Southern Baptist Convention 2014

I am posting this from Baltimore, Maryland.  We arrived early enough to enjoy the Pastor's Conference in full beginning on Sunday.  The seafood here in Baltimore is excellent,  praise the Mary Land for their crab cakes and clam strips!  The theme of the Pastor's Conference was Show Us Your Glory  in which we were challenged to have an ever increasing desire to long for God's glory.  As in any preaching conference, there is that one sermon that sticks out in your mind.  This year for me it was Rick Warren's message he gave during session 4, as he spoke from a broken heart in the wake of the tragic suicide of his youngest son.  He took a four month grief sabbatical.

Pastor Warren's first Words to open his sermon were,

     "If you want the blessing of God on your life, If you want the power of God on your words, you must be willing to suffer trials and tribulations, because you can't enter the throne room without going through the thorn room."

This got my attention and it grabbed everyone else in the room.  I don't think anyone was even coughing.

He went on to say,
   "There is no publicly successful ministry without private pain.  There are no messages for us without messes.  There is no impact without criticism.  Those who are the most blessed are those who are the most attacked."

He spoke on the worst day of his life, the battle for hope he faced when they found their son who had battled depression for years had taken his life.  He spoke of the ministry of presence where as he put it, "You show up and you shut up."  The greater the hurt the less the words.

Here is Pastor Warren's outline:

Text:  2 Corinthians 1:3-11, 4:10, 6:4, Philippians 1:12  and Romans 8-12

Title:  The Five Ways That God Uses Suffering in Your Life as a Believer

1. Inspect Me
2. Direct Me 
3. Correct Me
4. Protect Me
5. Perfect Me

And What we need to do in response:

1. Draw Closer to God.
2. Draw Closer to Others.
3. Become More Like Jesus- The Number One Purpose of our Life.- Read Hebrews 5, teaches we learn obedience through suffering.
4. Help Others.  He referred to this as Redemptive Pain.
5. Witness to the World!

In addition to this James MacDonald preached an excellent sermon that blessed my heart. 

In addition to this, baptisms are falling faster in decline across the board in the convention.  We are losing ground.  Here is a link to the full report.According to churches reporting in the 2012 ACP: 

• 25% of Southern Baptist churches reported “0 baptisms”
• 60% reported no youth baptisms (age 12-17 bracket)
• 80% reported 0-1 young adult baptisms (age 18-29 bracket)
• The only consistently growing age group in baptisms is age five and under.

Remember it takes everyone doing the work of an evangelist to turn back numbers like this.