Pitman encourages believers to pray, send, give to advance God’s Kingdom

“Connect the local church to what God is doing,” preached Vance Pitman, president of the Send Network of the North American Mission Board, during the Feb. 28 chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College.

Interim President David S. Dockery welcomed Pitman to the campus explaining he has known Pitman for “many years” and has “watched and followed his ministry with amazement and thanksgiving to God for how the Lord has used him in such significant ways.”

Pitman began by expressing gratefulness to be “back on the campus of Southwestern” and thanksgiving for the “opportunity to gather and be here today.”

In Sept. 1999, Pitman and his family were called to move from Alabama to Las Vegas, Nevada, to plant a church. Since there were no people for a church initially, his evangelistic outreach was done through coaching a Little League baseball team. Through his obedience to the Lord and the Lord’s work, he was able to lead 13 families to Christ through the outlet of coaching Little League baseball. Once they had 185 disciples within the first 11 months, they launched their new church plant which he has faithfully led for 22 years and has been able to celebrate 5,000 baptisms.

Pitman began by saying, “The local church is not the goal” and “all local New Testament churches die,” referencing the churches Paul wrote to in the New Testament. He gave a modern-day example of this through an experience he had eating at John’s Pizzeria in Times Square in New York City, later discovering the building was a former church that was built in the 1800s. Pitman asked the assembly, “If the church is not the goal, what is the goal?”

Pitman read Revelation 5:9 and explained that churches should not separate missions from the rest of the church and that the church should be centered on “the mission.”

“God gave us a local New Testament church as a gathering place to introduce people to the King, the discipling station to disciple them in Kingdom living and then the launching pad to send them out for the expansion of the Kingdom,” Pitman said.

Pitman urged the assembly to think about “how do we connect the local New Testament church to the big picture of what God is doing in redeeming a Kingdom to Himself through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross?”

Pitman shared from Philippians 4 and Paul’s letter to the church of Philippi. He proclaimed “truths that connect the big picture of the Kingdom to the local New Testament church.” First, “when God births a church, it is always about something bigger.” Second, “God invites us to join in His kingdom activity.” Pitman further enhanced this truth by the importance of true koinonia, or “sharing in the life of another.”

According to Pitman, to connect churches with what God is doing in the world, three things need to happen. First, “every church should cultivate a heart for the kingdom by praying,” Pitman explained. He urges churches to be “standing in the gap and holding the ropes of corporate intercession on behalf of the activity of God among the city and among the nations. What if we just pray because we were desperate for God to expand his Kingdom in our city?”

Second, he said, “Every church should prioritize the kingdom by sending.” He stated, “the early church understood it wasn’t about gathering and keeping it was about discipling and sending.” He noted the priority of sending was described in Philippians 2:25 as Paul said Epaphroditus was sent by Paul to the Philippian believers.

The third component, Pitman concluded, is that “every church invests in the kingdom by giving.” Pitman observed the Philippians gave “consistently, sacrificially, sufficiently, abundantly.”  Pitman illustrated the importance of giving with some stories of giving that happened in his church in Las Vegas, including when the church was new and God prompted Pitman to give the entire Sunday morning offering to the guest preacher that morning. He recalled at lunch later that day a couple representing a church on the east coast approached Pitman at the table and said they had been sent by their church to give a gift to the new church plant. Pitman said when he opened the envelope it was more than twice the amount God told him to give to the guest preacher.

“Paul said, ‘You put the kingdom first and God will take care of the rest.’ You cannot outgive God,” Pitman said.

Concluding his chapel message, Pitman declared, “When God births a church, it is for His glory.”

Pitman has been president of the Send Network of the North American Mission Board since March 1, 2022. He planted Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he served as pastor for 21 years. An Alabama native, Pitman holds a bachelor’s degree with a major in history and a minor in business management from the University of North Alabama, and a Master of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

Pitman’s entire message can be viewed here.

Chapel is held every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10 a.m. (CT) in MacGorman Chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary and TBC. Chapel may be viewed live at swbts.live.