I have such a wonderful opportunity serving with President Dave Miller at the SBC Pastor’s Conference. Yesterday, it was surreal to stand on the stage in the massive auditorium. The stage itself is about as big as our entire sanctuary. I’ve loved the opportunity to serve the SBC with these guys. My job has been on the social media side of things. I’ve been live blogging under the @SBCPastorsConf handle.
Things kicked off with music from the Getty’s. They’ve introduced a few new songs for us and they also provided a free concert at the end last night. It’s hard to get any better than the Getty’s when it comes to worshipping King Jesus.
The preaching started with a phenomenal message from Philippians 1:1-11 by David Choi. David encouraged us pastors to rest in Jesus instead of our own performance. For me the most encouraging and convicting thing was his call for us pastors to believe the gospel enough to truly open up our hearts to our congregations. It was a great reminder to my soul to not only preach the gospel to my own heart but also to believe and rest in this gospel. These sermons will be made available later and you’re going to want to listen to David’s message. (And the other messages as well).
John Onwuchekwa preached the second message on Philippians 1:12-26. His key point was that the gospel loves to advance through the road of adversity. The Spirit convicted me through this message of how much of my joy is actually tethered to circumstances. I’ve preached on this passage so many times before and my point was similar to John’s; namely, if our joy is tied to other stuff then it’s going to be fading but it is unstoppable if tied to gospel advancement. But John preached this text in such a way that the Spirit really awoke my hear to my need for deep grace in this area. I need the gospel to go so much deeper into my heart.
The night closed out with Chris Davis giving a bold message from Philippians 1:27-30. Chris reminded us that as evangelicals and Southern Baptists we are not primarily a voting bloc but sinners redeemed by Jesus. He spoke to many of the fears that we have in our changing cultural landscape here in America. But being spooked is evidence that we have our citizenship somewhere other than in heaven. Our citizenship in heaven frees us up to be bold. Chris closed by calling us to say over many of the things in our lives, “This is from God”.
So far this pastor’s conference has been unlike any of the others. I have been more deeply encouraged that in years past. So often I’ve only found a little bit of encouragement from a few of the speakers but so far every single one of these messages has been an encouragement. The coolest thing about this entire thing is the focus on Jesus.
The screen behind the speakers is a perfect picture of what this PC is about. When the text of Scripture comes up on the screen you can barely see the preacher. The Word of God is the only celebrity at this pastor’s conference…and it’s deeply encouraging this pastor.
