I announced the theme of this year’s annual meeting last November, but God has continued to shape the heart of that theme over the months that followed. Coming out of the social depression and missional uncertainty of a global pandemic, many — if not most — of our pastors and churches had understandably fallen into somewhat of a trance.
I felt like the theme of “Wake Up” would help challenge everyone to seek a true spiritual awakening.
As time passed, we have experienced a great deal of internal denominational challenge at the national level. Our emotions have varied from grief and anger to discouragement and frustration. A pastor recently joked with me by saying my idea for our theme was appropriate because we need to wake up from a nightmare. While that wasn’t exactly what I originally had in mind, I understand where he is coming from.
These have been challenging times to serve in ministry, but I am certain that God will use all the challenges we’ve faced to make His church even stronger in the future. I have several recurring prayers for the church in America, and more specifically our convention of Baptist churches in South Carolina. I pray constantly for a return to a clear missional priority. Another consistent subject of prayer is practical unity of Spirit in a bond of peace (Ephesian 4:3). We all know that Christ alone can bring this to pass, but I hope He uses the annual meeting in November to sound the alarm. We need a wakeup call.
We’ve started finalizing many of the details for the 2022 annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, to be held Nov. 14-15. The two-day meeting will be organized with a four-part challenge. We will be challenged to wake up by leaning into church revitalization, spiritual renewal, missional refocus, and authentic revival. My hope is that we will not simply have a good meeting, but a God-meeting. We need an awakening!
On Monday night, we are honored to have the interim CEO/president of the SBC Executive Committee, Willie McLaurin. Tuesday’s guest speakers include Revivalist John Avant (Life Action Ministries) and Pastor Robby Gallaty (Long Hallow Baptist Church). I sincerely desire for renewal and revival to be our takeaway from the gathering at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo, but I also realize we have some business we must attend to. D.J. Horton and the South Carolina Sexual Abuse Task Force have been working on their report, and I am confident our messengers will be appreciative of their presentation. We also have the bittersweet task of celebrating the retirement of our executive director-treasurer, Gary Hollingsworth. He has served us well and will continue to lead us through the spring of 2023.
As you can see, we have a lot to cover in addition to our regular business. Allow me to challenge you all to prepare your hearts now for the annual meeting. May we all seek to meet first with God, then with one another. May we arrive in Columbia with a spirit of missional unity expressed in corporate praise. We are together in this mission. So, let us get ready for revival. Now is the time to wake up!
“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).
Charge on!