Author: Russell Lightner

Please, Lord—do it again!

Iam a contributing author for an upcoming book dedicated to my Ph.D. supervisor, Malcom McDow. I was asked to write a chapter based on my dissertation on the ministry of Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) during the Second Great Awakening. God used McDow in wonderful ways in my life while I was a student at Southwestern Seminary.

I understand that many are not fans of Finney. I certainly do not agree with many points of his theology and offered a critique in my dissertation. However, I greatly appreciate Finney’s love for the lost and his ministry to preach the gospel.

In 1830, Finney preached perhaps his most effective and memorable revival, which was held in Rochester, N.Y. He returned in 1842 and God blessed yet again. Many were converted to Christ, including many leading citizens of the city. One of them was a man by the name of Judge Addison Gardiner. While Finney was preaching, Gardiner left his seat and Finney thought he was going home. To his surprise, the judge walked up the stairs to the pulpit and asked Finney to pray for him. Finney told the church the judge’s decision, and then spontaneously, without Finney asking them, many lawyers in the crowd arose and came forward. Finney asked if there were others who were ready to repent and surrender their lives to Jesus. To use Finney’s words, there was a “mighty movement.”

“Let’s share Jesus today with someone who does not know Him.”

Danny Forshee Tweet

Finney’s most memorable revival in England (1850) was held in London at the Whitefield Tabernacle, built in 1753 for the powerful evangelist of the First Great Awakening, George Whitefield. Finney preached for nine months at this church: twice on Sundays and once Tuesday through Friday evenings. On Mondays, they held a prayer service. The result of the revival was described as “little short of remarkable.” Finney asked Pastor John Campbell if he could conduct an inquiry meeting for those interested in salvation. Campbell was hesitant, fearing no one would attend the meetings.

Finally, Campbell agreed to allow the meeting but informed Finney he could only use the infant room, which held around 40 people. Finney protested and said the meeting space was too small and requested to use the British school adjacent to the church. Campbell laughed at Finney and told him the school held up to 1,600 people.

After Finney preached a short sermon in the evening, he informed the people they could either stay in the church and have communion or proceed to the inquiry meeting next door. Campbell was astonished when 1,500-1,600 people filled up the school. On one occasion during this revival, 2,000 people stood during the invitation.

When I read of God’s miraculous works in the past, I cry out to Him, “Please, Lord—do it again!” May God stir our hearts to share both personally and publicly the saving message of Jesus Christ. If we are faithful to proclaim the gospel, I know God will do what only He can do—save the lost. Let’s share Jesus today with someone who does not know Him.

Iron Sharpening Iron

Calvary Pampa’s disciple-making process offers a pathway for members to walk closer with Jesus—and each other

There’s getting into the word of God, and then there’s letting the Word of God get into you.

That phrase is often spoken by Robby Gallaty, a Southern Baptist pastor in Tennessee who has developed a disciple-making method used worldwide. Calvary Baptist Church in Pampa has adapted Gallaty’s method and is seeing lives changed as its members take a deeper dive into the Bible through its own D3 disciple-making process.

“What I really find is most people in the church have a great desire to learn or study Scripture but don’t know where to start,” said Paul Beam, who has served as Calvary Pampa’s lead pastor since 2017. “D3 gives people that opportunity to meet with others and to find that starting point for a closer walk with Jesus.”

Calvary’s D3 process begins with a leader who chooses up to three others of the same gender to join him or her for a weekly discussion of the Bible. Participants sign a covenant to be an active participant for the dura- tion of the study.

Each week, participants study one chapter of the Bible per day for five days, read one chapter of a discipleship book, and memorize one passage of Scripture. They use a journal to make notes about what they’ve studied and how they have applied it to their lives.

The weekly sessions provide a time for encouragement through Scripture memory, transparent discussions, and accountability.

Calvary Pampa’s D3 disciple-making process groups believers by gender. These groups read, study, and memorize Scripture and journal about how God’s truths apply to their lives. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

“What I really find is most people in the church have a great desire to learn or study Scripture but don’t know where to start.”

Paul Beam Tweet

“We need each other,” said Kevin Costley, a Calvary Pampa member for 13 years. “We weren’t created to make this journey alone D3 prepares us through God’s

Word to be true Christians, the way Jesus was with His disciples and the same way He discipled. I think it’s one of the best things the church has ever done.”

