COLLEGE STATION—Acknowledging the elephant in the room, speakers at the Encourager Conference agreed that seasons of discouragement in the pastorate are not a matter of “if,” but “when.” Even so, pastors and their wives can weather storms of doubt, conflict, criticism, and loneliness and experience fruitful ministry that brings glory to God.

“Last year, five pastor couples of the same heart felt like the Lord called us to provide an opportunity for pastors and wives to come and receive deep spiritual encouragement and equipping,” Northeast Houston Baptist Church pastor and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention president Nathan Lino told a crowd of pastors and wives.

The five couples included Lino and his wife, Nicole; Chris Osborne, pastor of Central Baptist Church in College Station, and his wife, Peggy; Matt Carter, pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church, and his wife, Jennifer; Kevin Ueckert, pastor of First Baptist Church in Georgetown, and his wife, Lynlee; and Josh Smith, pastor of MacArthur Blvd Baptist Church in Irving, and his wife, Andrea. The conference was hosted by Central Baptist in College Station with support from SBTC.

Ueckert opened the conference with a message from Mark 3:13-19, when Jesus called 12 men to follow him and preach the gospel. Ueckert wondered aloud about the ministry trajectory of the Apostle Andrew, who was one of the first to follow Jesus and introduced his brother Peter to Jesus but always seemed to be “on the outside looking in.”

Jesus gave Peter a new name, but not Andrew. Peter and the other pair of brothers, James & John, were part of Jesus’ inner circle, but not Andrew. Peter, James and John went up with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, but not Andrew; he and the other disciples were left in the valley, where they failed to cast out a demon.

If any of the disciples had reason to be resentful or discouraged, it would have been Andrew, Ueckert said.

“I don’t know what Andrew felt like, but I can imagine what I would feel like,” Ueckert admitted. “I can imagine what I have felt like when someone else got the position that I wanted and thought I was supposed to get, when somebody else’s situation sounded far better than my own, … (times when) I felt like I was in the valley while they were on the Mount of Transfiguration.”

Experiences like this can cause a pastor and his wife to feel “less than ordinary,” Ueckert said, but he explained that the Bible never reveals how Andrew felt about his position among the 12. And in the end, it doesn’t matter, Ueckert said, because Andrew had that same invitation and commission as his brother Peter and the rest of the disciples.

“Andrew received the same invitation and the same commission, but Andrew’s experience was unique to him because Jesus wanted him to be with him and to preach about Jesus. There was nobody in all the world that could do what Andrew could do by being with Jesus and preaching the gospel for Jesus.

“The encouragement we need this weekend is found in Christ. We need to realign our hearts with the reality that God has called us to be with him, and by being with him, we then preach the gospel. That’s what matters; that’s what makes life worth living; that’s what gives us the ability to walk through every moment of discouragement. Jesus wants you to be with him and to preach the good news to the piece of the world in which he’s placed you.”

The two-day conference, April 21-22, featured times of worship and teaching from God’s Word as well as breakout sessions to address specific topics. Friday evening breakouts were led by the five couples and addressed common struggles such as jealousy, resentment, loneliness, extraordinary personal trials, and maximizing the final years of ministry. Saturday morning offered a pastor wives session with national speaker and writer Susie Hawkins, while specific pastor breakout sessions gave best practices on preaching, handling criticism and conflicts, managing workflow, casting vision, and leaving well.

Osborne concluded the conference with a charge from Jeremiah 15:15-21, which he said helped him through one of his most difficult seasons of ministry. God’s Word and his ministry call can sustain pastors even in the darkest times, he said.

“You have to come to a place where the only thing that matters is discipleship, not church growth,” Osborne said. “You can disciple anywhere you are; it doesn’t matter what your church size is.”

Osborne warned against living in fear of criticism as well as living to hear praise. He challenged pastors to simply walk with the Lord in humility and fulfill their ministry.

