By Lindsey Williams
Writing Specialist
In an upturned world where people rush to addictions, distractions and politicians in a desperate search for peace, the pulpit and the pew must focus on the only source and solution: Jesus.
At the 2025 Preaching Conference — a three-day event held in three locations across Mississippi — presenters from the state’s three Baptist universities led attending pastors through a seminary-level, one-day study of the Gospel of Luke. The conference welcomed about 130 attendees in total, not including the students who visited the on-campus lectures.
Dr. Joseph Bird, dean of the Cooper School of Missions and Ministry Studies at William Carey University, presented on the background and setting of the book, offering necessary context for interpretation. Dr. Wayne VanHorn, professor in the Department of Christian Studies at Mississippi College, addressed theological themes and issues within Luke that help form a broader picture of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Dr. Thomas Magers, assistant professor of biblical studies at Blue Mountain Christian University, offered 114 sermonic approaches to preaching and teaching the Gospel of Luke.
“What I love about these guys,” said John Pace, director of the Leadership Department at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, “is that they are not just professors and scholars. All three of them are pastors.
“Dr. Joseph Bird is not only dean at WCU, he is a pastor at Leaf River Church outside of Collins. For Dr. Magers, his lecture is bittersweet for us because Thomas has been a great professor at BMCU, but recently, he took the call at Ingomar Church in New Albany. Thomas is already there as their pastor, but he will finish out the semester before serving full time. Then Dr. VanHorn has served as interim pastor at Standing Pine Church in Lee County for almost five years now. So all three of these guys are not only teaching in our schools, they are also pastoring in our churches.”
“I was always excited to come and participate in the state Preaching Conference,” Bird said. “And now I’m always excited to be able to present the last several years. It has been such a joy. I appreciate Dr. Pace for letting us do this.
“One of the things I love about being Southern Baptist — and we’re not perfect, as you know — but one thing I love is that we are very clear in the Baptist Faith and Message that the Bible is a perfect treasure. I love that language; that it is truly inspired.
“We believe that everything in Scripture is breathed out by God,” said Bird. “So that means we could do these studies on any book and it would be beneficial. But I will say this: There is something uniquely precious about the Gospels. Again, we love all the Scripture, but I never get far from the Gospels. In them we find the life of our Lord: His teachings, His perfectly righteous life, that He died, He resurrected, He ascended, and it never gets old. It is this perfect treasure that never wears down and never gets rusty.”
“I love this annual Preaching Conference,” said VanHorn. “I love the fact that we have professors from all three of our Baptist universities, and the message of that is we’re not competing against each other. We’re working with each other. I have been in higher education since 1985, and every year that passes by, I thank God for Christian higher education, but I see the need for it more and more. There are weird ideas coming out of secular universities, but we have to stand for God’s truth. So I am not going to see my brothers as the enemy or the competition. It’s all hands on deck. Christ expects us to be one together, even as He and the Father are one.
“What is Luke’s theology? It is Christocentric; it focuses on Christ,” VanHorn said. “When you preach through any of the four Gospels, it is Christocentric. I preach through a Gospel every single December through Easter. It keeps us focused on Christ, but it is in service to theocentric theology: Everything is about God, and Jesus keeps doing what? Pointing us to the Father.
“God is glorified and magnified as Jesus is received in honor. Jesus says, ‘You have seen Me, you have seen the Father. I don’t do My works; I do the works of Him Who sent Me. The words I speak are the words of the One Who sent Me.’ Jesus is God’s answer to the question: How can sinners approach a holy God? In Colossians 1:18, Paul said that God has made it that in all things, Christ would have the first place in everything.”
Stepping in for Dr. Ronald Meeks, who had a trip scheduled during the conference, Magers not only shared hundreds of sermon notes but also offered a personal testimony that reflected a God-orchestrated change.
Twenty years ago, Magers — a maintenance worker, husband and new father — was hopelessly addicted to a variety of drugs. After his wife left with their infant son to live with her parents, he recognized the gravity of his downward spiral and checked into a rehab clinic. One night, after an argument with his wife over the phone, Magers begged God that he “just needed to hear from Him.” Not knowing where to turn, he opened a Bible to Luke 15, which contains the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son.
“After reading that story,” Magers said, “I hit my knees and I prayed, ‘Lord, if You will take this away from me, I’ll do whatever You want me to do.’ It was a 911 prayer, and the Lord was good and faithful to me to pick me up out of the mire that I had been in.
“If that was all He had done, it would be worth it. I spent my son’s first birthday in rehab, but from the time I got out of rehab and came back, I have just been trying to live and follow through with the vow I made to the Lord that day. Through the goodness and the graciousness of God, I’m still married to her. What a blessing that this upcoming year we will celebrate 22 years of being married. That’s what God does: God heals us and then He brings restoration to our life. I’ve gotten to see my son grow up and I’ve not missed a birthday since.
“Back during the fall semester when Dr. Meeks asked me to teach, he said, ‘Thomas, it looks like I’m going to be in Greece when they are giving this preaching conference; would you want to do it?’ My first question was, ‘Well, what book is it? This is a lot of work to do.’ Then he said, ‘It is going to be the Gospel of Luke.’ Immediately, I said, ‘Yes, I’ll be glad to do that.’
“I was more than willing to jump in on this because that’s what the Word of God does: It meets us where we are and then it changes our life. The power of the Word of God, the power of the Gospel, the foolishness of preaching, all of that comes together, and lives are changed because of the preaching of the Word of God.
“To preach the Word of God is not a burden. It is a blessing that God allows us to do. Whether it be behind the pulpit or whether it be in a Bible study or in a Sunday school class or on a Wednesday night, whatever it may be – we get to share the Word of God. I just can’t believe it that the Lord has brought me from where I was 20 years ago to where I am now, that people pay me to study the Word of God and then to talk about the Word of God! I’m living the dream.”
For information on open ministry positions across the state, or to submit a ministry job opening, visit the MBCB Ministry Job Board at https://mbcb.org/connect/find-a-job/ or https://mbcb.org/connect/submit-a-job/.
To learn more about services for Mississippi Baptist pastors and ministers, visit https://mbcb.org/ministry/leadership/pastor-and-leadership-development/.
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