For the 20th consecutive year, Southern Baptists’ “Crossover” will relay the gospel throughout the host city for June’s SBC annual meeting.
“Crossover’08” – June 6-7 in Indianapolis – will add to the spiritual results amassed since the inaugural outreach prior to 1989’s SBC annual meeting in Las Vegas. Nearly 40,000 persons have prayed to receive Christ as a result of the annual evangelistic effort. Dozens of new Southern Baptist churches have been planted. And thousands have participated as Crossover volunteers from churches across North America.
This year’s Crossover, prior to the SBC’s June 10-11 annual meeting at Indiana Convention Center, will be jointly sponsored by the SBC’s North American Mission Board, the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, and the Crossroads Baptist Association in Indianapolis.
Crossover’08 aims for eight new churches – one Hispanic, one Chinese, one African-American and five Anglo – to be byproducts of the outreach, said Jimmy Kinnaird, NAMB’s Crossover coordinator in Alpharetta, Ga.
“Our goal is that when we leave Indianapolis, we will, at the same time, ensure that the gospel stays there and spreads,” Kinnaird said. “We want Southern Baptist churches to be strengthened and new churches started. We want Indianapolis to be a place where Jesus is known even better after Crossover’08 and the convention.”
John Rogers, missions and evangelism team leader for the Indiana convention, said the state convention and NAMB are playing support roles to the local Crossroads Baptist Association for Crossover’08.
“It’s their heart, their vision and their strategy,” Rogers said. “When it’s locally led and locals take ownership, we think the results will be longer lasting. We see Crossover’08 as a process, not an event. We want Crossover to be felt long after people have left Indianapolis.”
During the week and weekend leading up to the SBC annual meeting, volunteers are being enlisted from dozens of SBC churches in Indiana and around the nation to take the gospel to Indianapolis’ inner-city and metro areas.