DALLAS (BP) — Pastors were encouraged to keep their focus on God’s work and God’s approval during the second session of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Pastors’ Conference on June 9 in Dallas.

The session featured sermons by David Kim, Jamie Dew and Josh Powell at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The session also featured the recognition of more than a dozen bivocational pastors from various states. A lengthy standing ovation greeted them to the platform, and each received an all-expense-paid trip to the Holy Land.

David Kim

Kim, pastor of Good Community Church of Torrance in Torrance, Calif., shared from 2 Timothy 2:1-7 about the most essential focus of Christians: being and making disciples — even during suffering.

He pointed to verses 4-6, where the apostle Paul employs three analogies to describe disciples: a soldier, athlete and farmer. Kim focused on the soldier, who is concerned with how he can please his commander in chief through submission.

Kim offered three questions disciples should ask themselves: “Do you submit to the will of God even in the midst of suffering? Do you give thanks to the Lord and worship Him in the midst of suffering or only after the suffering passes by? And in the darkest hour, in the face of pain and suffering, is Christ enough?”

Kim confronted these questions while in seminary when he was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a life-threatening neuromuscular disorder like Lou Gehrig’s disease. Doctors in a Korean hospital predicted Kim would be completely paralyzed in six months and in a wheelchair or bed for the rest of his life.

Kim recounted, “I knew, and I said Christ was enough, but my honest confession was that I needed Christ plus health and Christ plus healing.”

After repenting, Kim said the Lord pointed him to Job 1:21, which led him to lay down the ownership of his entire life to God. Over time, the paralysis stopped spreading and began to recede. After three months, almost all paralysis disappeared, and Kim walked out of the hospital with his own legs, a true miracle given by God.

Jamie Dew

Even when circumstances are difficult, pastors must persist in the work of ministry, said Dew, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Pastoral stress is perhaps one of the most unique kinds of stress that a person can ever bear,” he said. Yet pastors “have the most important job in all of the earth right now.”

Preaching from 2 Timothy 2:8-13, Dew offered “reasons for continuing on in the work of ministry.” First, ministers must remember that Christ has been raised victorious. The disciples watched Jesus die and thought there was no hope, Dew said. Then the Resurrection showed otherwise.

“In the darkest and the hardest days of your ministry, in those moments when you down deep in your soul want to quit,” he said, continue to “preach and proclaim.”

Pastors also should remember that God’s people are worth the struggle. Dew said the value of Southern Baptist church members drives him as a seminary president. “Simply put, you’re worth it. I think you’re awesome.”

Another reason to persist in the work of ministry is “the gospel itself,” Dew said. Pastors minister faithfully because “our King is coming, and there’s a kingdom that’s coming with Him. And you and I get to be heirs of that kingdom one day.”

A final reason to persist in ministry is that God’s Word always succeeds. “The tide of God’s kingdom is coming,” Dew said. “Therefore, don’t quit.”

Josh Powell

Pastors rightly feel the need for approval, said Powell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C. But they must seek that approval from God rather than man.

“As a minister of the gospel, you must not be interested in creating a reputation for yourself,” he said. “It shouldn’t be that you’re sitting there trying to win the approval of men and women. What matters is that one day you will stand before God Himself.”

Fortunately for pastors, they do not have to guess what God expects from them, Powell said. The Lord explains in 2 Timothy 2:14-26. First, a pastor approved by God will be a diligent worker. Pastors “avoid irreverent babble” by rightly handling God’s Word, showing people the path of following Christ amid the many options presented by the world.

Second, a pastor approved by God will be a clean vessel, Powell said. He called ministers to be set apart in personal holiness and referenced the “littered past” of ministers who “became dishonorable in their unholiness.”

“The greatest hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom is not a weak gospel,” he said, “for our gospel is strong, and it changes life. The greatest hindrance” is “dirty messengers.”

Third, a pastor approved by God will be a faithful servant. The pastor’s faithfulness includes being kind at all times, Powell said, adding that the command to be kind “is not qualified.”

“We seek (Christ’s) approval,” he said, “by shepherding His sheep well.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — David Roach is a writer in Mobile, Ala.