Right Beside You – Church Revitalization

Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, and Shaun Pillay, minister of evangelism and discipleship, shared how Olive Baptist has come alongside Warrington Baptist Church, a church that at one time had been one of the strongest churches in Pensacola. They trained and sent a core group for leadership and live worship. Traylor’s sermon is viewed by video on the Warrington campus.

Traylor said timing is important in a revitalization work. “The church that is dying has just got to come to the place that they’re done,” he said. “When they’re finished they will find the right partner.”

Pillay said when the time is right, revitalization can be a wonderful testimony of Gospel unity in your city. “You are responsible to have a Gospel presence in your city – part of that is coming alongside your sister churches to shine the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Biblical Message – Tommy Green

Tommy Green, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, gave a message from Mark 14:3-9 about the hallmarks of faithfulness.

Faithfulness demands

• Exception – “Exception is faithful to a vision – a higher calling and we understand it is worth it to risk it all. The function of ministry doesn’t make sense to the world and the culture. If we’re kingdom people with Kingdom minded and faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must understand ministry demands exception in all our lives.”
• Excellence – “I think we’ve lowered the bar way too far within our churches and our ministries. How many today are worn out today from criticism? There will always be those who criticize our efforts but God has called us to proclaim the Gospel. Those that are criticizing are often those on the sidelines and not in the game.”
• Extravagance – “She broke the flask and poured it on the head of Christ. What she did was wasteful in the eyes of the disciples – she poured the wages of an entire year upon the Lord. Is there anything in your ministry that someone is still going to be talking about 10 years from now? Here we are 2,000 years later talking about the extravagant act of a woman who extravagantly gave to Jesus.”

Then Green shared that our faithfulness as a Convention of Florida Baptist churches means that we will be faithful in ministry. “We pledge that we will release 100% of everything over our stated budget to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program.”