The Open Door

I wish to express a very special “Thank You” to Dr. Steve Parr and all of the Evangelism and Sunday School Ministry team for another outstanding Evangelism Conference. Those who made their way to Blackshear Place Baptist Church in Flowery Branch were not disappointed in the spirit or the content of the conference. Steve had engaged some of the finest preachers and evangelists in America today to join efforts in charging the batteries of Georgia Baptists young and old who traveled the state to attend the two-day conference.

We are deeply grateful to Dr. Jeff Crook, pastor of the church, and his capable staff for doing such an outstanding job in hosting this year’s Evangelism Conference. The church was beautiful and the staff of volunteers provided by the church was warm and generous in spirit. The choir and orchestra were dynamic and inspiring.

Next year we will return to the model that offers regional conferences making it easier for some to attend. The first year Steve used this approach we had an overwhelmingly positive response and we believe that the conference will grow in attendance as we enter our second effort at taking the conference to the state.

I hope you will begin making plans even now as you work on your 2010 calendar by scheduling the Evangelism Conference as one of those meetings you will not miss in 2010. I sincerely appreciate the fact that Steve and his staff are doing all that they can to make the Evangelism Conference available to all Georgia Baptists. Not too far from your current location, there will be an Evangelism Conference for you in 2010!

I want to alert you to a major change that will take place in the agenda at our annual meeting in November. As you know, we will be guests of Woodstock First Baptist Church and we deeply appreciate their opening their church facility to the annual meeting of the Convention. They will also provide much of the volunteer support necessary for a meeting of the Convention.

Our president, Dr. Bucky Kennedy, has led the Order of Business Committee to set aside Tuesday afternoon as a time for all who will to go out across the Woodstock community to perform ministry projects as an extension of the church’s “Love Loud” ministry to the community. Great effort has gone into planning a way to accomplish the necessary business of the Convention and still free the time on Tuesday afternoon for ministry projects. We believe we have succeeded. This will be unlike anything our Convention has ever done before and probably unlike anything done by other state conventions during annual meeting time.

The purpose of the community ministry will not be evangelism per se, but an outreach on behalf of the church into the community affected by this great congregation. This is cultivation and relationship-building so that the church can have the opportunity to communicate the love of Christ in a way that people who do not know the Lord will be directly impacted. You will recall that in Acts 2:47, the Bible says that the early church was “Praising God, and having favor with all the people.” Then the text says, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

In my mind, one of the qualities of a healthy church is that it has a good reputation in the community. I also believe that if we would give greater attention to the reputation of our churches in their communities, we would likely see a greater impact in those communities where we serve.

Make your plans to be part of this great ministry in November. I am praying that the effort will present an excellent model to be emulated by our pastors and churches after the Convention meeting when we all go back home to our churches and communities across Georgia. Can you imagine the impact Georgia Baptists would have on Georgia if every Georgia Baptist church became faithfully, consistently, and intentionally involved in ministry projects to their communities?