The Pastor's Conference -- an auxiliary session to the annual meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC).-- opened on the evening of Nov. 9 in the auditorium of Calvary Church, Winston-Salem, with several hundred people in attendance, apparently most of them laypersons.

When hands were raised to indicate pastors and their wives in the audience, only a few of the congregation responded.

Calvary pastor C. Mark Corts welcomed the group and expressed appreciation for those present, noting that many had to leave their own services to be in the Pastors' Conference.

Conference president Allan Blume echoed the welcome of Pastor Corts as he outlined the program and objectives of the meeting.

Blume, a candidate for second vice president of the BSC, was defeated by David Crocker, pastor of Fayetteville's Snyder Memorial Church. Blume is pastor of Mt. Vernon Church, Boone.

Brunson during his closing sermon

Hurts, disappointments and pain
After several selections of music were presented by the Mt. Vernon choir and other musical groups, Fred Wolfe, president of Barnabas Ministries, used 1 Thessalonians 5:15 as his text to focus attention on forgiveness, rejoicing, prayerfulness and thanksgiving.

"The ministry is not easy," Wolfe said.

"The ministry has many unanswered questions, and it is full of hurts, disappointments and pain," the former chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee said.

"The ministry is not always fair," he added. "But it is not your circumstances that determine the quality of your life, but rather your response to those circumstances."

He asked if "every day with Jesus is sweeter...then why wait a week to get with Him?"

Wolfe insisted that forgiveness is not an emotion; it is a choice, and it does not imply approval of the person forgiven.

The former pastor of Cottage Hill Church, Mobile, Ala., cautioned the pastors about rejoicing in evil as he insisted that God does not instigate evil.

"Praying without ceasing" is an attitude rather than an activity, Wolfe said. He called for a distinguishing between concern and worry as he urged the pastors to give thanks, not "for everything," but "in everything."

Reacting to God
Donald Wilton, pastor of First Church, Spartanburg, S.C., delighted the audience with his accent and quips about many things.

The second sermon of the Nov. 9 session was based on Acts 3-4. Using the narrative of Peter and John going up to the temple, Wilton preached about the actions of God and the reaction of mankind.

"When God does marvelous things, people sometimes react with silence," Wilton said.

Others react with anger, Wilton said, but still others will believe in Christ when they hear the message of God presented.

Wilton has served as professor of evangelistic preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of First Church, Columbus, Miss., before accepting the Spartanburg pastorate.

When Blume introduced Wilton, he told the congregation that he had been impressed by Wilton's preaching and wanted the North Carolina Pastors' Conference to have the opportunity of hearing him.

On Nov. 10, several hundred people at the conference heard six sermons.

The church's business
Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, used a passage from Revelation 3 to show how a church can know it is the church of Jesus Christ.

The church of Jesus Christ has Jesus as its object of major concern, Patterson said. The church's business will be winning the lost to Christ, not financial accounting, he said.

"I'm going to shock a few of you this morning and tell you you don't need a monthly business meeting," he said. "Where do you find that in the Bible? That's a Southern Baptist invention that God could do without."

Patterson said some people have probably heard that he is "one of those pastoral authority guys who didn't believe in the democracy of the saints.

"Will you please show me where in the Bible it says anything about the democracy of the saints?" Patterson said. "I believe in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit."

The church should focus on the work of Jesus -- which is saving the lost, Patterson said. He said Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry and had a number of social ministries "on the side."

The church of Jesus Christ will emphasize the word of God, Patterson said. Jesus said "Oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written," he said.

"Now let the record show Paige Patterson didn't call anybody who fails to believe every syllable of the word of God a fool," he said. "I didn't. Jesus did.

When a crisis comes
The second preacher on the morning of Nov. 10 was Charles Page, pastor of First Church in Charlotte, who has been battling cancer for a year and a half.

"They say that there's no cure for cancer of the bone marrow," he said. "But my reply to them has been neither was there a cure for blindness when Jesus met Bartimaeus."

Page used a passage in Matthew 15 to talk about the importance of faith.

"The question we often ask ourselves when crisis comes is the question 'Why?'" he said. "But the question is not "Why?' but "God, what do you want to do in it and through it?'"

Page said that when a crisis comes, a Christian can be sure that Jesus is with them.

"Don't feel sorry for the Charles Pages of the world who are going through their crises, because Jesus is there," he said.

Stir up the gift
George McCalep, pastor of Greenforest Community Church in Decatur, Ga., closed the morning session by preaching from 2 Timothy 1. He said Christians need to "stir up the gift and be not ashamed."

McCalep said Timothy was timid.

"Some of us have been saved so long that we've lost our compassion for a lost world," he said. "I call it sanctified beyond sanctification."

Paul gave Timothy three reasons that he shouldn't be ashamed, McCalep said.

First, because Timothy's fore-parents weren't ashamed. Second, because of the nature of the gift, which is love. And finally, because of the nature of the gift-giver, Jesus Christ.

Don't be a coward
David McKinley, senior pastor at First Church in Merritt Island, Fla., opened the afternoon session with a sermon from the same text.

He urged pastors to pay attention to their spiritual passion, to press on in the face of pressure, to proclaim the cross in their preaching and to put their hope in God's promise.

"God doesn't want you to be a coward," McKinley said. "God doesn't want you to be tentative in you ministry."

Seeing the cross
Harold Danley, pastor of Pinehill Church near Monroe, La., and a former professional hit man, preached from 1 Timothy 1.

Danley's sermon was filled with stories about his life. He told how he lived a rebellious life as a youngster.

Danley told how he started as a hit man when a man offered him $500 to beat up another man and kick him out of his house.

Later, Danley wanted to date a young girl, but her mother would only let him see her daughter if he went to church with her.

Danley attended a revival with the girl. The next day he was supposed to shot a man. He was hiding beside a train track when the man passed.

Danley raise a rifle and looked through the scope, but couldn't pull the trigger. "All I could see was the cross," he said.

Harold Danley

At the revival that night, the preacher pointed at him and convinced him that he was going to hell. A Sunday School teacher told Danley that if he'd confess his sins and accept Jesus as his Savior, Jesus would save him.

"I did and He did," Danley said.

Get excited
The conference closed with a sermon by Mac Brunson, senior pastor at Green Street Church in High Point. Brunson was elected president of the BSC the next day.

Preaching from Titus 2, Brunson said preachers can only find authority in the word of God. "We need to remember sinners still die and go to hell," he said.

Preachers can find power in their preaching by anticipating the return of Jesus, Brunson said.

"If you're preaching His word, He's coming back to validate it and to vindicate it," he said. "We need to preach the emancipation of His redemption."

Christian were bought with a price, Brunson said.

"People say åWhy do you get so excited?'" he said. "How can you stay so calm?"

During a business session, Hampton Drum, pastor of South River Church in Statesville, was elected president of the Pastor's Conference. David Horton, pastor of Gate City Church in Greensboro, was elected president-elect. H. Clifton Black, pastor of Mountain Grove Church in Granite Falls, was elected vice president.

Dale Robertson, pastor of North Main Church in Salisbury, was reelected secretary-treasurer. People attending the conference gave an offering of $2,268 toward a library at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute.