Let us pray.
The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.“It’s our only hope,” Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page said, reflecting on the prevalence of prayer planned for the SBC’s June 12-13 annual meeting in San Antonio’s Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
Each of the SBC’s five sessions will have a prayer focus:
Tuesday morning: “Lord, Transform Your Churches.”
Tuesday afternoon: “Lord, Bring Us to Confession and Repentance.”
Tuesday evening: “Lord, Unite Us in a Cooperative Mission Task.”
Wednesday morning: “Lord, Send Revival to Our Convention.”
Wednesday evening: “Lord, Energize Our Evangelistic Efforts.”
“The central focus for my presidency, and therefore for this meeting, is to seek from the Lord spiritual awakening – his Holy Spirit’s revival,” Page said. “And that is always prefaced by and enabled by and empowered by prayer.”
A second key facet of this year’s convention will be the unveiling of a general outline for a 10-year evangelistic strategy in the SBC, said Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, who was elected as SBC president last year in Greensboro, N.C.
The North American Mission Board’s newly elected president, Geoff Hammond, has become part of the planning process, Page said, and “it looks like we will be able to unveil a general outline of a 10-year evangelistic strategy which brings associations, state conventions, NAMB and other entities into a true focus in calling churches not just to win souls but, better, showing them how.”
The evangelistic strategy will be “flexible, multifaceted,” Page said. It will encompass “the more traditional people within our convention and the more contemporary or non-traditional people, old and young, various styles and philosophies of evangelism and church planting, Calvinists, non-Calvinists, various people groups ethnically and various groups from the geographical areas across our country.
“Obviously, every Baptist entity is autonomous,” Page said. “But we are coming together to say here is a common direction for 10 years to equip churches and people to win the lost to Christ.”
The evangelism initiative must be in the context of “a massive emphasis on prayer and spiritual awakening,” Page said, “but at the same time we’ve got to put a tool in the hand, a plow in the hand to say here’s how you do it.”
Among the other highlights of the convention:
– The 300th anniversary of Baptist associations, to be marked during Tuesday morning’s session, will be led by Tom Biles, president of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions and director of missions with the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Baptist Association.
The first Baptist association was formed in Philadelphia in 1707. Today, there are nearly 1,200 Baptist associations, representing more than 44,000 cooperating Southern Baptist churches.
– Page will deliver his presidential address to close out Tuesday morning’s session. Rob Zinn, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., will deliver the convention message Wednesday morning.
– The International Mission Board’s presentation will be Tuesday evening and the North American Mission Board’s Wednesday evening.
The theme of the convention reflects Page’s call to prayer, from 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” A time of prayer during the Tuesday sessions and on Wednesday morning – to be led by someone in Baptist life specializing in prayer – will include several minutes when messengers pray in groups of two or three for revival in the SBC.
Scheduled to lead the prayer times are:
Tuesday morning: Rosevelt Morris, director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s office of prayer and spiritual awakening.
Tuesday afternoon: speaker-author T.W. Hunt of Spring, Tex.
Tuesday evening: Gregory Frizzell, prayer and spiritual awakening specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Wednesday morning: Eddie Cox, director of the International Mission Board’s international prayer strategy office.
(For the complete Southern Baptist Convention program, click here.)