Bobby Welch has been named to the position of strategist for global evangelical relations with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.
Bobby Welch, left, prays for national church planters in Central Asia during a tour through the International Mission Board regions in 2005. The former SBC president has been named strategist for global evangelical relations.Welch is the SBC’s immediate past president and former pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he served 32 years.
Morris Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, said Welch will be “Southern Baptists’ ambassador to those leaders in other countries who are interested in building relationships as like-minded brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
Chapman noted that the new position of strategist for global evangelical relations is part of the Executive Committee’s implementation of a vote by messengers at the SBC’s 2004 annual meeting in Indianapolis to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance and to build relationships with evangelistically oriented Baptists and like-minded evangelicals across the globe. Funding formerly designated for the BWA was reassigned for the new international initiative.
The SBC initiative began with a July 2005 gathering in Warsaw, Poland, in which a contingent of nine SBC leaders met with a dozen Baptist representatives from Poland, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Moldova to explore ways to partner more effectively in evangelism, church planting and theological education.
In June 2006, 250 Baptists from 11 countries attended a conference in Oradea, Romania, delving into such themes as missions, evangelism, church planting and preaching. Paul Negrut, president of the Romanian Baptist Union, envisioned such conferences being held in other locations worldwide for Bible-believing Christians “whose hearts are knit together in compassion for an unregenerate world.”
And several Southern Baptist leaders have had an exchange of visits during the past six months with leaders of Russian-German Baptist and Mennonite groups in Germany interested in creating a cooperative approach to missions and pastoral training.
Chapman said Welch will have three key emphases in his travels overseas and across the Southern Baptist Convention:
– First, Welch will help build an overseas network of relationships and develop partnering opportunities such as evangelism and discipleship conferences.
– Second, in Welch’s stateside speaking engagements in churches, Baptist associations and state conventions, he will continue to champion the urgent need for Baptists to be active in witnessing in their family, work and neighborhood settings. Welch is accepting invitations to speak (386-253-5691, ext. 101).
– Third, Chapman noted, will be biblical stewardship and the Cooperative Program channel of Southern Baptist support for national and international missions and ministries. Welch led First Baptist in Daytona Beach to be among the SBC’s leading churches in CP support during his years as pastor.
“Bobby has a passion for the lost and he combines this with a gifted ability to connect with others across generations and cultures, both ideal traits for reaching out to like-minded evangelicals around the world,” Chapman said.
“Importantly, he is an anointed preacher, allowing him to relate to the lost and the saved, and Bobby has been an incredible leader in our convention in so many ways,” Chapman added, “most recently as SBC president, but for so many years in consistently leading his church to be strong supporters of SBC missions through the Cooperative Program.”
Messengers at the 2004 convention approved a BWA Study Committee recommendation that the BWA funding be redirected “to develop and execute a new and innovative strategy for continuing to build strong relationships with conservative evangelical Christians around the world, as together we witness to the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Welch, as SBC president, led a two-year “‘Everyone Can!’ Kingdom Challenge” calling Southern Baptists to witness to, win and baptize 1 million people in a year. He traveled to 48 states by bus and flew to Alaska and Hawaii to promote the evangelistic initiative.
Welch also traveled as SBC president to six countries in four of the International Mission Board’s regions in December 2005 – Central Asia, Northern Africa and the Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific Rim.
As First Baptist’s pastor, Welch also was the co-creator of the FAITH Sunday school-based evangelism strategy, which came into wide use in Baptist churches.