GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)–With the focus on evangelism and the goal of winning and baptizing 1 million people in a year, Southern Baptists will gather at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C., June 13-14, for their annual meeting.
By Michael Foust
Baptist Press Staff Writer
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP) – With the focus on evangelism
and the goal of winning and baptizing 1 million people in a year,
Southern Baptists will gather at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro,
N.C., June 13-14, for their annual meeting.
It will mark the fifth meeting in North Carolina for
the denomination, but the first since 1916 (Asheville). Southern
Baptists never have met in Greensboro.
“My quest is going to be to keep the collective
head, heart and eyes of the messengers on our main business of
witnessing, winning and baptizing,” Southern Baptist Convention
President Bobby Welch told Baptist Press. “… I think that’s
especially critical in light of the ACP report.”
The most recent ACP, or Annual Church Profile
report, showed Southern Baptists baptizing 16,000 fewer people in 2005
compared to 2004.
It will be the second consecutive year that Southern
Baptists have gathered under the banner of “Everyone Can” – a reference
to the fact that all Christians are called to share their faith.
Scripture text is Matthew 28:19-20 – the Great Commission – and the theme is Everyone Can … I’m It!
The Everyone Can! challenge to win and baptize 1
million people officially began last October and ends the final week of
September, which marks the end of the SBC’s church year.
Breaking with tradition, Welch will deliver his president’s address
Wednesday evening, the same night the International Mission Board gives
its report and presentation. (In recent years, the president’s address
was scheduled during the day.) Recording artist Casting Crowns and the
“Everyone Can” People’s Mass Choir and Orchestra also will perform that
night.
“Wednesday night of the convention will be like no
other Wednesday night we’ve ever had,” Welch said. “… It will be
geared toward coming out of turn four and heading for victory lane. We
want to leave that Wednesday night service excited and unified to do
more than we’ve ever done before in going and giving.”
This year’s Crossover rally, held on Saturday and
Sunday, June 10-11, will set the tone for the witnessing theme. During
“Crossover Triad” hundreds of Southern Baptists will hit the streets of
Greensboro and the surrounding cities of Winston-Salem and High Point
to share the Gospel. Welch has spoken in churches and rallies
throughout North Carolina since early March.
“All the indicators are that momentum is really
beginning to build [for Crossover and Everyone Can],” said Welch, who
added he has received many reports of churches breaking baptismal
records.
The SBC Pastors’ Conference will continue the Great
Commission theme Sunday and Monday (June 11-12) with its own theme,
“Reaching Today’s World for Jesus Christ.” This year’s Pastors’
Conference will feature something different — breakout sessions that
will include more than 10 topics, including the doctrine of election
and The Da Vinci Code. Although the breakout sessions and the Monday
afternoon session will be held at the Sheraton Greensboro (the
convention hotel), the remainder of the Pastors’ Conference sessions
will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Pastors Conference begins
Sunday night, June 11, at 5:45 EDT. The Pastors’ Wives session of the
Pastors Conference will take place on Monday at 8:30 a.m.
at the War Memorial Auditorium, which is near the coliseum.
Among the other highlights of the convention:
• Southern Baptists will elect a new president.
• A larger-than-life statue of a young Billy Graham will be unveiled.
• Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist
Church in New Orleans, will preach. Franklin Avenue’s building had
eight feet of water inside it during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
• Messengers will be asked to consider a report from
the Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee that encourages toward
increased CP giving. The report also encourages “the election of
officers at the state and national level whose churches give at least
10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the Cooperative
Program.”
• Adrian Rogers, the longtime pastor of Bellevue
Baptist Church in suburban Memphis who passed away last year, will be
remembered during both the Pastors’ Conference and the annual meeting.
His wife, Joyce Rogers, is scheduled to speak Monday night, June 12,
during the Pastors’ Conference.
• Donald Wilton, pastor of First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C., will deliver the convention message.
• Directors of missions and associations will be spotlighted.
But, once again, the Everyone Can challenge will be the focal point.
Four pastors will deliver evangelism-themed Everyone Can! messages:
Luter; Gene Mims, pastor of Judson Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn.;
James I. Walker, pastor, Biltmore Baptist Church, Arden, N.C.; and
David Cox, co-pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla.