From the first year I became a pastor until today, I’ve believed with all my heart that cooperation necessitates participation. This was true in my first pastorate as I led in the church process of being re-aligned with the local association, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) and the Southern Baptist Convention.
I believed then, and I believe now, that we should be involved in the process by not only giving, but with our prayers and our participation.
I’ll never forget the first time I made the journey to Greensboro as a pastor and every year since. I was almost taken back by how much ministry goes on throughout the state through the BSC. It’s become one of the highlights of the year to head to Greensboro for two back-to-back events: the North Carolina Pastors’ Conference (PC) and the annual meeting of the BSC.
I’ve sat close to the front of the stage at the PC for nine years now and been blessed year after year. In 2015 I had the privilege of getting a little more involved when then PC President Micheal Pardue asked me to be a liaison and introduce one of the speakers that year. I’ve walked down the rows passing the bucket so we can collect our offering on more than one occasion.
Cooperation necessitates participation in so many ways, even with the Pastors’ Conference. We raise our voices in unison as we sing to our Triune God. We all pray together asking God to move in our hearts. We give our attention to the much-needed preaching of God’s Word that we ourselves bring before our people week after week. We shake hands and hug necks at what proves to be a family reunion of our Baptist brethren from Murphy to Manteo.
It is always a blessing to myself and hundreds of other co-laborers in the gospel, at no cost to the attenders.
The PC is important to many of us because it is the only conference many attend all year. It’s because of this that I always want us to have an excellent Pastors’ Conference. The kind where I leave refreshed and challenged because I’ve been in the presence of God and His people and sat under the faithful exposition of God’s Word. The kind where God has been glorified.
I never would have imagined at that first conference in 2012, that in 2021 I would have the incredible opportunity to serve N.C. pastors as PC vice president. It has been a blessing serving alongside Roger Barnes, our president this year. We have the privilege of pastoring in the same association at churches only about 20 minutes from one another. There has been a lot of prayer and a lot of work in getting this year’s conference together. Our prayer is that everyone who attends will be edified and God be greatly glorified.
We’re both in rural Eastern North Carolina and our hearts have been to serve the pastors of North Carolina. This year’s conference will be one of North Carolina pastors for North Carolina pastors, the theme being “A Place at the Table.”
Though there are many differences between us, we are all called by God to come to His table. Just as Jesus often called His closest disciples to dine, He calls each of us to join Him today. What are we to join Him in? We are to pray for laborers, to equip laborers and to be laborers in His harvest. Matthew 9:37-38 says, “The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
You will have the opportunity to hear from N.C. pastors and leaders who are laborers in His harvest. These men are church planters, established church pastors, educators, revitalizers and faithful expositors of God’s Word. They will be telling the stories of Jesus’ closest disciples as they are shown to us in His Word. Come be encouraged, edified and challenged as you take a seat at the table.
If the Lord wills and I’m elected, my heart’s desire is to continue serving Him and His church at next year’s conference. Some have asked me what I would do if elected president for 2022. It is my conviction that pastors need exactly what we are giving our people every Sunday: the Word of God. If elected, I want to see the pulpit filled with solid expositors of God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible and all sufficient Word.
All of God’s people need to sit under faithful, Spirit-filled preaching. So many of us pour our hearts out in the study and the pulpit week after week with little opportunity to sit under live preaching. The Pastors’ Conference can never supplement the daily need we all have for the Word of God, but it can prove to be a banquet of well-prepared meals for the pastors of North Carolina.
I also believe that prayer cannot be an afterthought, formality or a tool to keep time. I’d like to see a Pastors’ Conference with time dedicated and emphasis placed on corporate prayer. I tell my beloved congregation at Centerville all the time, “If we aren’t going to pray about something, we might as well not even do it.”
My prayers ascend to heaven the same way every other believer’s do. But I’ll let everyone know from the time I was approached about running for vice president two years ago until now, I’ve prayed along with many others about serving Christ and His church in this capacity. I believe the pastors of North Carolina are best served by a conference that is faithful to the Word of God. It doesn’t have to be flashy; it only needs to be faithful.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – J. Allen Murray is pastor of Centerville Baptist Church in Kelly, N.C., and serves as the 2021 N.C. Pastors’ Conference vice president. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and chairs the Bylaws Committee.)