The conference Feb. 2-3 at War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro featured 12 sermons, three testimonies and music ranging from a gospel quartet to a blues saxophonist.

Special music fills the air Becki Smith, an evangelistic soloist from Acworth, Ga., held a pre-session concert, then presented special music during the afternoon and evening sessions on Feb. 2.

Vernard Johnson concentrates on his saxophone.

Milton A. Hollifield Jr., director of the Evangelism Division for N.C. Baptists, presided. He welcomed the crowd and made several introductions to get the conference under way.

Dick Baker, an evangelistic music minister from McKinney, Texas, led the music in all five sessions of the conference.

Baker directed a volunteer choir of 150 persons from churches in the Greensboro area. He conducted a rehearsal on Sunday afternoon for the choir members from churches of 300 members or less, and again on Monday between the afternoon and evening sessions. The choir sang, under his direction, in the evening service.

Get serious about souls

He urged the conferees to be serious about "caring for souls."

"We must go to people because we care about them," Welch said.

Doors will open and people will respond when we show we really care about them, Welch insisted.

"Jesus cared for souls. The Holy Spirit cares about souls. Those in heaven care about souls. Even those in hell care about souls," Welch said.

"How can someone in hell care more about souls than we who are alive today?" the Florida pastor asked rhetorically.

Welch, who served as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam, urged Baptists to "stick by the stuff," because the Bible commands it and our "Commander-in-chief" commands it also.

God with us in any language

Vera explained that "Immanuel" means "God with us." He said that was necessary for the young churches to grow and prosper.

The Hispanic preacher noted that he does not have a Southern drawl, but that he had grown up speaking "Spanglish."

In Colorado, he serves as pastor of an English and Spanish congregation, and on Sunday evenings he preaches at a new congregation in Colorado Springs.

Vera urged Baptists to have a "consistent commitment" which enables disciples of Jesus to bear fruit for the glory of God.

"We must stand firm on what we believe," Vera said.

"We have the gospel -- we need no other story -- and we do not need a religious change, we must have a relational change (with Christ)." He challenged Baptists to be an example of the right kind of behavior, to witness through proper conduct.

Vera said that "we must be fully given to the work of the Lord, fully given in our personal lives to Christ."

The church-planter said Baptists must "stand firm in a spirit of expectancy," knowing that when Christ returns, believers will be caught up with Him in the air.

"I may be wrong in my interpretation, but I'm not wrong in my transportation," Vera said as he admitted he wanted to be rewarded in heaven for his work on earth.

"We do not labor in vain, because Christ is a returning, rewarding and reigning Lord," Vera said as he walked from the pulpit, speaking softer and softer as he took his seat on the platform.

A church without walls

In Hollifield's introduction of West, the Brookhollow Church was described as "a church without walls."

The tall Texan used Genesis 13 and 19 for his sermon titled "Lot: Five Fatal Flaws."

He explained that he would present five negatives about Lot as a message to Baptists to do and become the opposite of Lot.

West noted that Lot failed his family. The Old Testament character got caught up in "big deals with big wheels" in Sodom. As an entrepreneur, "Lot could swim with the sharks without getting eaten alive.

"Lot thought he could change society without taking a stand against it," the pastor of the middle and upper-middle class black congregation said.

West stressed that when Lot was told to leave Sodom, he could not let go.

"How much of Sodom was in Lot?" he asked.

Comparing Abraham with Lot, West said Abraham went out not knowing where he was headed but he knew he was there when he arrived.

Lot missed the point, West declared. "Some people think others will listen to their words and ignore their lifestyles.

"But that won't happen!"

People in the church are entangled in the world, West said.

"If you think everybody in your church is free, then I'm questioning you."

Abraham had a tent and an altar; Lot had a tent but was absent an altar, West said.

"If you are going to have a right anthropology, you must have a right theology," West said in closing.

He urged Baptists to protect their families, stay away from evil and make decisions based on love for one another.

"See people not where they are now, but where they can be with God."

West received a sustained standing ovation.

Just change your song

Some things change, some stay the same

John E. Mathison

The Methodist minister read from the autobiography of Herschel H. Hobbs who had referred to the growth and ministry of the Frazier Memorial Church by using some Baptist methods. Mathison said the three things which are changeless are: the man, the message and the mission of Jesus.

The highly successful pastor of a 7,000-member congregation said Christians must change their methodology, their mind set and their ministries if they are to reach people in the 1990s and the soon-to-be 21st century.

"The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing," Mathison said.

"Our world is made up of risk-takers, caretakers and undertakers," he declared.

A miracle of expansion

The closing message of the Feb. 2 evening session was brought by John L. Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention.