Since 2021, 60 people from the church have participated in D3. When the study is complete, participants are encouraged to start a group of their own.

Jennifer Puryear, a member of Calvary Pampa for about 17 years, is among those who have graduated from D3 participant to group leader. She said she has been encouraged by the fact the program relies on participants becoming more skilled at handling the Word of God for themselves.

“It’s always good to read the Bible, of course, but D3 helps you read through the whole story,” Puryear said. “You look at the verses more, and depending on what we’re going through or our season in life, different verses appeal to us.”

After participating in a D3 group, David Land, a member of Calvary Pampa for eight years, now leads two other men in a group. Land said D3 has helped him continue to grow in many ways, including through his prayer life, his ability to share the gospel, in leading his family, and at church.

“For anybody who has reservations about doing a dis- cipleship program, it’s basically just studying the Word and doing life with your brothers,” Land said.

Costley agreed.

“When you get together with other Christians, you can see how they handle Scripture and how they’ve handled whatever they’ve gone through,” Costley said. “As we read Scripture, we talk about how we use that Scripture in our daily lives. We may apply it differently. As I hear about guys with the same struggles I have, I learn from them what they learned from Scripture.”

Beam is encouraged with the results he’s seen since Calvary Pampa started D3 and dreams about what it could mean for the community.

“We did the math,” Beam said. “Over 10 years we could reach the entire city of Pampa. I’m optimistic and yet realistic. Even though we might not reach everyone, if we are faithful, we’ll develop a large number of disciples for the kingdom.”

Staying true to the mission

Through personal outreach and online connections, FBC New Braunfels keeps its focus on Jesus in historic setting

There may have been very little Southern Baptist influence when New Braunfels was settled predominantly by Germans in 1845. But for the past century, First Baptist Church has been a beacon, preaching the gospel and ministering in Jesus’ name.

Situated in the booming corridor between Austin and San Antonio, the congregation has seen church plants descend on the area with modern worship and new methods of reaching younger generations, but FBC New Braunfels hasn’t forgotten its identity.

“One of the things that I’ve tried to lead us in is remembering who we are as a church,” Pastor Brad McLean said. “That doesn’t need to change even though more church plants are coming in.”

FBC New Braunfels continues to preach the Word faithfully and God continues to bring new people of all ages to join the work regularly. One way the church has been able to reach families lately is by hosting Family Adventure Club on Wednesday nights to disciple parents along with children.

“We really wanted to connect with parents, as well, not just have a drop-off situation,” said McLean, the church’s pastor since 2007. “We wanted to engage entire families.”

The idea is for parents and children to have biblical discussions on the way home from church and to foster conversation around the dinner table, he said. They’ve employed the same concept with Vacation Bible School, offering discipleship for parents to make better use of the time.

With 400-450 people attending services each Sunday, it was a display of unity in 2019 when the church voted to move locations in response to the city’s growth. “We are in a neighborhood centrally located in the downtown area,” McLean said. “With that comes parking issues and other constrictions being landlocked.”

Somehow, though, it didn’t work out. “The Lord just made clear that another decision needed to be made,” the pastor said.

A few months later, COVID shut down everything and church members saw that God had protected them. “We would have been saddled with paying off land,” McLean noted.

Instead, FBC New Braunfels took a significant step into the digital world, hiring a communications director and learning to make the most of the online space where people often go first to find a church.

“Through that, especially through COVID as we began to put sermons online, we had many people visit us and say it was their first time, but they’d been listening for months,” McLean said. “We had a family that moved from Minnesota who joined a small group here while they still lived in Minnesota. They were able to do that on Zoom.”

The enhanced digital focus “has helped us tremendously because it has allowed us to better communicate who we are as a church—what our convictions are, what our values are.

“As folks have engaged with us online, I believe that commitment is already further down the road by the time they step into the church facility because there’s a sense of already knowing us and knowing who we are. They’re just coming to engage in person,” he said.

As far as local ministry, FBC New Braunfels has a Restoring Hope Boutique where it provides clothing to people in need.

“We’ve helped many, many folks who’ve come out of the penal system and they need something to wear to an interview,” McLean said. “We’re trying to help people as they’re trying to get their lives back on track by simply giving them clothes to wear so they feel more confident. Within that is an expression of the gospel and the invitation to worship with us.”

