Enjoyed Father's Day today. Good service and great lunch with my family. No airports, no driving, no hotels. Watching the pastor's conference from my home for a few minutes before I go play basketball tonight. Just sayin'. You can listen HERE.
Per David Phillips, Ed Littleton, president of the Pastor's Conference said that we need to fall in love with the Great Commission. David said that he disagreed: We need to fall in love with Jesus and we will fulfill the Great Commission. David has it right. As good as the Great Commission is, it is only our witness to who Jesus is. We must know Him. The problem is that we don't know Jesus the way that we should.
I missed hearing it, but based on comments, J.D. Greear from North Carolina preached a good message on the battle between religion and a relationship with Jesus. Supposedly it was really good. I'm glad. I've met J.D. and I like him a lot. He is a really good guy and he is doing a good job with his church. These pastor's conferences are interesting, though, because there are often messages that are really good, but we come back to the same things year after year. My hope is that people listen this time.
Mac Brunson from FBC Jacksonville is preaching right now. He said that the reason that we are struggling evangelistically is because people don't like us and they don't like what they see. If they like what they see, they will listen to what we say. His larger point is that we should not repay evil for evil and should not treat people poorly who treat us poorly. On the larger point, I agree. But, with his prior statement, I would disagree. The reason that we are struggling evangelistically is because we are not in love with Jesus. We are to be witnesses of what we have seen and experienced in Christ. We are to experience Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Many will persecute us and reject us, according to Scripture, but God will speak through us to call people to Himself through the power of the gospel. I understand that he is saying that we need to have a good witness for people to listen and I agree with that, but I think that he is missing the point if our focus is on people liking us. We need to live for and love Christ. He would probably agree with what I am saying and likely intended that - I am just pretty sensitive to what our focus needs to be when it comes to evangelism.
Maybe I am parsing his words too closely, but I think that the distinction is important.
Amen.
Posted by: Debbie Kaufman | June 21, 2009 at 07:16 PM
I agree with David. If we fall in love with Christ, the rest will take care of itself.
Regarding Mac, his church's latest incident with FBC Jax Watchdog did nothing to improve the way people view Christians. Perhaps we preachers need to do what we say a bit more.
Les
Posted by: Les Puryear | June 22, 2009 at 11:04 AM
"[W]e need to fall in love with the Great Commission. David said that he disagreed...."
But if we love the Great Commission, we'll obviously love the Great Commission Resurgence, won't we? "Love Jesus" doesn't tie well with the great emphasis this year.
Posted by: John Alexander | June 22, 2009 at 12:42 PM
The name or the president of this year's SBC Pastors' Conference is Ed Litton. I never said, that we should fall in love with the Great Commission. To love anything more than our first love is spiritual adultery. Our first love is Jesus.
Ed Litton
Posted by: Ed Litton | June 26, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Thanks for the clarification, Ed. Sorry for the mix-up. I was quoting someone else there who was refering to you. They might have gotten the speaker wrong or misunderstood. I did not hear it myself.
I agree with you 100% about spiritual adultery. It seems that you have it right and that is the danger that I was trying to point out.
Great pastor's conference, by the way. You did a top notch job and all of the speakers that I heard were wonderful.
Sorry again for the misquote.
Posted by: Alan Cross | June 26, 2009 at 06:31 PM