Words of encouragement and warning to churches in Revelation 2-3 are the foundation for the 2021 IBSA Pastors’ Conference. The Nov. 2-3 meeting features six preachers teaching sequentially through the seven churches. Day one highlighted the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira. The conference at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield concludes Wednesday with the churches of Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
The Spirit’s words to the first four churches signal how important it is for the church to have both love and truth, said Tony Merida. The North Carolina pastor concluded the conference’s first day with a message on the church at Thyatira, which had a lot going for it but lacked the discernment needed to handle a false teacher encouraging them to sin.
The Spirit commends Thyatira for their service, endurance, and growth, Merida noted, but then points out a disease was killing the church from the inside. “There was a poisonous weed in the midst of a growing garden,” he said. “That’s all it takes to destroy a church. It has to be addressed, or it destroys the garden.”
Earlier in Revelation, the church at Smyrna faced persecution. That’s one tool Satan uses against the church. The other, seduction, is a particular danger to the American church now, Merida said. “In a country where we don’t face real persecution, guess what we will face all the time? Seduction.”
There’s always the threat of a cult of personality in the church, in denominations, and in Christian organizations, he said. “The church must never lose sight of the fact that theological clarity matters.”
A lost love
You could open any commentary and get a dozen interpretations of what first love the church at Ephesus had forgotten, said Mascoutah pastor Michael Collins. Luckily, the church’s beginning is chronicled in Acts 19. The pastor of Mercy’s Door opened the Pastors’ Conference by encouraging pastors to lead their churches toward a helpless, hope-filled, honest love of Christ.
“The church is not supposed to be strong,” he said. But Christ is. “The church is weak, but it is kept and held and cared for by the only one that is strong. The only strength that we have is Christ.”
Churches as partners, not projects
Preaching on the exhortation given to the church at Smyrna, Chicagoland church planting strategist Daniel Yang identified two lessons in Rev. 2:8-11. The church today can learn perspective from the poor church, he said, and perseverance from the persecuted church.
Smyrna was both, Yang said, and from that church we can learn the importance of embracing churches in disadvantaged communities as partners in the gospel, rather than projects. The Spirit’s words to the church are also an invitation to question what rewards we’re seeking, Yang said. “Will we get the crown of life?” he asked. “Or will we earn our rusty crowns here on earth?”
Warning against compromise
The church at Pergamum received a strong rebuke in Revelation 2:12-17 because of how they had traded the truth they knew for that of false teachers. The church today could be accused of the same, said St. Louis pastor Michael Byrd.
“We have allowed he world to be our measuring rod, and not the Scriptures,” said the pastor of Faith Community Bible Church. The church is losing ground, he said, because we have lowered our weapon.
“What is our weapon? I’m glad you asked,” Byrd said. “It’s the word of God. Jesus is here in this text, y’all. He’s commissioning the church!
The IBSA Pastors’ Conference continues Nov. 3 at 8:30 a.m. Watch online at https://ibsaannualmeeting.org/watch-live/.