The church has several retired teachers, and they periodically take lunch to teachers at a nearby elementary school.

“We’ve been sending groups out into neighborhoods and apartment complexes prayer walking, leaving a door hanger, and then going back and trying to engage in conversations with folks,” McLean said.

For about a decade before the pandemic, FBC New Braunfels sent teams to Southeast Asia to share the gospel with people who had not heard of Jesus. Recently, they sent a group to Cuba and another to Denmark and Germany.

“Those are exciting things where people get to go and see other parts of the world and care for people,” McLean said.

In 2017, FBC New Braunfels was tragically thrown into the national spotlight when a bus crash killed 13 of their senior adults. Though the church is not defined by that event, McLean said, they remember it as a time when God was glorified.

“We could say with great confidence, ‘Lord, thank you for preparing for eternity every one of those who lost their lives because they knew your Son as Savior,’” he said. “We had to give great praise to God because they were saints, and they were prepared for that moment.

“In the aftermath of that, in celebrating those lives, we got to worship our God together as a church, and I believe the Lord healed so much and strengthened our faith so much through that time.”

Adorning Christ: Easy to say, so much harder to practice

help lead a small group at our church that is slowly walking through Paul’s letter to Titus. We recently talked about the verses in Titus 2 where Paul encourages the believing slaves in the Cretan churches to be faithful in everything “so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in all things.”

Not too many years before Paul’s letter, Jesus taught that the first would be last and the last would be first. He taught that the greatest would be least and the least would be greatest. So who else might we expect Him to choose to make a bold, public gospel statement than a group of people who, in many cases, were viewed as some of the lowest in society?

Before ending our Bible study that night, I repeatedly challenged our group in every circumstance to “adorn Christ.” I think I repeated it like five times for effect.

Taking my own advice, I wore Jesus loud and proud from that point forward. That lasted about 18 hours.

The next afternoon, after picking my wife up from school, I had to pause at a green light because another vehicle got caught trying to turn left at an intersection and ended up blocking traffic. The car behind me *apparently* didn’t see what was happening in front of me and started honking—at me!

To punish this honking bumper-rider, I decided to creep through the intersection at like two miles per hour because, you know, that’ll teach her. As she jerked her car around me to speed by in the left lane, we exchanged irritated glances.

My wife, watching all this play out from the passenger seat, flatly smiled at me and said the last two words I wanted to hear in that moment:

“Adorn Christ.”

Follower of Jesus, you are most likely walking through some situation you consider less than ideal. It’s not easy and you’re ready for it to be over. As you pray and wait for the Lord to act in that situation, adorn Christ.

Jayson Larson Tweet

As I reflected on the incident later that evening, I felt like the Lord had taught me a couple of things:

1. We who follow Christ never stop adorning Him. We either accurately portray His true character through the fruit of the Spirit, or we offer some hybrid version of Him that, when mixed with ourselves, paints a distorted and potentially damaging picture of Jesus to a world that desperately needs to see Him as He truly is.

2. The hardest moments to adorn Christ are also the ones that speak the loudest to the people around us. Do I talk a good faith game in safe, controllable settings and then mentally fall apart when the slightest thing doesn’t go my way? Do I preach patience, love, and kindness and then jam up an intersection to punish a driver who might just be having a bad day?

I believe this was one of Paul’s main motivations in addressing the slaves in Crete. They who legitimately had the greatest reason to feel used, abused, overlooked, and indignant had the greatest opportunity to tell the world that Jesus—not their circumstances—commands their minds, which, in turn, guides their behavior.

Follower of Jesus, you are most likely walking through some situation you consider less than ideal. It’s not easy and you’re ready for it to be over. As you pray and wait for the Lord to act in that situation, adorn Christ.

And for goodness sakes, please don’t honk at the car in front of you the next time he’s jamming up an intersection. It’s probably not his fault …

Small group Bible study where gospel is preached weekly is now having an international impact

Astride his horse in the back of an 18-foot-deep arena box, Ronnie Hill calmly watches the steer in the chute between him and his roping partner’s box. When the steer settles, his head straight, Hill nods. The chute bangs open. The steer takes off. So do the cowboys—Hill in the heading position and his partner heeling or rear position.

