By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – During the 2025 Louisiana Baptist Pastors Conference, Nov. 10, held in the Randolph Riverfront Center, Alexandria, speakers offered words to encourage pastors.
TODD STRAIN
Todd Strain, pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Alexandria, spoke during the opening session from Matthew 6:16-18 and encouraged pastors to consider fasting.
“I believe for us today if we fast before the Lord as He has called us to do, I believe we will experience His power and provision,” he said.
Strain shared that fasting, which is mentioned more than 80 times in the Bible, is an expression of our longing for God, that it will be rewarded, and in
volves a plan.
Strain said that while the reward from fasting is answered prayer, we also will receive His presence by doing so.
“More than His provision, we need His presence,” he said. “The reward from fasting is we get His presence. When we have His presence, we have all we need.”
Before fasting, Strain said to define a timeframe such as sunup to sundown, decide to give up something like food and find various times to pray throughout each day.
“Overall do a heart check,” he said. “What is God calling you to? Are you doing it for the right motivation?
“Pick a day, pray about it and fast,” he continued. “See what the Lord will do.”
PHILIP ROBERTSON
Philip Robertson, pastor, Philadelphia Baptist Church, Deville and Alexandria, told pastors that despite what they experience, it can always be worse.
“I think one of the most powerful statements that could encourage us is this,” he said. “I’ve read the back of the book and we win.”
Preaching from Revelation 22:12-21, Robertson said pastors can be encouraged because of the coming of Jesus, the compensation from Jesus and the call to Jesus.
He reminded pastors that they are in hostile territory and in need of rescue from the Lord.
“When you got saved and accepted Jesus Christ, you were enlisted into the army of the Lord,” he said. “You may feel like you too have been shot down behind enemy lines and now you’ve got to learn how to survive in hostile territory. This world is not my home. Don’t forget it.”
Robertson said God has not abandoned His soldiers and has given them a game-changing weapon.
“One of the most neglected things in the church today while we’re living behind enemy lines, we are not taking advantage of our ability to communicate with command central,” he said. “It’s called the power of prayer.”
Robertson cautioned pastors not to get too comfortable behind enemy lines, and he said all Christ followers will receive a reward in the end.
“The King is coming,” he said. “Live faithful behind enemy lines. Jesus is coming quickly, and His reward is with Him.”
STEVE HORN
Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn cited John 6:1-15 to remind pastors that there is nothing too big or too small for God.
Horn said that through the feeding of the 5,000 as told in the four Gospels, Jesus reveals that He cares, is conforming His followers into the image of His Son and is confirming who He is.
“If it matters to you, it matters to God,” Horn said. “The Lord cares, and He meets your daily needs.”
Horn said that God is using the struggles of today to prepare His followers.
“Does it make a difference to you that your trial may be in fact to test you?” he said. “One of the things that we discover is that when we feel like we are being tested, it actually is not our test. But in a way, in a sense, it’s God’s test.”
He reminded pastors they are not alone in their suffering, and they must simply cry out to Jesus.
“You don’t need to be dying for God to step in,” he said. “One of the miracles the Holy Spirit included in this sacred text was to provide lunch for a hungry crowd. Give it to Jesus. For He Himself already knows what He is going to do.”
MARK JOHNSON
Louisiana Christian University President Mark Johnson cited Matthew 14:22-36 as a reminder for pastors that if God has called them to their roles, He will get them through the difficult times.
“Stay connected to who He is,” he said. “Because there’re a lot of distractions trying to distract you from who He is. But if you stay attracted to Jesus, then something happens on the inside of you and it’s not that you don’t care. It’s that you’re so locked in on who He is that you can handle everything else that comes along the side.”
He said that no matter what pastors may be experiencing, they will win in the end.
“The Word of God has the ability to break any yoke that’s in your community right now,” he said. “The Lord has the ability to restore your marriages. The Lord has the ability to give you the vision to push you through what you’re going through. But you’ve got to be willing to sit down, open up His Word and begin to pour out love through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because with it, you cannot fail.”
He reassured pastors that they can go into battle with confidence each day because Jesus is on their side.
“When we go into battles every single day, the reason why you are able to stand, even with tears in your eyes, is because of Jesus Christ,” he said. “Pastors, keep going. Pastors, keep pushing. Don’t throw in the towel. Ministers and pastors’ wives, you keep holding on, too. You keep on pushing because God has a great plan for you and your family. And as you walk with Him, you know you’re never alone.”
NATHAN LINO
Nathan Lino, pastor, First Baptist Church, Forney, Texas, said there is an instruction, promise and reward that leads Christ followers back to personal holiness.
“Draw near to God,” said Lino, basing his message on James 4:1-10. “He will draw near to you, and He will exalt you. Jesus by His grace, Jesus by His power, Jesus by His love and mercy will supernaturally step into your life and pick you out of something.”
Lino appealed to pastors to practice personal consecration daily, surrender to the Lord and establish Jesus as their chief love.
“You talk out that humility, that repentance, that surrender, that Christ above all until it’s sincere and real and fresh in your heart,” he said. “That pathway of prayer is the pathway home, home to the presence of the Lord. Start going down that pathway every morning.
“You will run smack dab into your heavenly Father,” he continued. “He’s waiting out front, staring at that horizon eager for you to come down that pathway of personal consecration.”
JARED WILSON
Jared Wilson, professor with Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri, closed the Pastors Conference by reminding pastors to consider Christ their High Priest and be encouraged by His presence.
Wilson, preaching from Hebrews 3:1-6, said our High Priest is the greater glory, the glorious God and the God of grace.
He reminded pastors that they have a great advocate on their side.
“When critics in your church work to undermine your ministry, when gossips in your community eat your reputation for lunch, when a voice inside your head tells you things are too hard, that your mission is impossible, when the enemy is in your ear whispering accusations and allegations, you remember that your High Priest is the glorious God,” he said. “And if God is for us, who can be against us.”
He assured them that no other person will be more faithful to their church than Jesus.
“When you feel lonely and forgiven and forgotten and disrespected, consider our great high priest Jesus, the God of Christ,” he said. “He has made you a co-heir of heavenly glory and adopted you as his brother into the Father’s home.”
LANGIAPPE
Pastors Conference President Tommy Kiker, pastor of East Leesville Baptist Church, thanked the pastors for attending.
“We’ve been blessed by the preaching of the Word – thank you preachers – and most of all blessed by being reminded that our great High Priest is our Lord Jesus,” he said. “If we want to be encouraged every single day as we walk in ministry, look onto Jesus.”
The afternoon session included a time of prayer for pastors and their families.
Finally, officers were elected to lead the 2026 Pastors Conference: Joey Smith (pastor, Grayson Baptist Church) president; Garrison Griffith (pastor, First Baptist Church, Wisner) vice president; and Juri Thompson (pastor, First Baptist Church, Archibald) secretary.
