Can We Do This Better?

An RTF Update by Josh Carpenter

“Can we do this better?” This is the question that every effective organization will continually be asking. If what we do is important enough to warrant our time and resources, we should seek to do it in the most effective way possible.

Several months ago, General Baptist leaders asked this question and received an honest answer, “Yes we can.” We can organize ourselves more effectively. We can resource ourselves in more prosperous ways. We can connect better. We can strengthen one another as individuals and churches to more effectively fulfill our mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can do better.

I’ve had the privilege to serve on the Restructure Task Force over these several months and be involved in days of conversation, debate, and prayer inspired by the notion that we can do better. There have been days that I have left meetings inspired, days I have left discouraged, and days I have just left with a headache. These are the questions that have roamed my thoughts as we have worked through this process?

IS IT WORTH IT?

Every process of change requires sacrifice. The greatest sacrifice is having to let go of something that you know for something that you don’t. It’s scary stepping into an unknown future hoping that you’ve made the right decisions and not being sure where everything is going to land. So, why take the risk? Why pay the price for an unknown result? The answer goes back to our beginning. If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing our best. In the case of the church and an association of churches, like General Baptists, that means reaching more with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the changes the RTF have proposed lead to one more church being planted, to one more country being reached, or one more soul being saved, it’s worth it. That’s what better looks like for us!

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General Baptist Ministries

Posted on

May 18, 2021

Posted under

Calling, Leadership, Oakland City University

Vocation is for More Than Pastors

By Oakland City University

Why should a student who does not intend to become a pastor pursue a degree at a Christian university? One word . . . vocation!

A vocation is different from a career in that a vocation comes from a sense of larger purpose and in response to a calling. As Christians, all of our activities should be in response to the call of God. A calling to ministry is not exclusive to pastors or missionaries. In scripture, the word ministry has at its root the idea of Christian service. A minister serves others in the name of God. Such a definition of ministry means that it is for all Christians rather than for a specific few. As Martin Luther said, “All Christians are called to the ministry at their baptism.” Being called and being ministers of the gospel is part of the basic equipment of being a follower of Jesus. Scripture reminds us that all of our activity should be done as for the Lord. Whatever our career choices, our work is to be carried out as work for God.

We should take our lives in the workplace as an opportunity to serve God and witness to the good news, making God present in whatever situation and whatever circumstance we encounter. Teachers, counselors, business owners, scientists, lawyers, accountants, data analysts, computer programmers, office administrators, law enforcement officers, and individuals in hundreds of other jobs are ministers of the gospel, even if they are not pastors. While a career in one of these areas is rarely officially connected to the church, Christians are called by God to carry their calling into all areas of life. All of the work of the people of God is about vocation!

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Posted by

General Baptist Ministries

Posted on

May 13, 2021

Posted under

Calling, Pastoring

Called To Stay

An Interview with Barry Cullen & Byron Beck

The average tenure of a pastor in the United States is less than 6 years. In some extraordinary cases, a pastor stays at a single church for all or much of their ministry. Such stability in ministry is not always possible or ideal, but those cases where a pastor spends 30 or 40 years in the same congregation should be celebrated for the commitment to a particular people and a particular calling. Furthermore, these pastors who are called to stay in one congregation for so long have much to teach other pastors about consistency, faithfulness, and intentional freshness in ministry. Byron Beck has been Senior Pastor of Fellowship General Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, since 1987. Barry Cullen has been Pastor of the Providence General Baptist Church in Providence, Kentucky, since 1988. These pastors have seen many changes in their ministry lives. Interim Executive Director Danny Dunivan interviewed them to allow them to talk about their callings and how they have been able to maintain ministry in the same congregations for so many years.

Danny: Tell us about your original sense of calling to ministry. At what moment did you realize you were called to ministry as a pastor?

Barry: I first felt the call to ministry when I was about 14. I was attending church camp, and I believed that the Lord wanted me to preach. I shared with some of the leaders about how the Lord was dealing with me. They prayed for me and encouraged me to go back home and talk to my pastor. However, by the time Sunday arrived I had convinced myself that I was too young for God to use as a preacher and I never mentioned it to my pastor. I was leading music at my home church, and I convinced myself that I was doing enough.

Several years later, at the age of 19, God began to deal with me once again, and I became very burdened. I spoke to a pastor whose opinion I greatly valued. He urged me to follow God’s leading and the next Sunday I announced my calling.

Byron: Calling to the ministry for me, was somewhat “undefined” at first. It began to stir in me about one year after my conversion. I was a senior in high school. I was being discipled through a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit in the McLeansboro First General Baptist Church in McLeansboro, Illinois, and, at the same time, a vibrant high school youth ministry in Carmi, Illinois. I was watching others do ministry and was gradually being invited to serve by people around me. There were two people in particular who saw something in me and encouraged me to listen for God’s voice and His will for my life. It eventually became a slow-growing but unmistakable calling to serve Jesus with all of my life— and, the more I moved into my calling and acted on it, the more it was confirmed for me.

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