“We ride full throttle after the steer,” Hill said. “I rope him around the horns, roll him off, and turn him to the left, pulling him behind me, making him hop. My partner ropes his two back feet. When we turn our horses and face each other, ropes tight and steer between, the flag man drops his flag.”

When the competition timer stops, mere seconds have elapsed.

For Hill, 55, who has been team roping since his 20s, those few thrilling seconds—and countless hours of practice—can be lucrative. He and roping partner Daniel Shehady won the event in the April 2023 USTRC National Finals Rodeo’s legends division. Hill has won with various partners, even against younger competitors in events not divided by age.

“As exciting as that is, winning buckles, saddles, thousands of dollars, it’s nothing compared to seeing someone give their life to Christ.”

Ronnie Hill Tweet

“As exciting as that is, winning buckles, saddles, thousands of dollars, it’s nothing compared to seeing someone give their life to Christ,” Hill said.

Hill is no stranger to sharing Jesus. President of the evangelistic Ronnie Hill Ministries for 35 years, he was asked to become staff evangelist at Greenwood Baptist Church in Weatherford five years ago. Hill’s ministry has taken him across the nation and beyond: to Africa, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Canada.

“We see people saved every week. We did a crusade in Fayette, Ala.—396 saved,” Hill said.

He is on the road 30-40 weeks each year in addition to his dual role at Greenwood, where he preaches about four times annually.

Greenwood is booming under the leadership of Senior Pastor Brian Bond, Hill said.

“Our church is in the country … we’re running about 1,200 now, I guess. We have three services, about to go to four. We’re building a sanctuary because we’re just busting at the seams,” Hill said.

The church baptized 250 in 2023. That year saw Hill’s outreach unexpectedly attract local rodeo competitors with a Bible study that has since had international impact.

Starting small

It all started when Lane Cooper, a Greenwood member with whom Hill had roped, asked the evangelist to start a small group. Hill initially hesitated, considering his hectic speaking schedule. Finally, he agreed on one condition: meeting days had to be flexible each week.

“Yeah, we’ll do that,” Lane said. They gathered in the office of renowned cutting horse rider Michael Cooper, Lane’s father, an NCHA Futurity Finals reserve world champion. Most attending had ties to rodeo or horses.

It was the first small group Hill had ever led. He insists he is no expert.

Typically, the group shares a meal from 6:30 to 7, then spends an hour reading the Bible aloud, with volunteers reading verse by verse. Hill will ask discussion questions and end by presenting the plan of salvation. The group started with 1 John, followed by James, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.

“We just read the Bible and I give them a chance to accept Christ,” he said.

The group began with six, including Hill. Two were saved that first night, including Canadian Tatum Wilson, whose sister Paige was Lane Cooper’s fiancée. Lane and Paige had been encouraging Tatum to “check out this church thing,” Tatum said.

“The first time I met Ronnie that night, immediately he was preaching the Word,” Tatum recalled. “Right in that moment, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is something I need to look into.’ That night I gave my life to Christ.”

“Tatum got on fire,” Hill said. “She started bringing people. The next week we had 12.” Attendance climbed and the group now averages 30, mostly ages 20-25.

Hill noted that Tatum wasn’t the only one inviting people, but with her outgoing personality, she approached folks in stores or gas stations or at the ranch where she worked training horses and asked them to come.

They outgrew Cooper’s office and moved to the home Hill shares with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Jake, closer to Weatherford.

It has been one year since they started meeting and over 90 people have trusted Christ, with 72 being baptized at Greenwood, Hill said.

“The first time I met Ronnie that night, immediately he was preaching the Word. Right in that moment, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is something I need to look into.’ That night I gave my life to Christ.”

Tatum Wilson Tweet

International influence

The small group’s influence has stretched beyond national borders.

Hill performed Lane and Paige’s wedding at the Cooper ranch, meeting the bride’s Canadian relatives. Paige and Tatum’s older brother visited the small group, trusted Christ, and decided to stay in Texas. On a later visit, Tatum’s father and younger brother also trusted Christ after coming to small group.

Tatum continued to invite friends, including Jade, a breakaway roping competitor, who was saved. Soon Jade’s brother, her boyfriend, and parents followed suit.

The ripple effect of rodeo salvations continued.

Whole rodeo families, including those of top-ranked competitors qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, have trusted Christ and been baptized, Hill said.

