Our 54th Annual Spring Conference began this evening at Thompson Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

Bro. Jim Orrick led the congregation in a mission hymn he learned from Bro. Harold Bratcher, “Go Ye Into All the World”.
♪ Far, far away, in death and darkness dwelling,
Millions of souls forever may be lost;
Who, who will go, salvation’s story telling,
Looking to Jesus, heeding not the cost? ♪. After which, we sang “All Hail the Power”.
♪ “Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe, on this terrestrial ball to Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all. ” ♪

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Pastor David Mitchell, who is the teaching pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Hurricane, West Virginia, was the first speaker. His text was from 1 Corinthians 9.

What our churches do at home is vitally important to the effect of missions abroad.

Missionary William Carey told his supporters, “I will go down into the well if you hold the rope.” If we’re not doing missions in our community, we won’t be able to hold the ropes much longer for our foreign missionaries.

Is your church inward focused or outward focused? Does it exist to serve the members or reach the lost?

There are four hindrances to being an externally focused, mission-minded church.
1) Spiritual Hindrances
We must be beholding the face of Jesus for that is where transformation takes place. Our ministry is to be image-bearers of Jesus and to let the world see Jesus in us. (2 Corinthians 3:17-4:1)

2) Personal Prejudices (Acts 10)
Peter was to reach the Gentiles…and it was time to do something different.

3) Cultural & Historical Preferences (1 Chronicles 12:32)
Jesus never told the world to go to church. He told the church to go to the world. Know what’s going on in the world around you and know how to relate to the culture. Paul knew what people were reading and the happenings at Mars Hill. (Acts 17)

4) Generational Gap
Learn to adapt your approach to how people process things.

Can our kind of church reach our kind of world? What are we willing to become to reach coming generations for Christ?

You and I are believers because of foreign missions. 

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 ♪ Following the first message, we sang “At Calvary” and then the conference offering was given as Bro. Stanley & Sis. Emily Keyes from Illinois ministered in song through trombone, piano, and voice.  ♪ He died for me!  ♪ This couple has been so faithful to come and play at the Spring Conference for the past 19 years–and what a blessing they are!

All the Pastors and ministers in attendance stood up to represent their churches, representing churches from Florida, Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Kenya, Brazil, and elsewhere.

♪ Lydia & Sarah Wainright played a piano and flute duet of “Just Over in Gloryland” right before the second message.

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Pastor Jonathan Turner, who pastors Richland Baptist Church in Livermore, Kentucky, brought the second message, from Luke 4:16-30.

It was here that Jesus would publicly declare who He was and define the purpose of His ministry. If this describes the ministry of Christ, does this then describe our ministry? It should.

Who is the audience?
1) The poor. The physically poor, but especially the spiritually poor. This world has nothing to offer but scraps in comparison to the offerings of eternity!

2) The brokenhearted. Those who are crushed under burdens. People are under great burdens just by living in this world, but they’re also under great spiritual burdens without Christ.

3) The captives. Those who have been captured and forced to go with their captors. People are held in bondage by Satan and their sin, but often don’t realize they are in bondage. (2 Timothy 2:26; Ephesians 2:1-3; John 8:3-4)

4) Blind. Those who are spiritually blind, whose eyes have been darkened. (Psalm 82:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:37-40)

5) Bruised. Every single human–our very humanity–has been marred by Satan and Christ alone can recreate our image to what it needs to be.

So our audience is made up of everybody, but sometimes we pick and choose. Our message is for everyone. My audience is everyone I come into contact with. My audience is the world.

What kind of message do we have for our audience? Our message is proclaiming the Good News of Christ. Jesus drew people to Himself; likewise, we point people to Jesus Christ. Point people to the cross and the Risen Savior. That’s when their burdens fall away. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

We have a big task, but we have Someone bigger than the task. We aren’t the liberator, deliverer, or healer, but we know Who is!

Tell them about Jesus. Our message is Christ!

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We ended the evening by singing, “Just As I Am”.

♪ Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come. I come. ♪

We hope you can join us tomorrow! [Schedule]