THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptist pastors, ministry leaders, and church members gathered at First Baptist Church in Thomasville for a Georgia Baptist Mission Board evangelism conference to hear a simple, steady message: don’t lose confidence in the gospel, and don’t stop taking it to the people who need Christ.
Nearly 500 people attended the conference, the second of three offered by the GBMB this year. Counting attendance at last week’s conference in Hoschton, as well as at two Hispanic evangelism conferences held Saturday at Fort Valley and Grayson, more than 1,300 people have been encouraged and equipped to share their faith with the lost.
GBMB Executive Director Thomas Hammond addressed those gathered at Thomasville, pointing to what he described as a growing hunger for evangelism across the state. Georgia Baptists, Hammond said, have 3,500 churches spread across the state, each with its own mission field. “What we want to do is come alongside every church in Georgia and encourage them and love on them, resource and equip them, and the Holy Spirit will give us all the power that we need to do that,” he said.
Sunday evening’s main session featured veteran preacher Bob Pitman, who returned to First Baptist Thomasville more than two decades after leading revival services there.
“I was in this church 23 years ago, last month, in a revival,” Pitman said, recalling packed services and midday luncheons that drew “over 500 every day at noon.”
Pitman, 78, told the congregation his voice was “a little weak” following a fall and a medical stretch that included a heart procedure. “My wife knows I’m here. But my doctor does not know where I am,” he said, drawing laughter. “Because he would not let me come.”
Preaching from Luke 6:17-19, Pitman urged listeners not to miss what he called an often-overlooked portrait of Jesus. He asked listeners, “Have you ever messed up in your Christian life? Have you ever wanted to start over?”
Pitman pointed them to the grace and renewal found in Christ. “There is a place where God’s children can start fresh,” he said. “And it is at the feet of Jesus.”
Developing Luke’s description of Jesus stepping down from the mountain into the crowd, Pitman repeated three movements: “He came down,” “He came down to be heard,” and “He came down to be touched.”
“It’s fun to be on the mountain with Jesus,” he said, describing moments of spiritual refreshment. “But you see, that’s not where the Christian life is lived. The Christian life is lived not on the mountaintop, but in the valley.”
In a message drawn from Romans 1:16, Caleb Turner, pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Texas, called the gospel the power of God for salvation and urged church leaders to cultivate what he described as the “philosophy of the pardoned.”
“We have replaced conviction with complacency or even sometimes competition,” Turner said, warning that ministry can drift into measuring success by crowds and programs rather than gospel urgency. “We are not competing for a full parking lot,” he said. “We are celebrating an empty tomb.”
Turner urged leaders to recover eagerness for evangelism rooted in concern for the lost. “Hell is too hot and eternity is too long for us not to be concerned with the lostness of this world!” he declared.
He also stressed that the gospel’s invitation is accessible to all who are lost. “The Bible says it’s clear as to who can be saved,” Turner said. “All who believe.”
Monday’s main session included evangelist Scott Dawson, who also drew from Romans 1:15-16 and asked the question he said many pastors feel in the current moment: “What happens when evangelism gets hard?”
Pointing to Paul’s determination to take the gospel to Rome, then the epicenter of the known world, Dawson challenged listeners to identify their own “Rome,” the place, relationship, or context where gospel breakthrough could ripple outward.
Dawson urged pastors to remember three anchors when they feel discouraged: the cost of salvation, Christ’s presence in suffering, and the long work of sanctification.
“Aren’t you glad Jesus changed your life?” he asked. “Don’t ever get over it.”
In the conference’s closing main session, Fred “Chip” Luter III of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans preached from Mark 2:13-17, where Jesus calls Levi and then eats with “tax collectors and sinners.” The passage, Luter said, highlights the fact that evangelism is effective when it is deliberate and relational.
“No thriving church happens by accident. No evangelistic culture forms by accident,” Luter said. “Intentionality is always behind great spiritual results.”
Luter walked through four marks of Jesus’ intentionality in the text: Jesus invites, reclines, attracts, and declares. “Jesus was not merely preaching to sinners,” Luter said. “He was positioning himself among them.”
Luter said faithful evangelism will often draw two groups, which he identified as “the outcasts” and “the critics,” and urged churches not to retreat from hard conversations or hard places. “For Jesus, evangelism isn’t a conference,” he said. “It’s a lifestyle.”
Calling believers to a mission-minded posture, Luter emphasized that gospel ministry is a bridge-building work rooted in Christ’s own pursuit of the lost.
Between the main sessions, attendees chose from a slate of breakouts designed to impart practical tools that churches can implement immediately.
Breakouts included “Gameplan for Evangelism,” led by Steve Parr; “A Strategy to Reach Your Mission Field,” led by Thomas Hammond; and “Pastors: Do the Work of an Evangelist,” led by Paul Ballard. Other sessions addressed evangelism in everyday relationships and overlooked places, including “More Than a Name Tag: Reaching the Unseen with the Gospel” with PJ Dunn and “Spirit-Filled Evangelism” with Brad Marchman, as well as practical, ministry-specific training like “Children and Salvation” with Krista Staton.
Two sessions led by Beth Ann Williams, “Conversations That Count” and “Turning World Cup Fever into Gospel Opportunity,” gave attendees additional pathways for sharing their faith in everyday life and at special events.
For two days, attendees were encouraged with the truth that believers are called to share the gospel boldly and faithfully, trusting God with the increase. As Turner stressed simply and directly during his message, “Whether they be a banker or a bum, if they believe, they can be saved. The addict can be saved. The prostitute can be saved. The politician can be saved. The liar can be saved. The manager at your grocery store can be saved. Your neighbor can be saved.”
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