About the 2010 Kentucky Baptist Pastor's Conference:
Alistair Begg, pastor of Parkside Church near Cleveland, Ohio, who hosts the
daily radio program, “Truth For Life,” preached from Acts 4 which records the
imprisonment of John and Peter after the healing of crippled man in Jerusalem.
Begg noted that when speaking before church leaders, Peter “is not dealing
in some abstract proposition. His evangelistic preaching is essentially a
logical deduction from certain historical events. He is in this position on
this day because Jesus is alive.”
That clarity of doctrine and purpose is “imperative if we are going to reach
the coming generation with the gospel,” Begg said. Peter’s unapologetic
statement “stands in marked contrast to a lot of the stuff that is burbling out
of contemporary pulpits in America.”
The native Scotsman and Edinburgh pastor said he sometimes feels like “an
old man watching the circus pass through town” when observing some contemporary
worship services.
“I am committed to being a hip pastor,” he said, explaining that in his
context “hip” meant serving with “humility, integrity and purity.”
Begg posed and then answered the question: “If American Christianity is not
to collapse and dissolve in a morass of religious relativism, what is
required?”
Believers must confess their departure from the clear message of the gospel,
he said. Conviction to doctrinal truth, and the acceptance of persecution from
the world also is required. Finally, the church must demonstrate compassion to
others.
“People know they’re messed up,” Begg said. “It is the work of the Spirit of
God to convict of sin, not you. But when those people are confronted by the
depth of that, do they find mercy? Do they find compassion? Do they find
guidance (from the church)?”
Dr.
Alistair Begg, preaching to seminary students, Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary, September 29, 2014, "Workers in the Word." If ever there
was a time that Pastors need to return to their main task as preachers of the
Word, and stop trying to provide entertaining worship, it is now.