I have spent the last two days being inspired by some of God’s greatest men. This was the first BMA Mission’s Symposium that I have ever been to so I can’t compare it to those of the past, but compared to some of the missions conferences that I have attended within different Baptist associations this one was the best by far. The first night John David Smith brought a powerful sermon from Romans chapter ten challenging us to live out the theme of this symposium: “Search + Rescue”, and then today it was jam packed with missionaries and speakers. We heard from John Lindsey from Ghana West Africa, Andrey and Laura Kanaykina from Ukraine, Merrit Youngdeer from New Mexico, and many others. One missionary in particular really touched my heart. The man came from a very religious persecuted country, and was forbidden to speak of Christianity. They even had to stop recording the event before he would speak. This man was imprisoned for the Gospel and faced persecution just for carrying his Bible. If his country was to find out about him proclaiming the Gospel his family back home would be imprisoned. I will not mention his name, but I want to encourage you to be praying for him. I was also motivated by Rob Hager a missionary of Jacob’s Well in Chicago, Illinois, because this man is genuinely on fire for God. Just while speaking with him it made me want to head straight up to Chicago and start telling people about Jesus.
When we came back from break for the final session I decided to skip out on the music, and go check out Fellowship Baptist Church Forney, Texas’ youth ministry. It was totally awesome. It was amazing what they were able to accomplish with just a little bit of space and energy. I spoke with both of the student pastors of FSM, and they opened my eyes to the possibilities that lie ahead for REFUGE. Just a few years ago they were running 25 students, and now they have over 500. One of the primary factors was that they split the Jr. & Sr. High when they reached about 50 – 75 students which was only possible with volunteers. We still have a little ways to go to reach those numbers, but we have to have some dedicated volunteers if we ever hope to grow beyond our measures. I as a Youth Pastor have to incorporate more parents into our ministry by partnering with them and challenging them to get involved by stepping up into various leadership roles.
To finish off the night I headed back down to the symposium to support my pastor Brandon Cox who was preaching the closing message. He brought an awesome sermon to a room full of preachers. BBC Baby! He preached from Acts chapter eight and he gave us 5 points to apply in our ministries when it comes to “Search + Rescue” from the example of Phillip.
- Get close to God and stay there
- Join God in what He’s already doing in the world around you
- Break through existing barriers to share the Gospel
- a. Three Main Barriers
- i. Geographical
- ii. Social
- iii. Cultural
4. Stick to the Scripture
5. Let’s go after (reach) one more
Bethel would be proud of him, and I would encourage you to check with BMAAMissions.org over the next few months when they will post a multimedia link to listen to this message.
All this would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the dedication and commitment of our BMA directors. I would like to recognize Grady Higgs, Jerry Kid, Phil Knott, Larry Barker, Ralph Izard, John David Smith, Donny Parish, and of course their beautiful families.
Check it out, if you weren’t able to attend this year; you missed out. To sum up the general theme of this week we as missionaries to the here and now should engage the culture and community around us by determining what the needs of the people are.
LOST, SEARCH, + RESCUE!
