve got to tell about Him.”
Breakout sessions after lunch were led by P.J. Scott, whose conference dealt with connecting your church with your community; and Hudson and Ronnie Cottingham, vocational music evangelist from Lucedale, who dealt with the who, why, and the what of the vocational evangelist.
The first of three afternoon sessions began with Tamara Lowe of Get Motivated Seminars, Inc., Tampa, Fla. Lowe is recognized as one of the world’s most successful speakers and consultants, having trained more than two million people in seventy countries. Lowe, a former drug addict and dropout, is unabashed about sharing her faith. She discussed marketplace evangelism in her conference – how to motivate people to share their faith. “Everybody wants Jesus,” Lowe said. “The problem is that we’re not communicating effectively. The world has heard what we have to say, but they aren’t exactly crashing our party.” Lowe had conferees divide into pairs and practice sharing their testimonies, and offered some conversation starters that people might use in opening conversations about Christ.
Lowe was followed by Preston Nix, Associate Professor of Evangelism and Evangelistic Preaching, occupying the Roland Q. Leavell Chair of Evangelism, Director of the Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health, and Chairman of the Pastoral Ministries Division, New Orleans Seminary. Nix shared his testimony of having lost virtually all of his personal belongings during Hurricane Katrina – library, sermons, other personal belongings, and at about the same time almost losing his wife to meningitis while on a family trip. He spoke on the blessings of disaster, using Philippians 4 as his text. “Disaster can be a blessing when it drives you to depend more on the Lord,” Nix said. “You can trust God to give you what you need when you need it.”
Hank Hough and Kingdom Dog Ministries followed Nix. Hough, a Texan, used his Labrador retriever, Prophet, as a visual illustration of obedience to Christ. “Prophet is a missionary dog,” said Hough, tossing a rubber “bumper” into the crowd for Prophet to fetch. “He can find that which was lost.” At one point, Hough had the congregation try to distract Prophet and call him by name. Prophet only responded to Hough’s voice. “He recognizes his name,” said Hough, “but he only responds to his master’s voice.”
The conference closed with a message from Kevin Hamm, senior pastor of First Church, Gardendale, Ala. Hamm came from Valley View Church, Louisville, Ky., which grew during his nine-year tenure as pastor from 300 to 2700 weekly worshippers. Preaching from Acts 16, Hamm said, “Somehow we got the idea that if we could just get rid of the problems in the church, we’d have revival. But revival comes when Jesus shows up. He shows up in the midst of difficult times, when we get serious about God. God never chose for the church to be a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners … One of the reasons 85% of our churches are plateaued or dying is because we want people to come, but we want them to be just like us.”
The Mississippi Baptist State Evangelism Conference is supported annually by gifts to the Mississippi Cooperative Program. For more information on the work of the Evangelism Department, contact director Don Lum at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, P.O. Box 530, Jackson, MS 39205-0530. Telephone: (601) 292-3278 or toll-free outside Jackson (800) 748-1651, ext. 278. Email: jellis@mbcb.org.
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