Language conference focuses on building Kingdom families

EUSTIS (FBC)—In resonant tones of Spanish, French, Korean, Portuguese and other languages, 375 Florida Baptists representing the denomination’s 616 language congregations heard messages on the theme “Kingdom Families” during the April 21-23 Language Conference at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center.

The two-day meeting offered culturally specific break-out seminars in the attendees’ native tongues as well as a joint worship that provided biblical insights on family and ministry.

Jedaias Azevedo, pastor of Primeira Igreja Batista Brasileira de Orlando and his wife Elaine were among those who made commitments to improve the spiritual quality of their family during the altar call of the meeting’s main worship session Thursday evening.

Spurred by keynote speaker John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, Azevedo said the message reminded him of his personal responsibility to answer the call to ministry without forgetting his family.

“Sometimes, we, as pastors, forget to separate time for our children and spouses,” Azevedo said. “But it is important to model family in our churches through the relationships between husband and wife and parents and children because those are the situations most people live in every day.”

Sullivan’s message cited Exodus and highlighted the interpretation of four compromises Pharaoh tried to impose upon Moses and the children of Israel.

Using the compromises to represent a tug of war between Egypt and Israel, Sullivan juxtaposed the conflict of a secular world’s familial views and biblical family values.

“When we go to this passage of Scripture and understand the background, we realize that the tug of war between Moses and Pharaoh is the same one that goes on in every household in the United States and around the world,” Sullivan said.

Compromises faced by Kingdom families include serving God within restricted geographical boundaries; not taking one’s faith too seriously; and failing to offer God-given resources back to God.

The most “insipid” compromise of all, Sullivan said, is that the world has much to offer young people and that youth should be left to decipher morality and faith by their own world experience.

“We hear that compromise advanced to the church, and it is advanced to you every single day,” he said. “Kingdom families depend on what we do with our children. If we miss that opportunity we forfeit our future.”

Victor Reyes, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Neptune in Neptune Beach, said Sullivan’s message affirmed his decision to continue to build a Christ-centered family focus among his immediate relations and within his own church.

“Though building Kingdom families is hard in this society, we, as pastors, need to deal with building strong families so as a result we can make strong families in our churches as we lead by example,” Reyes said.

Suggesting that Kingdom family members are “missionary harvesters,” Hayes Wicker, Florida Baptist State Convention president, also addressed conference participants during the Thursday evening assembly.

Using the cross-cultural story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Wicker encouraged participants to consider themselves called to harvest the state’s fields of souls that have come from all over the world.

Noting that there are 187 language groups in Florida of which only 36 have been reached by the Florida Baptist Convention, Wicker said the state’s residents are crying out for God.

“Lift up your eyes and see the Florida fields. They are ripe unto the harvest,” Wicker said. “Jesus is calling us as Jews or Gentiles, Brazilians or Haitians—regardless of our ethnic background or where we are from, God has placed us within this state to be missionary harvesters.”

The next scheduled meeting for the annual Language Conference is April 20-22, 2006 at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center. For more information, call 800-226-8584, ext. 3105.