March 23, 2025
SOMERSET, Ky. (KT) — Richard Blackaby, president of Blackaby Ministries International, concluded the final session of the REACH Evangelism and Missions Conference on Tuesday, by saying God is able regardless of the size of task or the opposition that one may face.
“God has a purpose and work of us to be done, and He will keep using us,” Blackaby said, basing his message on how his father, Henry, was faithful because he knew “God is able.”
He said his late father was “the most ordinary person you ever knew, but also the greatest man of God I ever knew.”
Henry Blackaby left a pastorate in southern California to pastor Faith Baptist Church in a remote area in Canada. The church had a ‘for sale’ sign in the yard and the remaining members told Blackaby that if he did not come, they would sell the property and disband the church.”
Richard recalled pastors who drove over a hundred miles and urged him to “not waste his ministry on a church that was going to die anyway.” His father said, “We can’t let it. If no one else will go, we will go.”
Richard observed, “When things get really tough, church leaders begin making excuses.” In this case, the objections were that Canadians were not open to the gospel and there was no funding to start mission churches. “My dad said God called me to be a follower of Him, I don’t care where it is.”
Richard said his father’s theme verse was Daniel 3:17, when Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego were ordered to bow before a false god or face death.
“We all like to think we’d be the last three standing — everyone else is on their face, but you are still standing as the most powerful king on the planet looks at you in anger and tells you to get on your face or you are dead.
But Henry’s version of v. 17 is “But our God who we serve is able … and He will.” Richard said, “That is the secret to why God used my dad so powerfully. Your ministry results are not based on the size of your budget, staff, facility or congregation … but on the size of your God.”
Richard said three characteristics exemplified his father.
1. He had complete confidence in God. When the Blackaby family moved to Canada, the church had no money and only one other staff member, the worship minister. When he heft, Blackaby’s first hire was a missions pastor. “His entire job was not to grow our church, but to go and start other churches. We have been told a church has to be a certain size to start another church. How large does your church has to be before you obey God?”
2. He trusted God in crises. “The biggest giants have grown through crises,” Richard said. “Too many times a crisis comes, and we bail to another place. He stayed right at his post through severe crises.”
Among those crises was the near death of Henry Blackaby’s wife after she gave birth. Blackaby spent the night in the hospital alone, with no one from the church coming to visit him. “Did he get discouraged? Angry? We had moved 1,800 miles,” Richard said, but his father told him, “I just bowed my head, I followed You where You led. Doctors have no more they can do. But my God is able.”
The next morning the surgeon told Henry the bleeding had stopped, but said “we didn’t do anything — it just stopped. I can’t explain it.” Richard said his dad replied, “I can — my God whom I serve is able.”
3. He kept his eyes on God, not people. Richard relayed a meeting with a pastor who talked for an hour about the problems in his church. Richard then told the man, “After an hour of talking about your church, you have not mentioned God one time. Your focus is on people, not God.”
He added, “People will disappoint you — it doesn’t take long to get disappointed with people … You’ll never see power in your ministry if you are focused on your critics, not God. Get your eyes on God.”
In 2006, Henry was honorary chairman of National Day of Prayer and stood with President George W. Bush in the White House. “If God can take someone in a church of 10 and put him in the White House, He can put you anywhere He wants. My dad had no greater honor in the world than serving Almighty God.”
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This story first appeared in Kentucky Today.
