On May 25, ethnic ministry leaders in the Carolinas are invited to attend an Ethnic America Network (EAN) regional meeting to discuss plans for the 2012 national meeting, to be held in Spartanburg.
Jim Goodroe, director of the Spartanburg County Baptist Network, kneels to receive prayer support from leaders and participants at the April 17 closing service of the Ethnic America Network (EAN) Summit in Boston. The leaders “passed the torch” to Goodroe, who is coordinating efforts to bring the national conference to the Upstate in 2012. Standing, from left: Chandler Im, EAN director; Alex Turoczi, EAN liaison for the Boston Summit; Gregg Detwiler, director of Boston’s Emmanuel Gospel Center; and Roland Cooper (with microphone), senior associate pastor of Jubilee Christian Church in Boston.Jim Goodroe, director of the Spartanburg County Baptist Network, is heading up the planning for the event, to be called the “Carolinas Summit.”
Spartanburg will be the only city in the South – and the only one not large enough for a major league sports team – to host the national event until at least 2016.
The May 25 meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, for the purpose of vision-casting, setting date and place, and organizing 17 task forces to coordinate work in advance of the 2012 Carolinas Summit. Participants will also work to organize ongoing ethnic ministry networks by geography and affinity.
The meeting includes a free lunch. Reservations are due by May 20. For information or reservations: 2012summit@bellsouth.net.
In an Aug. 17, 2009, Courier story, Goodroe said 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 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 2012 Carolinas Summit.”