At the 1991 South Carolina Baptist Convention annual meeting, messengers approved a sweeping new vision for the state’s Baptist churches that has remained a standard for 15 years. Empowering Kingdom Growth became the benchmark for serving South Carolina churches and leading churches to develop a vision for kingdom growth.
In 2002, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted the initiative nationally, and Empowering Kingdom Growth spread from the borders of this state to all over the country and even beyond.
This November will mark the completion of the most recent phase of EKG for the period of 2002-2007. The process has begun to develop the next EKG emphasis for serving South Carolina churches. This fall, the convention’s Executive Board approved a timeline beginning in September 2007 and culminating with a recommendation of a new EKG plan to the annual meeting of the SCBC in November 2008.
The timeline includes opportunities for input from constituents, including a survey available both at this year’s annual meeting in Florence and available through the scbaptist.org Web site. Brainstorming sessions among Executive Board members and convention staff are also scheduled. Directors of missions and the Woman’s Missionary Union will be briefed on the new vision as it begins to take shape.
In April, the Executive Board will consider the new EKG plan. The new vision will be presented for messenger approval at the November 2008 annual meeting in Columbia. The administrative committee will work with the Executive Board in the fall of 2008 to develop a convention staff organizational structure to support the new EKG emphasis.
Any person wanting to give input to the new EKG vision may log on to the online survey at www.scbaptist.org. The survey is found under the links sections of the home page and will be accessible until Dec. 31, 2007.