Full Manuscript: 2026 Accelerate Conference, Executive Director Address

Good morning! Thank you for being here. I know your presence takes time and resources, and our team is grateful you chose to be with us at Accelerate. 

I also want to thank some people who make this day possible. To our Executive Board, thank you for your faithful service this year. To our vendors, thank you for the resources you bring to strengthen our churches. And a special thank you to our sponsor, Church Ambassador Network, whose leader, Kurt Weaver, is a member of one of our BRN churches. Thank you also to our partners who serve alongside us and are here today: Dewey and Kathie Aiken with NC Baptists on Mission, and Randy and Pam Creamer with our Saluda Baptist Association and Western PA Partnership. 

Whether you’re a guest, new to the BRN, or have been part of this family for years, welcome. You are why we’re here. 

I also want to thank our team, our directors and Hub Support Staff, who work on your behalf all year long, and my Admin Team, who keep me and the BRN on track every week. And to my main cheerleader in life, my wife, Beth, who keeps me anchored to the journey God has given me: thank you. 

To our churches: thank you for your faithful generosity through the Cooperative Program. Last year you affirmed sending 35 percent of Cooperative Program funds on to reach North America and the world with the gospel. These are your gifts: faithfully given, faithfully stewarded, faithfully making a difference in PASJ and around the world. Please keep giving so we can together reach the 14 million lost in our own backyard and the lost world beyond it. 

I won’t give a full report on BRN activity this morning. You’ll hear more in the business session at 3:00 p.m. What I will share is that our five-year strategic plan is on track. Three of our four main goals are near completion, and we’re making progress on the fourth. More than half of our churches, 153 in all, have taken a next step, with 322 next steps taken overall. Praise God! We’re inching closer to seeing 25% of our churches become healthy multiplying churches.   

We’re on track, but we’re not there yet. That’s why, in late 2024, we launched the Next Level Blueprint and Journey. For some churches, it means strengthening a few key ministries. For others, it means a full assessment and strategic reset. Churches that have taken this step are already seeing the difference. If your church is ready for its next level, this is for you. Let’s talk.  

We’ve also redesigned our website, brnunited.org, to reflect what matters most: “Pastors are our priority, churches are our focus, and PASJ is the mission field.” We encourage you to explore it at brnunited.org.

Last year I challenged you to make a Bold Move for Jesus through your church, and to take prayer seriously: not just as a transition in a worship service, but as the means God uses to bring His presence and power to work through you. No movement in the church should be driven by self-motivation. The Holy Spirit should always drive it. 

Some of you took that to heart. You’ve asked God to do the impossible, and it is exciting to see that energy in your churches. Keep it going! Expect God to move, because He will, if He hasn’t already. And please share your prayer needs with the BRN team. We would love to pray for you.

But here is the sad reality: many of our churches didn’t move on anything last year. If we’re honest, we’ve stopped pressing forward in the commission Jesus gave us. We’ve grown comfortable holding ground instead of taking it. And unless that changes, decline and closure remain the likely outcome. 

Last year I said, “No prayer, no movement.” Today I want to build on that. Where there is no presence, there is no power. And where there is no power, there is no movement. 

But prayer isn’t always the problem. Often, it’s obedience. Many churches know what the Lord is asking of them but hesitate to take the next step. Movement begins when prayer leads to faith, and faith leads to action. And when God looks small, fear grows large. 

Here is what I’ve come to realize: no movement, no impact. 

So, let me ask you: Are you moving, or have you settled for standing still?  

The church isn’t lacking activity. Just look at our announcements. What we lack is movement. We’ve mistaken busyness for fruitfulness.

If that’s you, this is not a word of condemnation. It’s a word of opportunity. Doing more of the same will only take you as far as your own ability, and then it runs out. But the edge of what you can do is exactly where God wants to meet you, because that is where you learn to trust Him for what only He can do. 

For four years we’ve championed being bold, anchored in Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” This is our final year with that focus, and this year we turn to Bold Impact. Our keynote speakers today will encourage and challenge you to make a bold impact in the cultural arena where you serve.  

I want to take you to the banks of the Jordan in Joshua 3 and 4 and then let Paul speak to us through his letter to a young pastor named Timothy. 

