Michael Kramer woke up a few weeks ago exhausted. The discipleship pastor from Immanuel Baptist Church in Benton was headed back to bed, he told his audience in Marion, but he had to do one thing first. Dispose of a raccoon in a trap on his roof. As he dug the raccoon’s grave, one of several in his yard, Kramer’s shovel hit a brick—one more obstacle standing between him and the rest and renewal he desperately needed.
The 2019 IBSA Pastors’ Conference offered encouragement to pastors and church leaders in need of it through six messages focused on the revival that only God can bring. Three Illinois leaders, including Kramer (pictured above), preached during the conference along with three speakers from Missouri and California.
Kramer spoke on the life of Elijah, who he labeled a “depleted prophet.” He was best known for raining down fire on Mt. Carmel, Kramer said, but most of Elijah’s story took place in the wilderness. That he met God there can serve to encourage modern-day leaders, Kramer said.
“God takes men and women into wildernesses to teach dependency. He does not take men and women into the wilderness that he does not plan on using. It is his way.” Even when it seems like God doesn’t provide or that he can’t overcome an obstacle, he sustains, strengthens, and shows his servants his ways, Kramer said.
Our response, he said, is simply to obey. Acknowledging he didn’t love that answer, Kramer said it was the only one he could come up with. Yes, we are to trust God, to cling and to hold to him, he said, but above everything else, we are to obey him.
At the close of his sermon, Kramer reached under the podium in Marion and pulled out the brick his shovel ran into a few weeks ago. He planned to place it on a growing pile in his office, he told his listeners, as one more reminder of the God who brings unique, specific revival.
“Tomorrow, this brick goes on the pile, and I press on, because Christ is King.”
Broken, not crushed
Even after he denied Jesus, Peter the disciple was restored to a right relationship with him. Peter’s story has lessons for all who are broken by sin today, preached Tim Lewis (right), pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Troy.
The brokenness in all of us is the result of sin, Lewis said, leading his listeners through a list of all the ways the Bible describes sin. Missing the mark, falling short, living as less than what God created you to be—all of these are markers of how sinful people operate. Thankfully, Jesus is the one restorer and revitalizer, Lewis said. Peter’s story in John 21 shows the way back, even despite brokenness:
1. Focus on Jesus’ love for you. Noting Peter’s breakfast on the beach with a resurrected Jesus, Lewis said the disciple must have sensed Christ saying, “I still value you, I still love you, you’re still meaningful to me, I still have a plan for you.”
2. Focus on your commitment to Jesus. Peter was given several opportunities to affirm his commitment to and love for Christ.
3. Follow Jesus’ command to tend to his sheep. “The pathway to restoration and revival is focusing on other people’s needs,” Lewis preached, “not your pain.”
Reclaiming powerful pulpits
Bryan Price (right), senior pastor of Love Fellowship Baptist Church in Romeoville, used the Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy to encourage pastors to revive the power of their preaching. Speaking from the book of 2 Timothy, Price said pulpits can lose their power because some preachers have traded the truth of Christ for a “watered-down, weak, and flimsy version of the gospel.”
“One of the reasons we have lost the power is because we have traded the truth of Christ for a feel-good message,” Price said, warning against the tendency to value self-help or motivational speeches over gospel preaching.
On the other end of the spectrum, he said, is the temptation to overcomplicate the message. “Preachers, your people know that you done been to school. They already know. They saw your resumé, they know where you went. You don’t have to remind them of that every Sunday,” Price said.
“Sometimes, what they need is the simplicity of the gospel.”
Price told his listeners that the more education he received, the harder it was for some people in his congregation to hear him preach. Power, he said, “is not in the stuff we know.” Rather, as Paul wrote in Romans 1, it’s the gospel that fuels powerful pulpits.