STATESBORO, Ga. — Using Enoch as an example, Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., encouraged pastors and ministry leaders to focus on pleasing God. “What was different about Enoch? I’ll tell you what was different, he was a man who pleased God,” he told those gathered for the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention in Statesboro last week. Gallaty emphasized that no matter what you do, you should do it for “an audience of One.”
Gallaty then described ways in which believers displease God. “You can’t please God and please man at the same time,” he said. He admitted that he is a people-pleaser, and that this is a constant struggle. “When we fear men, we begin to step back from the call of God in our lives,” he explained.
Though many churches shrank during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gallaty asked pastors, “What if we stopped worrying about trying to get back the people who left… and we spent that time trying to hear from God?”
It is impossible to please God and promote oneself at the same time. Gallaty described his success after leaving seminary, saying he started climbing the denominational ladder "because that’s what you’re supposed to do." He did it, he said, “Not for the glory of God, but for the platform of Robby.”
As time passes, pastors can often lose sight of the goal of their ministry and be seduced by the lure of successful ministry that is not focused on Jesus. “Do not fall in love with the ministry of Jesus,” Gallaty cautioned, “and out of love with the Jesus of your ministry.”
Gallaty declared that there is one way to please God, and that is by faith. He quoted Manley Beasley’s definition of faith: “Believing that it is so, when it is not so, because God said so, so it can be so.” He went on to say that Jesus’ disciples would have understood the word to mean “faithfulness” or “allegiance.”
Each day, when believers wake up, they should celebrate a funeral and a coronation, Gallaty said. A funeral as they put themselves to death, and a coronation of Jesus as Lord and King of their lives, reaffirming their allegiance to God. “God will measure the effectiveness of your ministry,” he told pastors, “by the faithfulness you have demonstrated toward Him.”
In his own life, Gallaty has cultivated the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude in order to draw closer to God. He said, “The volume of the noise in our life is so loud, we couldn’t hear God if we tried.” That discipline has led him to a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit. Reflecting on that relationship, Gallaty confessed, “He’s a good friend of mine now, but back then He was a casual acquaintance.”
Gallaty then expounded on what he believes to be an issue keeping revival from occurring in some churches. “The problem to revival coming to your church is you,” he said, before sharing how he struggled when God revealed to him his own pride and jealousy. He said he heard from God that, “If you can’t pray for the church down the street to be blessed, I will never bless Long Hollow. This is My kingdom, not your kingdom, and I will build it without you.”
He then described the revival that occurred at Long Hollow, where 1,600 believers were baptized over the course of eight months between 2020 and 2021. “I was the problem,” he shared. “The moment I got out of the way, God began to work in a miraculous way... That was God-sent, Spirit-led revival where God gets the glory!”
In closing, Gallaty called on pastors who have been trying to do ministry in their own strength, who have made it about themselves rather than God, or who have tried to please people, to pray at the altar. Gallaty prayed over them and asked that revival would begin in their hearts, and that those around them would notice enough of a difference to ask, “What happened?”
Their reply? “We had an encounter with Jesus."
