June 16, 2025
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Georgia Baptists attending the first day of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Evangelism Conference heard from Christian Norman, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, and Wayne Bray, lead pastor of First Baptist Simpsonville, S.C., on Sunday, Feb. 23. More than 600 people came to Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins to be encouraged and educated in ways to share the gospel.
GBMB Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., talked about the listening sessions currently taking place across the state with pastors and ministry leaders to discuss ways to reach the 7 million lost people in Georgia. Hammond also celebrated the fact that 24,600 baptisms have been reported by churches for 2024, and that number is growing as more reports come in.
Norman took the main stage first, declaring, “We have been given a task by the Lord. We are still here so we can reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ.”
Norman shared his own personal journey, saying that earlier this year he fasted in order to “rekindle, refocus, and reprioritize” his intimacy with the Lord. Norman, a native of Detroit and former defensive captain of the Michigan State University football team, recalled being saved while in college. Following his salvation, “There was such a desire in my heart to tell people, everybody that I came across, what just happened to me. I didn’t know my Bible super well, I didn’t have all the doctrine and theology. All I knew,” he declared, “was that God had changed me.”
Over time, he shared, he lost that same level of passion. “I know that I cannot be the man that God has called me to be, the husband that God has called me to be, the father that God has called me to be, the pastor that God has called me to be, apart from intimacy with the Lord.”
During his time of fasting, the Lord led Norman to recognize “the serious of sin,” especially within the church.
Norman read from Revelation chapter 2, exhorting listeners not to tolerate sin within the church. Though we are called as believers to love people that disagree with us, nowhere in the Bible does it say to tolerate heresy and sin inside the church. Despite being an effective church, with praiseworthy works, love, faith, and service, the church at Thyatira lost its discernment and tolerated false teaching, Norman said. False teaching, he continued, justified their sinful desires.
A proper view of God, not distorted by sin, leads believers to share their faith, Norman said. “I believe that when hearts are awakened to who our God truly is, we will share the gospel. Evangelism follows on the heels of repentance.”
Bray followed with a message from Mark 2:13-17. “God,” he said, “will do extraordinary things through ordinary consistent obedience.” Success in ministry isn’t magical, it’s the result of hard work. Making disciples, he stressed, requires that we submit to a systematic process of commitment on a daily basis. “Many who claim to follow Jesus, are unwilling to actually follow Jesus,” he said, “because when we follow Jesus, we will make disciples.”
Bray said being an extraordinary witness is less about learning and more about remembering. He shared some things that Christians ought to remember to make them better at sharing the gospel.
The gospel is good news. Jesus proclaimed the gospel, and that gospel, the evangelion, is good news.
But even good news sounds bad when you don’t like the people talking. How we proclaim the truth matters, he added, noting that you can say the right thing the wrong way. Rank liberalism and legal legalism are hurting the witness of the church, Bray stated. “One tries to pull everyone into a gospel that can’t save them, the other one pushes everybody away.”
The gospel is for many and for one. In the passage in Mark, Jesus proclaimed the gospel to the crowds, but he also set His sight on an individual tax collector. Believers should be willing to share the gospel in large evangelistic events as well as through individual relationships, Bray exhorted.
The gospel message is transferred best through transformed lives. “Changed lives are the best demonstration of the power of the gospel,” Bray said, using the conversion of the tax collector Levi. “Levi was a thief, but he walked away from his table and followed Jesus,” causing people to want to learn more about what had happened to him. “The more people get saved in your church,” he said, “the more people are going to get saved.”
The gospel message is more attractive than we think. “I’ve found that there are a whole lot more people open to the gospel than we think,” Bray said. “Redemption, restoration, hope, peace - all of that is attractive to lost people.”
The gospel messenger is always the target of self-righteous, religious elitists. Bray told how the Pharisees “pushed sinners away from the truth and positioned themselves as enemies of the world. I think if you asked most lost people, that’s how they would see Christian churches in America today.”
The gospel message is for people who don’t yet have it yet. Bray stated that Jesus came to die for sinners. “If we’re talking about evangelism, the target is sinners. That’s the target of the grace of God.”
In addition to hearing the main session speakers, participants could attend one of 10 breakouts offered on specific topics related to evangelism.
The breakouts took place prior to the evening’s main sessions, and were very well-attended. One group overflowed the allotted room and spilled into the hallway.
The conference continues Monday morning, with breakout sessions scheduled at 8am and 9am. Kie Bowman, senior pastor emeritus at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, and Shane Pruitt, national Next Gen director for the North American Mission Board, will be the main speakers, beginning at 10am.