“Ministry is hard, but Jesus is not,” Osborne said. “You stay with him, you win. You step away from him, you lose.”

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CANTON—SBTC disaster relief teams converged upon East Texas May 1, bringing spiritual encouragement in addition to chainsaws and tarping equipment to assist victims of six tornadoes that devastated parts of Van Zandt, Henderson and Rains counties the previous weekend.

SBTC DR chaplains in East Texas saw six professions of faith and made dozens of spiritual contacts and presentations of the gospel in the early days of the deployment.

Chaplains John and BJ Fuller didn’t have to travel far to respond to the emergency. They have lived between Canton and Grand Saline since 1992 and attend Crossroads Church, the site of the SBTC DR command center. The tornadoes hit close to home, affecting neighbors and friends.

John and BJ invited the TEXAN to ride along Tuesday, May 2, as they assessed damage, filled out work orders and shared the hope of Christ.

The Fullers’ road to involvement in DR came through their work in prison ministry were they met Darryl Cason, then SBTC director of chaplains, who asked them to attend the first SBTC DR chaplain training, BJ said.

The couple’s early joint deployments ranged from work as shelter chaplains for evacuees from Hurricane Ike to work in Tuscaloosa, Ala., following tornadoes.

“We do everything together,” BJ said.

As John drove along Van Zandt County Road 2318, he stopped the truck at a manufactured home. The homeowner, Todd Gamel, waved from the backyard as his wife, Peggy, walked onto the front porch.

“You don’t have a tree on your house, you have a tree through your house,” John humorously told Peggy after an initial visual inspection.

Inside, the Fullers saw an enormous tree trunk jutting through a gaping hole in the roof. Stepping over shredded insulation, BJ assessed the damage as the two couples chatted. The Gamels said they attend a local cowboy church.

“God smiled on us,” Todd remarked, explaining they were not home during the twister. BJ and John prayed with the couple and continued along VZCR 2318.

The Fullers stopped at an address supplied by a woman who earlier visited the command center. Her extended family sat in the yard beside a gray brick house, its red shutters still affixed to walls askew like so many toppled children’s blocks. The roof was a matchstick jumble of cracked rafters and joists.

BJ filled out a work order and talked to the homeowner before both Fullers prayed with the family.

The Fullers were next directed down the street to the home of Vicky Germany. Here the damage was minimal, and BJ noted a small tarp job as a top priority, with rain in the forecast. Germany explained neighbors had already repaired fencing to contain her cattle, chickens, hogs and goats.

Germany’s relative, a woman whose mobile home down the street was destroyed, told her story. The woman’s three children, ages 6-13, were in the trailer only moments before the tornado struck. Germany, a vendor at First Monday Trade Days, said she was huddled in the fairground’s restroom when her grandson rushed to bring the children to her brick home. The tornado hit four minutes later.

“I texted my mom and grandma, ‘I love you. I’m gonna die,’” said 10-year-old Elizabeth Ball, admitting she was screaming too loudly to hear the tornado.

A final stop down a nearby county road occurred when BJ spied Margie, a middle-aged Hispanic woman in T-shirt and jeans working in the yard beside a modest home. A massive tree blocked the doorway.

As they stopped the truck, BJ explained to Margie that DR chainsaw crews could remove the tree at no charge and offered to create a work order.

Margie told the Fullers she has three children, all in college. She said she loves God and knows she can pray directly to him.

John presented the gospel: “Me, you, the preacher, the Pope, we’ve all sinned. And the wages of sin is death.” Margie agreed.

BJ asked to pray for Margie, closing with, “Father I pray blessings on this family, on this home. We might not see each other again on this earth, but one day we rejoice that we will be with you.”

The Fullers’ counterparts, veteran DR chaplain assessors Wayne and Ann Barber, drove out Wednesday morning in search of victims to assist.

“We go where the Holy Spirit leads,” Wayne said.

The Barbers stopped along Highway 64 at the home of a man who said he sometimes attended church. The man and his wife were home during the tornado, which carried off his carport.