The West Virginia native used John 6 -- the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 ‹ as his text, from which he touched on three topics:

the multitude which assembled before Jesus, ‹ the meaning of Jesus' miracle, and,‹ the message for today.

"Being close to Christ has nothing to do with proximity, but it has everything to do with priority," Sullivan said.--Sullivan developed the idea that feeding the 5,000 was not a miracle of transformation but of expansion.

Noting that many people resist change, Sullivan said, "You will never change until your pain exceeds your fear."

For the closing illustration, Sullivan used his imagination to describe the boy who had five loaves and two fish which Jesus used to feed the 5,000.

Sullivan guessed the lad to be about 10 years old. He went home to tell his mother about all that had happened that day.

"Momma, I met the Man today," Sullivan dramatically quoted the boy.

"I met the Man that had more when He was finished than I had when I started out today.

"Momma, all I had to do was take it out of my hands and put it in His," Sullivan said in closing as he urged Baptists to be like the little boy.

Mandates for spiritual renewal

Whitfield said Isaiah's vision shows that there is a sovereignty that must be recognized, a servant that must be revitalized and a service that must be realized.

"Folks, if we could have spiritual renewal, you wouldn't be able to stop people from sharing their faith," he said.

God's power changes people

"I believe for the 21st century, what we need is a 1st century witness," he said.

Mathison talked about the presentation, priority, posture, power and purpose of the witness.

"Ultimately, it's the power of God that's going to change people's lives," he said.

The power of prayer

Using a passage from Ezekiel 33, Page preached about the importance of prayer.

Page said he heard his mother dedicate him to the Lord in a prayer when he was about six years old. "I believe that God's hand from that day was on me," he said.

Page talked about feeling the people of his church praying for him when he was in a hospital in Arkansas. Page was battling cancer, which later went into remission.

"Can we doubt the power of prayer in this whole process of winning people to Jesus Christ and discipling them?" he said.

The SBC's heresy hunters

Phil Roberts, the director of the North American Mission Board's Interfaith Witness Department, was the first preacher in the Feb. 3 afternoon session. He said workers in his department are "the only certified, registered heresy hunters in the Southern Baptist Convention."

Roberts talked about "Crossover Salt Lake City", a door-to-door evangelistic effort in that city that will take place a few days before the Southern Baptist Convention meets there in June.

"It's going to blow a lot of Mormon minds to have Baptists knocking on their doors for a change," he said.

Roberts used a passage from Matthew 7 to preach on the facts, features and fate of false prophets.

"The good news is America is being evangelized," he said. "The bad news is the cults are leading the way."

Roberts said cults always add to the Bible, subtract from the unique deity of Christ, multiply the ways of salvation and divide the church by claiming to be the "one, true church."

Roberts said Christians need to consider the eternal destiny of people who follow false prophets.

"That's why we shouldn't consider cults the enemy," he said. "We should consider them a mission field."

Why people go to church

Sometimes people, like the psalmist, think the whole world stinks, he said.

"When I diagnose the world around me and lock my mind into that diagnosis, I miss the best God has to offer," Sullivan said.

The psalmist saw that some people who weren't serving God seemed to be doing better than he was and asked why he should continue to serve God, Sullivan said. He compared it to a country song that says "I'm working my fingers to the bone and all I get is bony fingers."

The psalmist decided to go to the sanctuary and then he understood, Sullivan said.

"When I stand on the Rock, I can stand in the midst of any storm," he said.

The Baptist national anthem

The group took about 10 requests from the audience and sang all but a few requested songs. One crowd-pleaser was "Victory in Jesus," which they called "the Baptist national anthem."

The church-devouring monster

Welch said people need to "make much of Jesus" in private and in public.

"You can't be spirit-filled and not be a soul winner," he said.

Welch warned people of a "church-devouring monster lurking on the brink of the 21st century." He urged pastors to find out if church members consider Jesus the only way to reach God.

"You'll be amazed how many closet universalists you have in your church," he said. "Once you buy into that universalism, the church and New Testament evangelism is null and void."

Preach Jesus!

Becki Smith sings at the Evangelism Conference.

"But the fact is He does have a name," West said. "His name is not Allah. His name is Jesus."

West used Colossians 1:28 as his text in a sermon focusing on preaching.

"I ask the question,...What do we preach?'" he said.

Paul said to preach Jesus, West said.

"Don't get caught in arguments; they'll get you every time," he said. "You start with Jesus and you preach Jesus."

West said Jesus is the central feature, focus and function of the church.

"You don't need gimmicks and games," he said. "Focus in on Jesus."

West told the preachers not to worry if their sermons weren't taking shape, but instead to just preach Jesus.

"When you start talking about Jesus people start turning around and you also start turning around," he said. "If you get excited, other people will get excited.

"Preach Jesus!"