By Mark H Hunter, Regional Reporter
AMITE – Six local pastors were prayed over and deacons, trustees and spouses were also blessed in a recent “Call of the Captain” leadership conference presented by longtime men’s ministry leader Paul David Freed and hosted at First Baptist Church of Amite.
The “Call of the Captain” conference is designed for pastoral and church leadership – for both men and women – and is the next generation ministry of Freed’s well-known and effective “Mighty Men of God” conferences. The Amite event was the first of several similar conferences set over the next several months in Louisiana.
This particular conference, held Friday evening and Saturday morning, Nov. 2-3, and attended by about 40 local church leaders and spouses, was a “pilot” Freed said, designed for church leaders and their spouses. He anticipates larger crowds, similar to the “Mighty Men” conferences, at the dozens of future events already scheduled for Louisiana, Georgia and several other states.
The “Call of the Captain” conference covers 24 biblical leadership titles, both Old and New Testament, and details all the attributes of all those titles, Freed said. “By the time we get through
“Call of the Captain” leadership conference blesses many livesit the participants get a real good feel for what it means to be a biblical leader – why we use the generic word captain.”
While the Mighty Men conference included 180 slides, eight videos and objects, like a shield, spear and antique Holy Land oil lamp, this “Captain” conference uses 350 slides and 20 videos. “It is a high media event,” Freed said, that quickly moves from two or three minutes of live ministry to power-point slides and videos, including some historic film shot by Freed’s grandfather before Israel actually became its own nation again.
Some of the attributes of the biblical “Captain” explained in detail are the priest, elder, prophet and prophetess, king, apostle, evangelist and pastor. During the “pastor” segment, Freed called to the front of the sanctuary the six pastors in attendance and the audience, along with Freed, lifted their hands toward them, prayed over them and blessed them.
“You are our champion,” Freed told the men and the audience repeated his statements. “You are our model of Christ. We love, support and respect you. Your wife and your family are important to us. Hold your place in God. Keep your walk clean. We are your flock – care for us as our Great Shepherd would. God bless you.”
Dale Parker, associate pastor for senior adults and discipleship of First Baptist of Franklinton, said, “I’ve been to Promise Keepers and this reinforces what I’ve already learned.”
Glen McCall, men’s ministry specialist for the 4,000 church-Georgia Baptist Convention, was in attendance and said Freed will host a Mighty Men conference for them in August. “I absolutely recommend” Freed’s ministry, he said.
“It just re-affirmed for me the importance of leadership for both the pastor and how to teach our people to be leaders,” Mike Shumock, pastor of East Fork Baptist in Kentwood, after the conference’s conclusion.
“It is important for the lay leaders too. And not just for men,” added Suzanne Shumock. “So many times the lay people lay everything on the pastor – it takes everyone working together to get things done.”
Gibbie McMillan, LBC’s Men’s Ministry strategist and manager of disaster relief, is coordinating Freed’s conferences around Louisiana next year.
“Our theme this year as Louisiana Baptists is ‘Awaken,’ and if we don’t catch the vision of this message we’re going to continue to see the church dwindle to where it makes no difference in the world,” McMillan said. “We are in the Laodicean age and the church needs to step up because time is running out.”
Host Pastor Mike Foster of First Baptist, Amite, said he wants all of his church leaders to hear this conference. “He can hit you hard,” Foster said.
Stan Statham, Director of Missions for Two Rivers, Washington and William Wallace associations, was instrumental in Freed’s conference visit, and said he recommends it to all the Louisiana associations.
“Dr. Freed’s statement, ‘are we bringing the world into the church or are we going with the gospel to the world?’ is extremely important,” Statham said.
Freed said he is excited about the response to the conference and is looking forward to bringing it to churches around Louisiana.
“In February we’re doing Highland Baptist for the whole Lafayette area, then we’re going to Jefferson Baptist in Baton Rouge the next weekend,” Freed said. “Then we’ll be at Fair Park at West Monroe and the next weekend at First Baptist of Bastrop.”
Conferences are scheduled for the Shreveport and Ruston and Pineville in April and in Lake Charles and DeRidder in August and Bogalusa in September, Freed said. He’ll also go to Georgia, Kansas and Nebraska in the next year.
For more information visit Freed’s web site at: www.mightymenofgod.com.