For the first time, South Carolina Baptists will be able to choose between two locations for the State Evangelism Conference.
Twin conferences will be offered two weeks apart at churches in the Lowcountry and the Upstate. Northwood Baptist Church in North Charleston will host the event Feb. 8-9; Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church in Moore will serve as host church Feb. 22-23.
“By going regional, our hope is to make the conference available to more of our churches while saving them dollars in these economically challenging times,” said Marshall Fagg, associate executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention evangelization and missions team.
In keeping with the national evangelism initiative being launched across North America, the theme for the meetings will be “God’s Plan for Sharing” (GPS). “Urgently sharing the gospel with every person in South Carolina by 2020 is the goal,” Fagg said. “To do this, churches need to work together.” The conferences are “designed to inspire and equip churches to embrace GPS,” he said.
On the Sunday evening preceding each meeting, the SCBC and area associations will host GPS rallies at 6 p.m. Fagg and Ron Barker, SCBC evangelism and prayer strategist, will preach at the rallies, and host churches (Northwood and Anderson Mill Road) will provide music.
The conferences’ Monday sessions will begin at 9:30 a.m. The afternoon will include GPS workshops from 2-4 p.m. Invitation-only dinners for baptism leaders from associations will be held at 4:30. Evening sessions will begin with music at 6 p.m., followed by worship and preaching.
On Tuesday morning, the sessions will begin at 10 a.m. There will be three speakers and music focused on how to reach the next generation with the gospel, Fagg said. A detailed schedule is available at www.scbaptist.org.
Speakers for the Northwood conference include Will Browning, Roy Fish, Sammy Galbreath, Sonny Holmes, Mark Mittelburg, Frank Page and Frank Shivers. Charleston Southern University’s New Vision and Northwood Baptist Church will lead the music.
Speakers at the Anderson Mill Road conference include Jay Hardwick, D.J. Horton, Frank Page, David Platt, Alvin Reid and Dave Walton. North Greenville University’s Joyful Sound and Anderson Mill Road’s music ministry will lead the music.
“These are critical times for our nation and world,” said Fagg. “If the church is going to be the church, we need to urgently take the whole gospel to the whole world that all might be whole. These conferences are opportunities to be motivated and equipped to accomplish this task from across the street to the ends of the earth.”