“When I’m baptizing them … somebody will come up from their group and they end up getting saved and we get them baptized,” Hill said. “It’s nonstop.”

When Tatum returned to Canada for three months last September to renew her visa, Hill challenged her to start a small group there, offering to teach remotely. In October, five in Tatum’s family home near Calgary, Alberta, met with Hill via video chat. As with the original group, two were saved that evening.

The group has grown, moving locations to the home of Jenessa and Matt McNichol, whose son, Clay, was also a Weatherford rodeo student.

Hill and Jon Hartman, Greenwood’s next gen pastor, traveled to Alberta for a week of teaching. Salvations and 15 baptisms followed. Eventually, Tatum’s mother trusted Christ.

Hill continues to teach both the Weatherford and Calgary small groups and plans a return trip to Canada this spring to follow up with the new believers.

“I’m excited to see how God is going to continue to work here,” Tatum said. “I didn’t grow up in a church home. … Now everyone in my family has been saved and baptized.”

‘God is moving in our country’

“I don’t think the salvations we are seeing are anything unusual,” Hill said. “One, God is moving in our country. And it’s not just in one place: you see pockets everywhere. … I think God’s doing it [this way] because He doesn’t want any one person to get the glory for it.”

Next, Hill said he has noticed a hunger for Scripture. “If you present the gospel, people will get saved. That’s what we are doing. We do it in our church every single service. We do it in our small group,” he said.

Relationships are important—but simple, clear explanations of the gospel are key.

“The reason why we have people saved in our small group is because … they’re bringing lost people every single week, and they know lost people. And so I’m presenting the gospel every time. I’m not waiting, I’m not letting them think about it. We’re doing it right then and there on the spot,” Hill told a friend. Baptism follows soon after.

“You hear revivals are dying,” Hill said. “We don’t see that. We see lost people saved.”

Hill’s own faith journey is remarkable. The product of a rape, he thanks his mother for choosing to give birth to him rather than seeking an abortion. Saved at age 8, he started preaching at 14 and served as a youth minister at 18. Mentored by widely known evangelist and professor Roy Fish, Hill earned a doctorate of ministry in evangelism from Southwestern Seminary. In 1997, he embarked on a new adventure when he founded his evangelistic ministry.

As Hill’s small groups will attest, it’s been quite a ride.

NAMB revitalization expert Clifton offers glimpse of speaking topics at Empower

‘Not one sermon you preach is wasted’

Mark Clifton will be among the speakers at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Empower Conference in February. He serves as executive director of church replanting and rural strategy for the North American Mission Board and as teaching pastor at Linwood Baptist Church in Linwood, Kan. He recently talked with the Texan about some of the topics he plans on speaking about at Empower.

On the role evangelism plays in church revitalization:

Mark Clifton: [Churches needing revitalization] must spend their time and energy on reaching the lost. If you don’t do that, you’re not going to exist in the next couple of decades. If you reach two or three families who don’t know Jesus, and they’re baptized and then their kids are baptized, guess what? Most of their friends don’t know Jesus, either. … That’s how we see churches come back to life—not through programs, not through events and attracting church people to come to their place, but through evangelism. If you will focus this year on finding one person you can lead to Christ and disciple, it will change the trajectory of your church.

On the need—and challenge—for dying churches to reach younger generations:

MC: [Reaching younger generations is] really the bread and butter for a dying church. If you don’t reach the next generation, you’re not going to have a future. … I just think we’ve gotten way off target sometimes thinking we have to attract young people with young people things. You attract young people by loving them and being authentic with them. If your church will just be who you are authentically and love people with sacrificial love, man, young people will embrace that. You don’t need cool music to reach the next generation. You need authentic music to reach the next generation. If the next generation comes in and hears your older people singing at the top of their lungs … they will love that.

[Churches] always want to reach young people. They just don’t want young people changing anything. But young people are going to come in and they’re going to change some things. They’re going to want to bring coffee in the sanctuary because they bring coffee everywhere they go. They may not dress the same. Some of them may wear their hats in the worship center. Those are the kinds of things older adults are going to have to get over. They can’t give the stink eye to young people for doing that and then expect young people to stay around. They won’t stay.

