Leaders from eight states attended an Ethnic Ministry Convocation sponsored by the Spartanburg County Baptist Network on July 30 at Southside Baptist Church.
An Ethnic Ministry Convocation, designed to mobilize a more effective Christian witness to Spartanburg County’s diverse multiethnic population, attracted 70 experts to Southside Baptist Church in July. Spartanburg will host the Carolinas Summit, a national conference on ethnic ministry, in 2011 or 2012. (Photo by Ray Price)Plenary and breakout sessions covered African and African-American, Asian, Eastern European, Hispanic, and multiethnic ministry. About 70 persons attended.
Facilitating the convocation were Jerry Baker, language missions and multicultural church-planting specialist, Georgia Baptist Convention, and two directors of missions, Bob Lowman of Charlotte and Jim Goodroe of Spartanburg County Network.
The first half of the afternoon overviewed ongoing ethnic ministry and needs in the region. Presenters included Charmayne Brown, editor of Rejoice multicultural Christian magazine and former TV news reporter with WSPA in Spartanburg; Gustavo Soto, president of FAM-USA, the U.S. branch of a Latin America missions agency; and Moses Nueman, president of World Care Ministry International.
South Carolina clergy presenters included Marcos Elizondo, multiethnic group director, South Carolina Baptist Convention; David Lee, lay mobilization director, Lexington Baptist Association; and Derrick Smith, multiethnic church planter, Kaleidoscope Church.
Local lay presenters included Mary Hensley, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) trainer and Cambodian ministry director, United Church, and three internationals: Claudia High, Romanian, coordinator of ministries with internationals; Vitaliy Moroz, a Belarussian realtor and Slavic church leader; and Kitty McCarter, Japanese, an ESOL teacher whose Bible study for internationals includes Chinese, Iranians and Mexicans.
The second half of the convocation included “vision casting” for the national Ethnic Ministry Summit, sponsored by the Ethnic America Network (EAN), housed at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Ill. Twelve members of the national team attended. The event will be held in Spartanburg in 2011 or 2012 and will be called the “Carolinas Summit.”
The North American Mission Board represents Southern Baptists in EAN, whose chairman Russell Begaye led language missions for NAMB until his retirement. Spartanburg County Network is the only Southern Baptist local association in EAN. The only other South Carolina member organization is Columbia International University and Graduate School of Missions.
The Carolinas Summit, a Thursday-through-Saturday event, will include more than 50 seminars in seven tracks of ethnic ministry, plenary sessions and multiethnic worship services. Two firsts are planned for Spartanburg: a Friday-night multiethnic youth service at “The Hangar,” a youth gathering place sponsored by Spartanburg First Baptist Church, and a corporate track in which businesses might send their ethnic employees on “scholarship” in return for helping underwrite the summit.
Goodroe said dozens of convocation participants signed up for their choice of the 15 volunteer teams it will take to plan and conduct the Carolinas Summit. Other persons interested in future convocations, serving on a volunteer team for the summit or getting the progress reports and details on it, may contact him at jgoodroe@bellsouth.net or (864) 582-8330.
Goodroe is looking for involvement from more than Southern Baptists. “While Southern Baptists’ numerical strength in South Carolina tends to make them major players in kingdom events,” he said, “EAN welcomes all evangelicals to get involved in planning and producing the Carolinas Summit for 2011 or 2012.”