Joshua 3:3–4 says: “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before” (ESV).

In Joshua 3 and 4, Israel makes three movements before they ever see impact. Before the river, they break camp. In the river, they step in before the waters part. After the river, they stack the stones. 

Again, no movement, no impact. 

Breaking camp means three things. 

First, it means following God’s presence. “The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan” (Joshua 3:11, ESV). God didn’t send His people ahead to figure it out. His presence led the way. 

That’s why prayer comes first. You cannot follow a presence you have not been seeking. Moses prayed, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (Exodus 33:15, ESV). He would rather stay in the wilderness with God than enter the Promised Land without Him. 

Bold Impact does not start with your strategy. It starts on your knees. 

Second, it means stepping out in obedience. Set out from your place and follow it” (Joshua 3:3, ESV). Following God always means leaving somewhere. For Israel, that place was Acacia Grove (Joshua 3:1). But it wasn’t the Promised Land! It was just the place they had gotten used to. 

That’s the danger of “good enough.” Two and a half tribes saw good land for their cattle east of the Jordan and said to Moses, “Do not take us across the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5, ESV). They weren’t chasing sin. They were satisfied. And Moses warned that their settling would discourage the rest of Israel. “Good enough” never stays a private decision. 

That’s the pull on many churches today. We rarely refuse God outright. We settle into what works. The schedule works. The budget holds. And because it works well enough, we stop asking where God is leading. 

Comfort will always ask you to stay. God will always ask you to follow. 

Third, it means trusting God on an unfamiliar path. “You have not passed this way before” (Joshua 3:4, ESV). The next move for your church is likely on ground you have never walked, and that is exactly where fear starts talking. What if it doesn’t work? What if people leave? 

But God doesn’t give Israel a map. He gives them the ark, the sign of His presence. And He tells them to keep their distance “so that you may know the way you shall go.” Every person could see where God was leading. They weren’t following the crowd. They were following Him. 

Fear grows when we focus on the ground. Faith grows when we focus on God. 

Breaking camp gets you to the river’s edge. But the edge is not the Promised Land. Sooner or later, someone must get their feet wet. And Joshua 3:15 tells us it was flood stage. God could have waited for low water, but He didn’t. He chose the moment when no one could take the credit but Him. And look at the order. The water didn’t stop so the priests could step in. The priests stepped in, and then the water stopped. 

Pastor, many of us are waiting for the river to part before we move. We want the budget settled, the leaders on board, and the conditions just right. But God’s pattern is the reverse. The step comes before the miracle. 

Nearly forty years earlier, the first generation stood at Kadesh Barnea looking at the same promise. Ten spies said, “We are not able to go up against the people” (Numbers 13:31, ESV), and the people believed them. That generation never left the wilderness. Now their children stand at the Jordan. Same God. Same promise. A river at flood stage. And this generation says, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go” (Joshua 1:16, ESV). 

The difference between the wilderness and the Promised Land was not the size of the obstacle. It was the people’s answer. One generation said, “We can’t.” The next said, “We’ll follow.” Which will your church say? 

Paul spoke to that same fear in young Timothy. He told him to “fan into flame the gift of God,” then said, “God gave us a spirit not of fear” (2 Timothy 1:6–7, ESV). Paul’s word for fear means timidity, even cowardice. It’s the voice that says, “Not yet. Not me. Not this year.” That voice did not come from God. In place of fear, God has given us three things, and all three stand in the Jordan. 

Power. The priests had no power to stop a river, but they could obey. Paul’s word is dunamis, the same word Jesus used: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8, ESV). God doesn’t give power so we can feel strong. It’s given so we can take the gospel where it hasn’t gone. 

That’s good news for tired churches, small churches, urban and rural churches, and churches that feel they have nothing left. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6, ESV). He doesn’t ask whether we’re strong enough. He asks whether we’ll step in. Bold Impact is about how mighty He is. 

Love. The priests didn’t step in for themselves. They “stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan… until all the nation finished passing over” (Joshua 3:17, ESV). First in and last out. That’s what love does. 

