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Hunt recounts bout with emptiness
Allen Palmeri, Baptist Press
November 05, 2010
3 MIN READ TIME

Hunt recounts bout with emptiness

Hunt recounts bout with emptiness
Allen Palmeri, Baptist Press
November 05, 2010

BRANSON, Mo. — Johnny Hunt

said he experienced a spiritual, emotional and physical “dryness through duty”

a couple of months ago after completing an intense two years as president of

the Southern Baptist Convention.

Hunt, pastor of the

Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock, took time here during his

Timothy + Barnabas Pastors’ Conference Nov. 2-4 in Branson, Mo., to relay

several transparent statements about his recent bout with emptiness. After

advancing an epic set of reforms on the denominational level known as the Great

Commission Resurgence (GCR), Hunt found himself experiencing a “meltdown of

biblical proportions” like the Old Testament prophet Elijah did in 1 Kings 19.

He shared heart-felt truths with the conferees in various sessions so that they

would go home better equipped to handle similar situations.

Hunt talked about the

process of how he gradually found himself being separated from his wife of 37

years, Janet, due to all of the busyness that came his way. The concept of

Sabbath rest had become a stranger to him.

“I would start my day at

4:30 or 5 o’clock on Sunday and finish at 10 o’clock that night, go get in bed,

and be up early the next morning and head for the airport to get to something

with GCR or speaking engagements,” Hunt said. “Janet said, ‘You’ve got to be

tired,’ and I’d say, ‘I sleep pretty good on a plane — I’ll get a nap on the

way there.’ Janet would drive me and I’d sleep on the way to the airport, try

to slip it in. I was violating time and it bruised me. It bruised me.”

In January he underwent

surgery to remove a cancerous prostate. It may have been the Lord trying to get

his attention, Hunt said. But there were many more important meetings and

activities and strategy sessions to attend, so he went on with his busy

routine.

On Sept. 19 at First Baptist

Woodstock, Hunt preached a sermon on his experience. The notes for the sermon,

which he titled “Dryness Through Duty,” can be accessed through the church’s

website. Since then, he said he has been experiencing the grace, love and

healing of God as his priorities have been realigned.

His testimony in that

message was that he was “leading on empty.” Unable to bounce back, Hunt felt

spiritually, emotionally and mentally empty. All of that gripped him

physically, leaving him drained. He warned the pastors in Branson that

something similar could happen to them.

Hunt, who has been teaching

men in conferences for 19 years, has been thinking about his legacy. He is 58,

and statistics he has seen indicate that men, on the average, will die at 74.

In the recent case of the

Chilean miners who were trapped underground, Hunt said they asked for gospel

preaching to be piped in and received the words in Spanish of Adrian Rogers,

who has been dead since 2005. That told Hunt that Rogers is like Abel (Hebrews

11:4) who by faith still speaks, even though he is dead.

“I want to keep giving the

devil hell after I’m in heaven,” Hunt said.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Palmeri

is associate editor of The Pathway, newsjournal of congregations in the

Missouri Baptist Convention.)