ORLANDO (BP) – Pastors should be thinking about how God might use their churches and the Southern Baptist Convention not only now but 100 years from now, Jimmy Scroggins said at the SBC Pastors’ Conference June 8 in Orlando.
“The stakes are high, and 100 years isn’t that long. There’s a lot on the line for what we’re doing around here,” said Scroggins, pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Fla.
He relayed a legendary anecdote of President John F. Kennedy touring the space center in 1962 and encountering a janitor sweeping the hallways. When the president asked what he was doing, the janitor reportedly replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
“What are we doing here? Why are we gathered? … We need to be building churches that are going to last another 100 years,” Scroggins said. “We’re reaching people who are going to go somewhere that we will not be able to go. They are going to the future. … To move our churches and our convention into the future, every one of us has a part to play.”
Scroggins pointed to Zechariah 4:8-10 where Zerubbabel was tasked with holding a plumb line to rebuild the temple.
“I know that some of you might feel like what you are doing is obscure and nobody knows your name. You might even walk the halls of the convention and you don’t see a single person that you know, but everyone here has a part to play,” Scroggins said.
Don’t despise the life God has given you, he said. “God has called you and your neighborhood church to put a man on the moon.”
Pastors never really know what is at stake when they serve God, Scroggins said.
“Don’t despise the day of small things. The angels of God rejoice to see the plumb line in your hand. So, preach the Gospel, Southern Baptists. Serve where you are planted. Win the next generation. Love your neighborhood. Send missionaries to the nations until Jesus comes again,” Scroggins said. “Brothers and sisters, let’s put a man on the moon because you have no idea how the work that you are doing this Sunday will matter in 100 years.”
Cliff Lea, pastor of First Baptist Church in Leesburg, Fla., preached from Luke 18:1-8 about the persistent widow and said prayerlessness is the greatest threat to the pastor’s life.
“There is absolutely nothing I would rather do than be a servant of the Lord in His church, but we can’t kid ourselves and act like it is easy,” Lea said.
“We know that it’s challenging, and we know that there are people with the gift of discouragement. We know that there are situations that almost always seem impossible. … That’s the moment where God says it is time to pray and not give up.”
The widow in the parable showed how not to give up, and she showed that prayer will pay off, he said.
“We know that sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers like we want Him to. Sometimes he says for us to slow down, and He searches our heart,” Lea said. “Sometimes He asks us to wait. But oftentimes He says yes.
“Even if He says no, the process pays off in our soul. We should be more dedicated to pressing in with prayer until we receive God’s answer,” Lea said.
Unlike the widow with no connections and no advocates, believers can feel good about their standing with God.
“I’m not some desperate widow that can’t get an audience with a mean judge. I’m an elect child of God that has a sovereign, wise, loving Heavenly Father that’s longing for me to call out to Him because He has a special relationship with me,” Lea said.
“He doesn’t give me everything I want, but He knows what I need, when I need it and the best way to bring it into my life. He has chosen that the method for me to acquire it from Him is prayer.”
The practice of prayer shows that a person has faith, Lea said. “If we are a prayerless people, according to Christ, we are a faithless people. When Christ comes, He wants to see His people praying, calling out to Him and seeking His face.”
Lea then led a time of prayer for the Convention and specifically for the pastors and their wives in attendance.
Bryant Wright, former SBC president and former pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., brought a report on the rising cost of the SBC Pastors’ Conference. The report was requested by last year’s Pastors’ Conference president, D.J. Horton. Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., assisted Wright.
Wright encouraged attendees to contact their SBC Executive Committee member to request additional funding for the conference.
Baptist Press plans a more detailed story on the Pastors’ Conference costs and funding in the weeks ahead.
Wayne Bray, pastor of First Baptist Simpsonville/Upstate Church in South Carolina, was elected president of the 2027 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Indianapolis.
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