And someone was waiting on the other side. In Jericho, Rahab, a Canaanite woman with a past, had tied a scarlet cord in her window. When God’s people came, He spared her family. But God didn’t just save her life. He wrote her into the line of King David and into the family tree of Jesus Himself (Matthew 1:5). An outsider became an ancestor of the Savior. That’s the love of God. And Jesus did for us what the priests did for Israel. He stepped into death itself so we could cross over into life (Romans 5:8). 

“Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18, ESV). When we care more about the people waiting than the risk in front of us, fear loses its grip. There’s a Rahab in your town. Your step into the water may be how God brings them to Christ. 

A sound mind or self-control. The Jordan wasn’t a leap in the dark. “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5, ESV). They prepared their hearts before they moved their feet. This was faith, but it was ordered faith. The priests didn’t rush, and they didn’t retreat. 

Bold leadership is steady leadership. People don’t need a leader who is careless with risk, or one who runs from it. They need one who has prayed, prepared, follows God’s direction, and holds his ground until his people are through. 

Fear says, “Wait until it’s safe.” God never promised it would look safe. He promised wonders. The Spirit of God says, “Step in, and watch what I do.” The river never parted for those who stayed on the bank. It parted for those who stepped in. 

Again, no movement, no impact. 

But God wasn’t finished. He wanted them to remember it. 

God told them to take twelve stones “from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly” (Joshua 4:3, ESV) and set them up as a memorial, so that when their children asked, “What do those stones mean?” they would tell what God had done. You can’t pick up stones from a river you never stepped into. Testimony comes from obedience. 

Then Joshua gives the purpose of the whole crossing in Joshua 4:24: “So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” 

That is what Bold Impact is for. Not a bigger church for the sake of a bigger church. Not a better reputation for the pastor. But so that all the peoples of the earth may know His hand is mighty. Your neighbors. Your town. Your county. The nations. 

Put 2 Timothy 1:7 and Joshua 4:24 side by side. God removes the spirit of fear and replaces it with the fear of the Lord. Those two cannot rule the same heart. When our fear of failing, or of losing what we’ve built, is bigger than our fear of the Lord, we stay on the riverbank. When our awe of God is bigger than our fear of the water, we step in. 

The pastor and church who fear God most will fear the river least. 

So here is my challenge for this coming year: three bold moves for impact. 

1. Break camp. Keep the Lord in front. If you made the bold move in prayer last year, don’t let it slip; if you didn’t, start now. Before you set one goal, ask God where His presence is moving in your community, and go there. 
2. Step in the water. Name your Jordan. You know what it is. The ministry you’ve talked about for three years. The conversation you keep avoiding, the neighborhood no one in your church is reaching. Put your feet in the water before you see the river part. 
3. Expect to stack some stones. Watch for God to act and plan to tell the story. Last year I shared William Carey’s words: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” A year from now, I hope to hear what God did when we stepped in where He wanted us to go. 

And Pastor, you won’t have to step in alone. Remember the priests: first in, last out. That’s the heart of the BRN. We don’t want to cheer from the bank. We want to stand in the water with you. 

Tell us your Jordan. Let’s step in together. 

You may not have walked this way before. The river may seem high. The season may feel wrong. But God has not given you a spirit of fear. He has given you power, love, and a sound mind. And His presence has already gone ahead of you into the river. 

One generation stood at the border and said, “We can’t.” Let this be the generation that says, “We’ll follow.” 

Don’t wait for the river to part. Don’t wait for the budget to balance. Don’t wait for everyone to agree. 

Break camp. Step in. Stack the stones. 

The promise is on the other side, and the people of Pennsylvania and South Jersey are waiting for your obedience. 

So, this year, step in. Step in with prayer. Step in with faith. Step in with obedience. No movement, no impact! 

So, let’s do the first and most necessary thing now: let’s pray. 

In just a moment, I’m going to ask you to turn to one person beside you, either on your left or your right, and pray for one another. Tell each other your church’s name, then pray for that church by name. If the person beside you is from your own church, pray together for your church. 

Ask God to show that church its Jordan. Ask Him for the courage to break camp, the faith to step in, and the joy of stacking stones a year from now to tell what God has done. Ask Him to move that church in the days and months ahead to bring greater impact for the gospel in its community.

Respectfully submitted, 

Dr. Barry E. Whitworth,
Executive Director, BRN of PASJ

View the replay of Barry Whitworth’s Executive Director address here.