Honoring “heroes of the faith,” both unsung pastors and well-known leaders, will be a key theme of the June 9–10 Southern Baptist Pastors Conference in St. Louis, the group’s president and Florida pastor Ken Whitten said. Pastoral heroes will be honored with video and musical tributes and an offering to support retired ministers.
Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North and leading Southern Baptist pastors, including Alabama evangelist Junior Hill from Hartselle, are among the confirmed speakers for the meeting. Hill, a well-known speaker in Alabama and around the nation, is scheduled to speak at the Pastors Conference Monday afternoon.
Recording artists Janet Paschal and Wintley Phipps, and church choirs — including two student groups — are among the confirmed musicians for the conference preceding the June 11–12 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
The Pastors Conference theme will be “Lest We Forget,” based on Proverbs 22:28: “Remove not the ancient landmarks, which thy fathers have set.”
Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, said he is grateful for the “heritage of preachers in my family,” noting that there has been an active minister in his family since the 1700s, including a pastor in his home state of Illinois since the 1800s.
Citing an additional goal of the conference, Whitten said he has strived to include a “better representation” of African-Americans and other ethnicities in all facets of the pastors program “because they are us and we are them.”
Building the four sessions around the conference theme, pastors will be exhorted to not forget their calling, their children, their church and their country.
The conference will include two tribute sessions to honor recently deceased pastors. “I wanted to honor some of the godly men, some whom people know and some people would not know, who have been pastors and who have gone to be with the Lord,” Whitten said.
Southern Baptists can contact him with names and photos of pastors who have passed away in the past year, Whitten said. He expressed hope that pastors will plan now to attend the meeting.
The conference will be dedicated to the memory of Ron Dunn, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Bible teacher, who died last July. A sermon by Dunn will be included in the audio cassette/CD package of sermons preached at the 2002 Pastors Conference, he added.
Retired pastors will be honored with an offering, Whitten said. Because his church is covering the expense of the conference, he said the offering taken at the conference will go to the SBC Annuity Board’s “Adopt an Annuitant” Program.
Pastors Conference speakers, session by session, will be John Marshall, Jack Graham, Robert Pitman, Fred Luter, John Sullivan, Kevin Cosby, Ken Davis, Jay Strack, Johnny Hunt, Mac Brunson, Ted Traylor, Hill, Adrian Rogers, Jerry Vines and Oliver North.
(BP)
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