Bryant Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta and president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference, has prayerfully and carefully designed a conference that has something for the young and the old, something for those who embrace a contemporary style of worship and something for those who have a more traditional bent; it’s an offering of both the stained glass and Starbucks approach to celebrating the goodness and grace of God.

The theme of the 2006 Pastors’ Conference, which will meet in Greensboro June 11-12, is “Reaching Today’s World for Jesus Christ.” The variety of worship styles at the conference will actually mirror the plethora of worship styles offered by the East Cobb County Church Wright pastors in North Atlanta.

Wright, who became the first full time pastor of Johnson Ferry in 1981, started with 20 families meeting in an empty doctor’s office. The burgeoning church now has over 7,200 members with an average worship attendance of 4,438, has a second location, Johnson Ferry at Cedarcrest, in neighboring Paulding County and has started seven missions and co-sponsored five church plants.

Wright commented, “For the first fourteen years we had a fairly traditional service, but in 1996 we added a contemporary service. On our original campus we now have five services with two I would describe as blended traditional. We have a full orchestra, a choir and a blending of traditional hymns as well as contemporary praise and worship songs.”

The Marietta pastor added, “We also have three contemporary services with two of them meeting in our activities center where I preach via a live video broadcast; and the third contemporary service meets in our sanctuary. These services have a praise band, a worship team and contemporary praise and worship songs. I preach three times for these five worship services.”

 

Speakers featured

The SBC Pastors’ Conference will begin on Sunday evening in the Greensboro Coliseum with a blended worship style and preaching by Johnny Hunt, First Baptist Church, Woodstock and Dick Lincoln, Shandon Baptist Church, Columbia, S.C. Chuck Kelley, President of New Orleans Seminary, will give a testimony.

Wright has chosen a different approach for Monday morning by providing 11 different breakout sessions with conference participants having an opportunity to choose three different sessions between 9:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. These sessions will be held at the Convention Hotel (The Sheraton Greensboro) and will feature:

“Reaching Today’s World Through Differing Views of Election” with Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary and Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Seminary;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Multi-Campus Churches” led by Ronnie Floyd, First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark.;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Global Outreach” with Steve Stroope of Lake Pointe Church, Rockwall, Texas and Paul Jimenez of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Breakout Churches” led by Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Church Discipline – Are You Kidding?” with Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D. C. and Art Wilder, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Men’s Ministries” led by Robert Lewis, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, Ark.;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Women’s Ministries” led by Marsha Crowe, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta;

“Reaching Today’s World In and Around Small Towns” led by Darrell Henry, Oakwood Baptist Church, Chickamauga;

“Reaching Today’s World Through Apologetics” with Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Seminary, Kansas City, Mo. and William Lane Craig, Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, Calif.;

“Reaching Today’s World By Confronting the Da Vinci Code” led by Ben Witherington, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky.; and

“Reaching Today’s World through Leadership Development” led by Steve Stroope of Lake Pointe Church, Rockwell, Texas.

 

Bridge the gap

The Monday afternoon session will feature a completely contemporary style of worship in the Guilford Ballroom of the Sheraton Greensboro; and the preachers will be Erwin McManus, Mosaic, Los Angeles, Calif.; Nelson Searcy, The Journey, New York, N.Y.; and Kerry Shook, Fellowship of The Woodlands, The Woodlands, Texas. Johnson Ferry’s own Jonathan Munson will lead the contemporary worship and praise music for this session. Shane and Shane will be the guest musical artist.

Traditional Worship will be the order of the Monday evening session that will meet back in the Greensboro Coliseum; and the preachers will be Tony Evans, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas, Texas; David Jeremiah, Shadow Mountain Baptist Church, El Cajon, Calif.; and Ed Young (Sr.), Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas.

The Monday evening session will also feature a video tribute to Adrian Rogers and a testimony by Joyce Rogers.

Mark Cottingham, minister of music at Johnson Ferry, will lead the music at the two evening sessions of the conference and David Phelps will provide the special music for the Sunday night and Monday night sessions.

Wright acknowledged, “My desire is to bridge the gap between the emerging young leaders and those who have served us so well for many years. Some of the younger leaders have felt disenfranchised and I am excited about the challenge of encouraging many of them in building up the Kingdom of Christ.”

The Johnson Ferry pastor proclaimed, “We hope that everyone will come to all of the Pastors’ Conference sessions to show support and encouragement for those who may prefer a different style of worship. Surely, there are many ways we can worship the Lord with a Christ-centered, biblically based focus as long as the gospel is not compromised.”

Additional information on the 2006 Pastors’ Conference is available on the Website at www.reachingtodaysworld.org.