ALPHARETTA (BP) — The North American Mission Board (NAMB) announced Wednesday (April 17) that its next Send Conference will happen through a series of local and regional conferences that will take place in more than 70 locations throughout North America beginning this fall.
"It's about maximizing momentum," NAMB president Kevin Ezell said. "What began as a plan to hopefully reach 18,000 people with a national event in Atlanta is now a plan to reach in excess of 200,000 by taking the events on the road."
The local and regional approach will also allow different events to take on different formats. Some will consist of an evening session followed by a morning session and conclude by noon. Others will run for two nights and three days. Still others might be a single day or single evening in duration.
The focus of the conference series is to call every believer to actively share the Gospel wherever God has placed them and to openly consider where God might be calling them to serve.
"In addition to allowing us to bring this important message to every corner of North America, this approach also gives us maximum flexibility to shape the event for specific audiences," Ezell said. "The more we discussed this way of doing it, the more excited we became about the possibilities."
Many of the events will be hosted by local churches. Plans also include events on or in close proximity to several university campuses.
"We will utilize a variety of speakers and musicians, depending on our location and the needs of the audience we are trying to reach," Ezell said.
Part one of the tour will commence this fall with Johnny Hunt featured as the main speaker. Those events will kick off with a Sunday evening program focused on evangelism for every member of the church. The next morning, pastors and church leaders will return to attend an equipping session geared toward helping them train and mobilize their congregations for evangelism. NAMB has already secured 18 locations for these events.
"Every Southern Baptist who wants to attend will have access to at least one of these events," Hunt said. "I'm praying that over this 18-month period we will see God sweep through our Southern Baptist family in a way we haven't seen in decades. We are doing all we can to ignite a spark that we hope will re-start the fires of evangelism."
More details, a schedule and registration information will be available soon at send2020.com.
Watch a video about NAMB's Send Conference here.