SBC President Welch unveils ‘baptism rallies’

NASHVILLE — Following a successful launch of the “‘Everyone Can’ Kingdom Challenge” at the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting in Nashville this summer, SBC President Bobby Welch is urgently challenging each of the 1,188 Baptist associations across the nation to hold two “associational baptism rallies” between Oct. 1 of this year and Sept. 30, 2006.

Welch’s focus on local associations is the key to his strategy for accomplishing the goal of witnessing to, winning and baptizing  1 million people within a year.

“My prayer is that we will have bold, urgent, creative leadership emerge out of every association to have two of these baptismal rallies in that one year and that these rallies will begin to spring up all over the different parts of the country,” he said. “And when people read about them and hear about them that they too will go and do likewise, and we’ll have in the course of 12 months these sparks turn into a raging wildfire of a fresh work for God and Christ across America and around the world.”

The associational baptism rallies, Welch explained, should be at a neutral outdoor spot and, ideally, each participating pastor should bring at least one person to be baptized into his church fellowship at the rally. He suggests three dates churches nationwide might want to emphasize baptism as a show of unity in the cause. The first date is Nov. 27, the second is Easter 2006 and the third is the following Sept. 30, 2006, marking the end of the year of 1 million baptisms.