Southern Baptist Convention President visits Corbin for mens’ conference about temptation

It comes in many forms, we all struggle with it, and the goal of a weekend conference at Central Baptist Church in Corbin was to give men the tools to fight it.

Southern Baptist Convention President Dr. Johnny Hunt ministered to over 225 men this weekend during what was called "Temptation Island" – a program co-sponsored by Central Baptist Church and Immanuel Baptist Church in Corbin.

"The goal here is to help them deal with the temptations in their lives," said Central Baptist Church Pastor Darren Gaddis.

"No matter how times change, the temptations are still the same. They may come in new forms, but they are the same basic ones. Billions of people have had these same temptations; some deal with them appropriately and some don’t. The goal is to help them deal with them in a biblical perspective."

Hunt, who is Pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA, said what he hoped to accomplish during the two-session conference, held Friday night and Saturday morning, was to let people know it is possible to live a consistent Christian lifestyle in the "moral decay of this generation."

"Sin is never satisfied with the amount of you it owns. It always wants to take you further," Hunt said during a break in the program Saturday. "I think a lot of men are moved by what happens here. I hope this just serves as a wake up call, maybe a way that God alerts them and gets them thinking about the consequences acting on temptations may have."

Hunt said the conference was for men only because men face temptations wholly different than those women face. When they are similar, men are usually tempted in a different way.

"It is said that women are Crock Pots and men are microwaves," Hunt said. "It’s a lot different for men. They are more visual where women are tempted more by words and actions."

Hunt pointed to pornography as a temptation that is a great one for men. Gone are the days of the stigma or shame that had to be overcome to purchase a pornographic magazine or movie in person. Now it is easily accessible on the Internet. Often with accessibility comes "acceptability," Hunt said.

"The lines become a little more fuzzy to men sometimes," Hunt said. "I’m hoping this will serve as a way for God to wash those eyes clean and get men thinking that they would be crazy to go down that road."

"Some people will just say that something is just a casual hobby or innocent flirtation and that they are not addicted. That’s maybe where it starts, but normally before it is all said and done it has a way of getting a grip that is not easily untangled."

Gaddis said when Hunt holds his annual men’s conference at his home church in Georgia, over 12,000 men show up.

As president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Hunt leads an organization that has over 16 million members who worship at over 42,000 churches in the United States. The group sponsors 10,000 home and foreign missionaries. It was formed in 1845 in Augusta, GA.

Paul Hubbs, a retiree who decided to attend the conference after seeing it advertised on the Central Baptist Church sign, said the message of the event is more relevant now than ever.

"We’ve got to be aware of our enemy the devil. He makes us think he’s our friend," Hubbs said. "I believe there is more temptation out there today than years ago because we just weren’t so aware of everything like we are now. Everything seems so attractive."

"You’ve got to be on guard and you’ve got to have the Lord as your shepherd or you’ve got the wrong shepherd."

Gaddis said he was pleased with the turnout of the event, especially considering it was planned in just 19 days. It was originally supposed to be held in London, but the host church was forced to cancel. He said he’d like to make the conference an annual event.