“It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to think,” he said.

“Can I ask you something personal? If you lost your life in this tornado, where would you spend eternity?” Wayne asked. This question led to a gospel presentation, and the man prayed to receive Christ.

Another stop took the Barbers to a damaged house where the homeowner gave Wayne permission to give her granddaughter a Bible.

Along a private road, they struck up a 30-minute conversation with a homeowner, a veteran recovering from a motorcycle accident who received a Bible, prayer and encouragement as he shared his story, adding, “I need a little help for this hard time.”

“We’re out here because we love Jesus and Jesus loves us. He loves you,” Wayne told him.

DR teams and chaplains will be rotating in and out over the next couple of weeks and currently have more than 40 volunteers on site in the areas of recovery, chaplaincy, assessments, shower/laundry, communications, and an incident management team.

For more information on how to give or volunteer, visit sbtexas.com/evangelism/disaster-relief/how-to-help.

PHOENIX Celebrating smaller membership churches in the Southern Baptist Convention is a key aspect of this year’s Pastors’ Conference. However, key leaders are calling for broad participation by pastors regardless of the size of their church.

“The core of the SBC has always been faithful men and women living out the Great Commission in local churches without the benefits of large platforms, big budgets or headline recognition,” J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., noted.

The Pastors’ Conference is slated June 11-12 prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, June 13-14 in the Phoenix Convention Center. The conference’s theme, “Above Every Name,” is taken from Philippians 2:9.

While the SBC has a number of large, prominent churches, nearly 90 percent of the convention’s 47,000 churches average 250 or less in worship, with pastors of smaller membership churches often underrepresented at events like the Pastors’ Conference.

This year will be different. An ethnically diverse group of speakers, all pastors of smaller to average-sized SBC churches, will share 12 expository messages from the book of Philippians. Leaders like Greear are joining the effort to acknowledge and encourage the work of smaller membership churches throughout the SBC.

Greear is joining current SBC president Steve Gaines as well as past SBC presidents Fred Luter and Johnny Hunt to promote attendance at the conference. Each of the men also will share a “common ground” testimony of how smaller membership churches shaped their lives and ministries. Luter will share his testimony during the Sunday evening session; Greear, Hunt and Gaines will share Monday morning, afternoon and evening, respectively.

“I was reared in [a smaller membership church] and served my first eight years of pastoral ministry in churches of less than 400 in weekly attendance,” Greear said. “Everything essential I needed to know about ministry I learned there—the power of the gospel, the primacy of prayer and the preeminence of the Word.

“I am excited to be with brothers and sisters from all across our convention in Phoenix this June as we re-examine those core principles of ministry that do not change, whether we serve in churches of 100 or 1,000,” Greear said.

Luter, pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, sees the Pastors’ Conference as a way to encourage younger pastors.

“I look forward to supporting and hearing these young pastors from across the SBC,” Luter said in written comments to Baptist Press. “I encourage messengers from all over to attend, pray for and be inspired by the sermons and the music.”

Luter’s common ground testimony will tell of his early ministry at Franklin Avenue. While the church has experienced exponential growth under Luter, it was an average-sized congregation with approximately 65 members, giving Luter firsthand knowledge of the challenges and joys of the smaller church pastorate.

First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., was not a large church when Johnny Hunt arrived as pastor. With about 200 members at the time, the church was only a little larger than the average Southern Baptist church. In fact, during his 40-year ministry career, Hunt has pastored only four churches. All were smaller membership churches when he arrived (35, 37, 90 and 200 members respectively).

“I’ve never really gone to a large church, but I have been part of seeing each church become healthy and as a result grow,” Hunt said. “I look forward to sharing my story of pastoring a small church that became vibrant.”

Contemporary hymn writers Keith & Kristyn Getty will lead worship through music at the Pastors’ Conference. For a complete list of speakers and more information, visit sbcpc.net.