An Ethnic Ministries Summit to be held April 19-21 in Spartanburg will offer South Carolina Baptists and other evangelicals a unique opportunity to gain expert insight into reaching the state’s growing diverse ethnic populations.
Sponsored by Ethnic America Network, a Wheaton, Ill.-based coalition of more than 75 evangelical denominations and agencies, the summit will be held at Evangel Cathedral, just off Business I-85 in Spartanburg. The South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Spartanburg County Baptist Network are co-sponsors for the event.
The summit will include multiethnic worship services, plenary sessions, seminars on increasing outreach effectiveness, networking opportunities for affinity groups, and opportunities to earn academic credit.
Jim Goodroe, director of missions for Spartanburg County Network and a key planner for the summit, said South Carolina Baptists will have a “once in a generation” opportunity to experience the national summit without the expense of traveling to a distant city.
He encourages churches to bring buses to the free evening services for a taste of multiethnic worship “[like] we will experience in heaven.” He expects upwards of 3,000 people to attend the worship services.
If churches can come on only one night, Goodroe hopes they will choose Friday, when Danny Carroll Rodas, an expert on immigration, will be speaking. “[Immigration] is a politicized, emotional issue with much heat [and] needs biblical light and historical insight,” Goodroe said.
Thursday night is Spartanburg County Network night at the summit, and Goodroe is asking churches in his association to hold their midweek services at the summit.
In addition to the free evening sessions, the daytime plenary and breakout sessions will offer practical information for ministry leaders. For registration costs and lodging or other information, visit www.interculturalnetworkcarolina.org.
Goodroe said his passion for ethnic ministry started in 1998 when he learned that “nations,” as mentioned in Matthew 28:19, is the Greek word for “ethnics,” as it is in the Luke 24:47 version of the Great Commission, whose Luke and Acts (1:8) versions say to “start by reaching the ‘ethnics’ wherever you are.”
The door for ethnic ministry was opened wider to him when Goodroe became director of missions in Spartanburg County, where he credits his predecessor, Alvin O’Shields, for laying the foundation for ethnic work in the county, home to residents representing more than 70 countries and people groups.
“Since 1998, I have sensed that the most practical way for disciples to advance the Great Commission is by following the Luke 24:47/Acts 1:8 instruction to reach the ethnicities starting where we are,” Goodroe wrote in a July 2010 Courier article. ” ‘Samaritans’ are people who are near us but not like us. God has brought the peoples of the world to our doorsteps.
“People in new places are more apt to reevaluate their old ways and beliefs. As we befriend and build relationships with them, we can be a bridge to their relationship with Jesus. We must disciple them to be the missionaries to their people here, and all the way back to there.”
The last Ethnic America Network summit was held in 2010 in Boston. Southern Baptists have played key roles in EAN, whose founding chairman is Russell Begaye. Begaye was language missions director for the North American Mission Board until his retirement and is now director of missions for San Juan Baptist Association in northwestern New Mexico.
Begaye thinks Spartanburg is ideally situated between Atlanta and Charlotte to become a regional network hub for ethnic outreach. In a 2010 interview with the Courier, he said a key to successful networking must be a willingness among Christian churches and ministries to cross denominational and geographical lines to share key information and resources.
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Fong“This work in reaching ethnic America has to be a global vision, a global effort, bringing all members to the table without the lines,” he said. “That’s what the ethnic groups are doing anyway. For them, there’s no NAMB, no IMB. It’s just a globe, and their people live there in various countries, and they’re going after them: reaching people, starting churches, developing pastors, and those churches duplicating themselves – not just in the same country, but around the world.”
Speakers for the summit’s plenary sessions include:
? Bruce Fong, English lead pastor at Sunset Church, San Francisco, and author of “Racial Equality in the Church.”
? Rene Rochester, founder of Urban S.E.T. Inc. (Strengthening, Educating and Training) and author of “Models, Mentors and Messages.”
? Danny Carroll Rodas, professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary and author of “Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church and the Bible.”
? David H. Kim, director of the Gotham Initiative at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, for young professionals seeking to live out their faith in New York City.
? Harry Jackson, presiding bishop of the International Communion of Evangelical Churches and senior pastor of Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, Md.