“But trust me, not one Scripture you read, not one prayer you lead, not one sermon you preach, not one Bible study you lead, not one funeral you conduct—none of that’s wasted, because His Word never goes out and comes back void.”

—Mark Clifton Tweet

On his message to discouraged pastors leading struggling churches:

MC: Only eternity is going to reveal the results of your labor. God, in His sovereignty, chose to put you not in an easy place, but in a hard place. He chose to put you in that place because He trusts you and values you with this very difficult task. You’re probably not going to get your reward this side of heaven. Nobody’s going to write a book about you. You’re probably not going to get tweeted about. You may not get asked to preach on the platform someplace. But trust me, not one Scripture you read, not one prayer you lead, not one sermon you preach, not one Bible study you lead, not one funeral you conduct—none of that’s wasted, because His Word never goes out and comes back void. You’ve got to go to bed every night knowing that only eternity is going to reveal the true results of your labor. God will take everything I’ve done in my ministry for Him, and if I’ve done it obediently, He’s going to knit together a story that, when we get to heaven, the angels are going to be amazed with.

Looking for ways to share Christ in your community? ‘Run to the hurting,’ Gallaty says

Bringing heaven to earth

Robby Gallaty, senior pastor of Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., stood before 1,900 people attending the first of a handful of Christmas services in early December 2023 when the lights started to flicker and the large projection screens behind him malfunctioned. Cell phone alerts began to sound, eerily echoing across the worship center where the crowd would soon be sheltering in place. Outside, severe storms were brewing, spawning deadly tornados that swept across the region.

The church was not directly hit, but the storms impacted many members and devastated several communities. Though tragic, the disaster provided Long Hollow an opportunity to put into practice one of its core values: “Run to the hurting.” Gallaty, who also serves as president of Replicate Ministries, will share some of those experiences, the lessons he and his church learned, and pieces of his personal testimony when he speaks at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Empower Conference in February.

How would you describe the relationship between evangelism and discipleship?

Robby Gallaty: For years, people have thought of them as two different practices or competing disciplines. The word I use is disciple-making. Jesus told us to be about the business of making disciples. Under disciple-making, you have two legs: one leg is evangelism, which is basically leading someone into a relationship with Jesus Christ across the threshold of faith. But after evangelism, the ministry doesn’t stop. The other leg is discipleship, which is helping people grow into the image of Christ and replicating themselves to start the process over.

Think of it as two oars in the same boat. If you only have the oar of evangelism, you’ll just row in a circle. You’ll have a bunch of people sharing the gospel, but you’ll have no one else partnering in the ministry. If you only have the oar of discipleship … you’ll have a bunch of people memorizing and studying Scripture, but you’ll never reach any lost people with the gospel. So you have to have both. The thing I often say is, “The gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.” That means every person as a Christian has been given a baton at the moment of salvation. And if we’re honest and we look at our hands, we’re either fumbling the handoff or we’re running with passion and we’re passing it on to the next generation to leave a legacy.

How did you see the Lord use last year’s tornados in your area to not only reach your community, but help you make disciples in your church?

RG: One of the core values of our church is we run to the hurting. Obviously, when you have a pastor who’s been sober from drugs and alcohol now 20-plus years, you kind of become an epicenter for people who have hurts and hang-ups. I think we were able to come alongside 32 families who had some kind of need [after the tornado], whether it was a tree in the backyard or they needed supplies or lost it all.

The way we minister at Long Hollow is not a bait and switch where we minister so you can come to our church. We really just want to be an example of the hands and feet of Christ in our community and love people, no strings attached. We feel like it’s way bigger than our church. It’s a kingdom ministry. I’ve been trying to teach our people for years now that we have an opportunity, as believers, to partner with Christ in the kingdom of heaven today and that we’re able to bring the kingdom to earth through obedience as we live for the Lord and love like Jesus loves. The problem with many Christians is we have this preoccupation of trying to get out of the world and into heaven. Jesus has been trying to get heaven into the world through us for 2,000 years, so we just show people that we have an opportunity to partner with Him every day.

What have you learned through your ministry experience at Long Hollow that may benefit pastors, church leaders, and others who will attend Empower?

RG: What I’m going to share at the conference is my own story, my own brokenness that led to breakthrough. I’m going to share that if you want to see people saved and baptized [in your church], see people evangelized … you need God to set you on fire again to be passionate about the things of God. [Long Hollow] started to burn for the Lord and really seek God, believing there was more of God to be had, and it just created this amazing move of God that we are still in now.

