“What voice is loudest inside your heart and mind?” asked Gary Zarlengo, banquet speaker at the FCA’s opening session Tuesday night at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport Hotel. “We pastors get inundated with voices 24/7. Sometimes it’s a matter of our own voices talking to us hours on end. But the most important for us to hear is the voice of the Lord.”
Taking his text from Psalm 29:3-9 (“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic….”) the senior pastor of Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle on Long Island, New York, urged his audience of fellow pastors and missionaries to meditate on the Word of God “so you’ll know what He sounds like.” God’s voice is a voice of purpose, bringing clarity to the times when we ask, “Why is this event going on in my life or my church?”
In his closing moments, Zarlengo advised, “Don’t listen to the voice of comparison—how you stack up against other preachers on television, for example. Instead, listen to God’s voice of destiny. He designed you to be a unique vessel for Him.
“We all need to remember that we’re not in the ministry to make a name. We’re in the ministry to bear a Name—the Name of Jesus.”
Prior to Zarlengo’s message, an extended time of worship was led by Scott Fowler, also from the Smithtown church.
Jerry and Connie Sherstad, whose FCA ministry in New Jersey, Illinois, and elsewhere has covered 46 years, were honored by the Heritage Committee. The Sherstads now serve at Faith Bible Church in Waupun, Wisconsin.
