October 1, 2026
THOMSON, Ga. — An overflow crowd of more than 600 people gathered Sunday night at First Baptist Church in Thomson as the Georgia Baptist Mission Board opened its 2026 SPARK conference season with one of the strongest starts in the event’s history.
The conference drew 616 registered attendees from 95 churches, building on a record-setting 2025 SPARK season that drew 4,111 attendees from 535 churches and 21 associations.
Scott Sullivan, discipleship catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said the Thomson gathering marked the second-largest opening conference SPARK has ever seen.
He credited the strong turnout to the work of local leaders who helped mobilize the region.
“Pastors David Lambert and Matthew Ward did an incredible job recruiting volunteers and running logistics,” Sullivan said. “And Tim Batchelor, the associational missionary, played a pivotal part in promoting SPARK to his association and surrounding associations.”
SPARK is designed to equip pastors, staff members, lay leaders, and volunteers with practical training for ministry in the local church. This year’s conferences will be held at six locations across Georgia through late September.
Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, opened the Thomson conference by pointing to the crowd as evidence of Georgia Baptists’ desire to reach their communities.
“I don’t think there’s a more beautiful sight than what I’m looking at right now,” Hammond said. “It’s an army of people who love Jesus and desire to see Him glorified by reaching the lost and ministering to those who are really desperately in need.”
Hammond connected SPARK to Mission Georgia and the board’s statewide evangelism emphasis, saying Georgia Baptists have a “big, beautiful mission field” with more than 7 million lost people.
He said God has strategically planted churches across Georgia for more than 250 years, placing congregations in communities across the state. If each church takes responsibility for the mission field around it, Hammond said, Georgia Baptists can work together to cover the state with the gospel.
The Mission Board’s role, he said, is to come alongside pastors, churches, and lay leaders as they seek to reach the people God has placed around them. “Mission Georgia is not about telling you what you need to do,” Hammond said. “It’s you telling us what you want to do, and we come alongside to help make that happen.”
Hammond said Mission Georgia is about more than giving to an offering. The goal is for church members to understand the needs across the state and become personally involved through praying, going, and serving.
“Together, I promise you, together we can do far more than we can do by ourselves,” Hammond said.
Hammond also thanked First Baptist Thomson and local association leaders for helping host the event, saying months of planning had gone into the opening conference.
David Lambert, lead pastor of First Baptist Thomson, said he had attended several SPARK conferences and had always been encouraged by the equipping he received and the fellowship of networking with other pastors and churches. When Sullivan asked if the church would host for the region, Lambert said he quickly agreed.
“I jumped at that because it is such a great opportunity to not only get more of our people to experience that, but to allow the other churches in our association to have front row seats at that opportunity,” Lambert said.
Hosting SPARK in Thomson, he said, made the training more accessible to churches in the region, especially smaller congregations that may have difficulty traveling to other parts of the state.
The strong turnout was encouraging, he said, especially for a church whose sanctuary holds about 500 when packed.
Tim Batchelor, associational mission strategist for the Kilpatrick and Hephzibah Baptist associations, worked with state leaders and First Baptist Thomson to connect with pastors, associational missionaries, and churches across the region.
Batchelor said organizers initially hoped 450 would attend. The final registration number was 616.
“When we first started planning, we thought 450 would be a good number,” he said. “So this is extraordinary.”
Batchelor said he hopes the momentum from SPARK continues through pastors’ meetings and additional training within his associations. “We may follow that up by inviting state leaders to come and do some more specific training with pastors and the association leaders in these different ministry areas,” he said.
Thom Rainer, author, researcher, and former president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, delivered the keynote message from Matthew 9:35-38, calling churches to pray for workers and move intentionally into the harvest field.
Sullivan said Rainer continues to be one of the biggest draws for SPARK conferences. “His content is second to none and is a trusted resource for healthy, growing churches.”
Rainer told attendees that he was saved at 16 after a football coach shared the gospel with him, but then went 10 years without telling anyone about Christ.
That changed when he visited a man named Jim, who had recently gone through a divorce. Rainer said he was nervous and unsure of what to say. His first attempt was blunt, he said, but Jim was ready to hear the gospel.
The experience, he said, taught him that the harvest is often more ready than believers realize. Preaching from Matthew 9:35-38, Rainer reminded leaders that Jesus did not describe the harvest as scarce, but as plentiful.
“We don’t have a prospect problem,” he said. “We don’t have a church opportunity problem.”
The issue, he said, is that “workers are not always in the field.”
He challenged churches to examine their calendars, budgets, and ministries and ask whether they are doing anything intentionally to reach people with the gospel. Even one intentional evangelistic effort, he said, can help move a church toward a stronger culture of evangelism.
But that work must begin with prayer.
“Evangelism without prayer is not a Spirit-powered evangelism,” Rainer said.
Rainer closed by urging attendees not to assume someone else would enter the harvest field, but to pray personally for God to give them opportunities to share the gospel.
The conference also offered two 50-minute breakout opportunities, giving attendees practical training in nearly every area of church life. Sessions addressed church planting and revitalization, collegiate and Next Gen ministry, grief care, disaster readiness, discipleship pathways, evangelism, men’s and women’s ministry, Mission Georgia, local missions partnerships, pastor wellness, public affairs, worship, and church technology.
The wide range of breakout topics reflected SPARK’s purpose of equipping not only pastors and staff members but also lay leaders and volunteers who serve throughout the church.
Sullivan said the strong opening in Thomson gives momentum heading into the next SPARK conference, scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 23, at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville. That event will include Hispanic breakout opportunities.
First-time attendee David Slaton, a Sunday school teacher from Mallorysville Baptist Church, said Rainer’s challenge left him thinking about ordinary opportunities to share Christ, even on the way home.
“When I leave, I’ll need to stop at the gas station,” Slaton said. “I’m going to pray before I get there and hope I come across somebody I can witness to.”
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