Morehouse flock doubles as God touches hearts
Just days after pastor attends MBC state evangelism confab
By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer
February 8, 2005
MOREHOUSE – Pastor Randy Conn of First Baptist Church, Morehouse, was broken at the State Evangelism Conference Jan. 24-25 at Second Baptist Church, Springfield, to the point where he went to the altar to ask God to forgive him for the sin of sharing the Gospel too infrequently.
Grace motivated Conn to be a better ambassador of Christ to the youth who regularly show up at his church Wednesday night—a service the bi-vocational pastor started a couple of years ago to reach out to those who have little to do in Morehouse, a bedroom community of about 1,100 located four miles west of Sikeston. The evangelism conference was all about equipping Conn for the task of presenting the actual Good News, as opposed to pizza and games, to those young people as soon as he could.
“Monday night, when I came back to the hotel, I just got down on my knees at the side of the bed and prayed that God would prepare the hearts of those that were going to be there Wednesday night and just get them ready to receive the Gospel message,” Conn said.
God did not despise the broken and contrite spirit of the Scott County pastor, who normally preaches to a congregation of about 45 on Sunday morning. Instead, God showed His power Jan. 26 when 24 youth professed faith in Jesus Christ. That led to an immediate doubling of the flock as 90 people showed up to worship Jan. 30, with eight of the new converts coming forward for baptism.
“I call it a movement of God,” Conn said. “The lesson for me is to be obedient to God and faithful in sharing the Gospel.”
Conn said that 14 of the youth, grades 7 through 12, professed faith in Jesus Christ, and 10 of the Awana students, grades 3 through 6, did the same. He said he has never seen that many people come to Christ at one time in his life.