By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
WOODWORTH – Eddie Wren opened the fall Executive Board meeting with a challenge to pastors to set the example of the humbleness of David for their congregations.
He faced the temptation to slay his enemy, King Saul, Wren said. But David resisted his own emotions and instead sought to honor God.
“I want to be a pastor who, when people attack me, remains humble before the Lord and hears His spirit and is convicted in my heart,” said Wren, president of the Executive Board and pastor of First Baptist Church in Rayville. “In the end, I want them to see the righteousness of God in me because I humbled myself before the Lord. I hope we as pastors and leaders of this convention can have the same humility that David displayed that day.”
Eddie Wren, Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Board president and pastor of First Baptist Church, Rayville, challenged pastors to be humble like David.
Much like David, Wren said pastors are placed into spiritual battles in which they have opportunities to fight those attacking them. When those times come, Wren encouraged pastors to remember that if they will walk humbly before the Lord, He will convict their consciences, quiet their anger, and, shame their enemy.
“Even when others want to choose the wrong path, if I walk humbly before the Lord I can help others to follow the right path,” Wren said. “There may be a time God uses you in others’ lives if we will be humble before the adversaries who are attacking us.”
COME OUT OF THE CAVE
In his final message to the Executive Board as Louisiana Baptist Convention president, Gevan Spinney highlighted Gideon as a caution to others.
Citing Judges 6, Spinney said Gideon and the Israelites hid in caves for fear that the Mideonites would attack them.
Spinney urged Louisiana Baptist pastors not to hide in the caves each of us create for ourselves – of ministry – and instead to go boldly into the fields to reap the great harvest of souls God has prepared.
“We expect the world to come to us,” said Spinney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton. “We expect the harvest to come on Sunday morning after we preach a sermon. We steal away to our caves to study. We steal away into our caves of reading and study. Yet the fields are white for the harvest.”
Meanwhile, he said, “The world is stealing the Lord’s harvest while we hide in our caves.”
Then he challenged Louisiana Baptists to fight back with boldness.
“This Jesus is worth talking about,” Spinney said. “Why would we be satisfied in staying in the closet? It’s time for us to come out, church. The fields are white for the harvest. It’s time to come out of the caves.”
