O’FALLON – Saying he was speaking to young people but letting everyone else listen in, Paige Patterson challenged students to get involved in missions, and challenged First Baptist Church of O’Fallon to invest in young people for full-time missions and pastoral ministries.
Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, made the comments October 23 during First O’Fallon’s second morning worship service to conclude a weeklong missions emphasis.
“Is it possible that God has chosen you to be a missionary?” Patterson asked. “You say ‘well there’s no money in that.’ You’re right about that.”
But, he, said, “If God calls you into the Lord’s work I want to promise you adventure beyond anything you have ever experienced or had in your whole life.”
He said he often hears students say God hasn’t called them into a full-time mission or pastoral work.
“How do you know? Have you asked Him?” Patterson asked. “Most young people go through life and they never ask God.”
“I triple dog dare you to ask God if he has a plan and a purpose for your life that involves the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He said he also finds students want adventure in their lives, and said that God’s work will provide that.
“When I made my commitment to ministry I had no idea what God would do with me,” he said.
Since that commitment Patterson has been involved in conservative issues within the Southern Baptist Convention, and was one of the architects of the conservative resurgence almost 40 years ago within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He’s pastored churches, worked a street ministry, led Baptist seminaries and colleges, served two terms as president of the SBC, shared the gospel with foreign heads of state, and traveled to more than 125 countries.
“I’m stunned,” Patterson said, about how God has used him.
He related the story of Rodney Masona, a friend at Southwestern Seminary completing his PhD degree, who had a different type of ministry adventure. In 2003, Masona was a pastor in a small village in a remote part of Zambia.
“One day he’s reading his Bible and God speaks to his heart. And he said “ I want you to witness to the president of Zambia.”
Patterson said Masona was initially reluctant because of the obstacles he faced in meeting Zambia’s President, Levy Mwanawasa. God assured Masona the obstacles would be overcome.
Masona traveled to Zambia’s capital—Lusaka, and asked capital guards to let him—uninvited—meet Mwanawasa. Surprisingly, he was admitted and explained the gospel to the president.
Mwanawasa accepted Christ and, though the president would die within five years of his conversion, it had a profound effect on the country, Patterson said. Zambia moved from being a nation without resources to “to being one of the leading nations of Africa.”
Patterson then asked the First O’Fallon youth, “You can spend your whole life and you can make a bankful of money…but when you come time to die, will you have made a difference in the world?”
He also warned them, “You will face obstacles” in serving Christ.
Highlighting verse 17 of Jeremiah 1from his focal reading, Patterson offered the encouragement: “(Enemies) will fight against you but they will not prevail against you because I am with you, says the Lord God, to deliver you.”
Patterson also challenged First O’Fallon to pray for full-time missionaries from among its youth. “Would you pray among other things that God will raise up young people who will take the gospel to the ends of the earth?”
First O’Fallon’s Global Missions Celebration (GMC) is an annual fall event celebrating the previous year’s missions work, and kicks off the next year’s local, domestic, and international projects.
The weeklong conference includes missionaries from church partners and others who demonstrate how the gospel is spread throughout the world.
In 2017, the church will sponsor local and regional projects, as well as send teams to aid Native American work in Montana and church planting in Minnesota. International projects include efforts with partners in El Salvador and Israel.