We have a natural propensity to go right to the method or the mission or the manner of evangelism. [But] we’ve got to go back and ask ourselves, “Has the fire of revival or the flame of evangelism gone out in my own life?” You have to get to the end of yourself, because that’s where the beginning of God is. Regardless of your skill set or gifts or preaching ability … what every person used mightily by God has in common is they came to the end of themselves and realized they couldn’t do it without Him. What we all have in common is we all have the ability to present ourselves and surrender to the Lord through brokenness. When we’re broken over a sin, it leads to desperation and dependency, and desperation leads to breakthrough. Numbers obviously aren’t everything, but it’s unbelievable [what God has done at Long Hollow]. I can tell you so many stories of lives changed and attendance growth, but it goes back to God having to change the man before any method was implemented. I realized that was the problem. And when God changed me, everything changed.

A great place to connect

One of my favorite times of the year is right around the corner. Every February, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention hosts the Empower Conference. It is an incredible event that brings thousands together to worship, network, and learn. There is nothing like having friends from all over Texas join together to lift high the name of Jesus and be reminded of the lostness in our state and the need for our churches to advance the gospel.

This year, we have some amazing speakers and dynamic sessions planned. These two days will be packed with opportunities to connect and be equipped. Here are just a few reasons I love this event:

The opportunity to connect

Ministry is hard and the opportunity to connect with others often serves as a catalyst for encouragement. Whether it’s worshipping alongside friends or other co-laborers in the gospel or sitting in the lobby networking with other pastors, the Empower Conference serves as a platform for connection. I believe you will be encouraged by connecting with old friends and enjoying the opportunity to make new friends.

The opportunity to learn

Because ministry is challenging, we need to find unique opportunities to learn from others and sharpen our tools. Empower does just that. Whether in the main sessions or breakouts, there are numerous ways to learn and help the ministry you serve move forward. Check out the schedule to see which opportunities would be most beneficial to your area of ministry.

The opportunity to move forward

As you may have seen or heard at our Annual Meeting last November, the SBTC’s new mission focus is, “Mobilizing churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world.” The Empower Conference is designed to help mobilize your church in multiplying disciple-making movements. In fact, one of the markers of a disciple-making movement is “evangelism prioritized.” This conference has at its foundation the desire to see churches across our state prioritize evangelism. I believe we can see a renewed passion for the gospel’s advance across Texas.

I hope you will join us Feb. 26-27 at the Irving Convention Center for this encouraging time. There’s something for everyone. I am praying even now that we will experience a move of God as we gather. I love you and am grateful to serve you. See you there!

A day of work, an eternity of impact

Arlington International Church leads the way at one-day outreach resulting in profession of faith

Debbie Figueroa felt uncertain but ready. So the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary student, trained in evangelism methodology that morning, set off with two friends for a nearby park.

Figueroa, a member of the International Baptist Church of Arlington and a native of El Salvador, saw people walking, running, and working out at the park: preoccupied and busy. “We thought they might not be willing to stop to talk to us,” she said.

But some paused to chat, including an Argentinian woman.

“She told us she was Catholic and agreed with everything we were sharing,” Figueroa recalled. When asked if she was 100 percent sure she was going to spend eternity with Jesus, the lady said yes, because she tried to be a “good person.”

“We shared the gospel again and explained that the Bible is clear in saying that we are all sinners and that even our righteous acts are ‘filthy rags,’” Figueroa said. When asked if the gospel made sense to her, the lady replied that it did.

“We invited her to trust only in Jesus for salvation and follow Him as her only Lord and Savior, and she said she wanted to make that decision at that moment. So that day, in the middle of the trail, she repented of her sins and asked Jesus to save her. Then we welcomed her to God’s family, shared some Bible verses, and asked again if she was 100% sure about spending eternity with Jesus,” Figueroa said.

The lady’s answer was a resounding yes. “She said she was sure [of eternity] because she believed in Jesus as her Savior,” Figueroa said.

Figueroa and her friends led the woman to Christ just prior to the opening of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Annual Meeting last November, when IBCA, a 55-member church, participated in an outreach event called Crossover SBTC.

