A new initiative for South Carolina Baptists, “Experience Kingdom Life,” was approved at the April 14-15 meeting of the convention’s Executive Board at White Oak Conference Center.
Don Purvis, left, chairman of the administrative committee of the Executive Board, discusses the staff reorganization with Jim Austin, center, executive director-treasurer of the SCBC, and Tom Swilley, chairman of the Executive Board.It will be unveiled at, and will be the theme for, the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention at Columbia’s Metropolitan Convention Center Nov. 11-12.
The Executive Board also OK’d a restructuring of the convention staff at the Baptist center in Columbia to “better serve South Carolina Baptists,” according to Roger Orman, associate executive director for communications and mission development for the SCBC.
Orman explained that the new setup – built around the “cross-functional, strategic positions” of leadership and prayer, evangelism and prayer, and discipleship and prayer – will “permeate the entire ministry” of the convention staff, and that the new initiative offers “a real call for discipleship, which will result in missions, evangelism and church starts.”
He emphasized that “when men and women who are called to be God’s disciples interact with the world in a missional mindset, their own lives are enriched and blessed as they share Christ and bring other lives into discovering real life – life in Christ, thus the Experience Kingdom Life emphasis.”
Empowering Kingdom Growth, known widely by its acronym EKG, has been the driving force behind convention ministries since it was introduced in 1991. It also was adopted as a strategy for ministry by the Southern Baptist Convention itself.
Orman praised EKG for its “rich legacy” in South Carolina and continuing influence in Southern Baptist life, adding that believers should not only be empowered to do God’s will, but also that “Christ desires that we experience the fullness of his grace, saving power, purpose and real joy.”
The communications and mission development leader said that EKG has been “extremely positive in changing the thinking of many church leaders,” while noting that many churches still are at a plateau or in decline.
With the new emphasis, Orman said, the convention will continue to “partner with strong churches” in carrying out the mandate of the Great Commission, while at the same time “coming alongside, when asked, and really helping” those churches which are “struggling, but truly desire to do their part for the cause of Christ.”
The reorganized convention staff retains teams for evangelization and missions, communications and mission development, and mission support – and adds new teams for church vitalization (the rename for the church development team) and multiplication, with associate executive directors for each yet to be selected.
Within the vitalization team is a new office for church revitalization, which, according to Orman, “will work specifically with church leaders who request special assistance.”
A key change in the reorganization, according to Orman, is the multiplication team to bring the focus on “the biblical principle of multiplication rather than addition.”
Orman said the multiplication team will be motivated by “irrefutable church data” indicating that “new churches reach more people for Christ per capita than existing churches.”
Still to be selected is an associate executive director for the multiplication team.
Orman said that “a lot of prayer and work” went into what he termed the “simple but profound” recommendations approved by the Executive Board.
“Four key elements,” he said, “surfaced in every focus group that participated in the process – prayer always was number one, and then leadership, discipleship and evangelism.”
Orman explained that the reorganization process included input from directors of missions, members of the Executive Board and convention staff.
With a new vision outlined by Jim Austin, executive director-treasurer, to “urgently take the whole gospel to the whole world – that all may be whole,” he stated “the new emphasis came as a result of the last phase of EKG coming to an end at the end of 2007.”
Orman said the new organization structure “will focus on the goal of each convention staff member to provide servant leadership with kingdom partners.”