Twenty-two IBCA members participated in the event, with two more providing prayer support. Ten other people assisted IBCA, including members from Blueprint Community Church, an African culture church that rents meeting space from IBCA, and from an evangelistic organization called For the Kingdom. The group conducted face-to-face evangelism in central Arlington neighborhoods,
at Vandergriff Park, and on a college campus.

IBCA, an 11-year-old church, focuses on ministry to the community and to international students at nearby colleges and Southwestern Seminary, said Glenn Melvin, IBCA executive director. For the Kingdom has been partnering with IBCA in evangelism efforts this year, he added.

Before setting out in the morning, participants attended a training at IBCA presented by Carl Bradford, SBTC evangelism consultant and a professor at SWBTS. Bradford taught the group how to use the 3 Circles method of sharing the gospel.

Figueroa praised the Crossover evangelism training as “very practical,” noting participants learned to share their testimonies as part of presenting the gospel. By the end of the day, when participants reassembled at the church to report all that God had done, there was much to celebrate.

Throughout the day, participants made 184 contacts and had 67 spiritual conversations with people, Melvin said, adding that such talks were defined as “any discussion on spiritual matters.” Of these, 41 turned into gospel conversations, with full presentations of the plan of salvation.

Melvin, who took part in SBC Crossover 2018 in Dallas, said IBCA has weekly evangelism every Saturday, “but Crossover SBTC was an opportunity to energize the entire church to reach the community. People need to know how to share the gospel because, for someone they know, they may be the only people who can share Jesus with that person,” he said.

“Reaching out to the community allows us to know our neighbors, lets them know us, tells them about Jesus, and lets our people practice sharing the gospel in situations less pressured than those with already established relationships,” he added. “Bottom line, as for SBTC Crossover 2023, someone came to Christ. We have a new sister in the Lord!”

Tony Mathews, SBTC senior strategist for Missional Ministries, said of IBCA and the inaugural Crossover SBTC event: “If one church can have that kind of impact, imagine what 1,000 could do.”

Looking for ways to better equip your church to carry the gospel into your community? The SBTC’s next Who’s Your One? Advancing the Movement training is coming to Houston this spring.

Four solutions for battling an angry heart

Dear pastor,

You might have an anger problem that, very often, can lead you to becoming a problem. Finishing the following sentence will help you know whether this post addresses you:

You might be an angry pastor if …

• You always shake your fist when you preach.

• You blame everything on actors and politicians.

• You rant on social media about, well, everything.

• You assume I’m writing this to someone else.

Your anger is not unique, but it is annoying and distracting. I’m sure you’re tired of it, too, so my motive is to help you destroy anger before it destroys you, your family, and your ministry.

Although anger is a normal emotion, there’s an invisible line we cross when our healthy anger becomes harmful to others. Here are four solutions I’ve found helpful.

1. Guard your heart.

Jesus is the only cardiologist who can solve this heart issue. Since patience is a fruit of the Spirit, God can extinguish the anger we can’t manage.

So, when my blood begins to boil, I release control of the situation—and myself—by simply praying for patience.

“Be angry and do not sin; on your bed, reflect in your heart and be still … and trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:4).

2. Control your tongue.

Even as I write this in an airport terminal, I’m waiting on my second delayed flight of the day. My last trip included so many delays and cancellations that I arrived home a day and a half late! The temptation to transfer my frustration onto innocent airline workers is real, but it’s never helpful.

“The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding” (Proverbs 17:27).

3. Protect your pulpit.

All Christians need to guard our hearts, tongues, and posts carefully—but pastors even more so. What we say on stage is heavily measured not only on earth, but in heaven (James 3:1).

A pastor once told me his church was having “multiple dumpster fires.” As a noun, Webster defines dumpster fire as “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence: disaster.”

All churches have dumpster fires … just make sure you’re not the arsonist.

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person” (Colossians 4:6).

4. Dress for success.

More than a decade ago, I was well on my way to becoming the angry preacher I’m warning about here. I committed the following passage to memory by meditating on it every day for almost a year.

“Put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth … since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self … Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Colossians 3:8-10,12-14).

I’m embarrassed to admit it took so long to get my heart right. If you’re an angry pastor, I strongly encourage you to get serious about asking God to root out that anger before bitterness takes root in your heart, home, and ministry.