Ask those who participated and they will tell you the Jan. 24–25 state Evangelism Conference was one of the best. The preaching was outstanding; the music, inspirational.
The program provided a blend on national personalities and Alabama Baptist pastors. Also represented were state evangelists and bivocational pastors as well as evangelism leaders from other states. Some speakers were young, in their mid-30s. Others had passed the traditional retirement age. State evangelism director Sammy Gilbreath did a wonderful job of making the program inclusive while focusing on Intentional Evangelism, the conference theme.
Augmenting the inspiration were 10 different conferences offered a total of 27 times over six sessions. The conferences provided practical helps on everything from praying to workplace witnessing.
Conference leaders were national headliners. Retired Southwestern Seminary professor T.W. Hunt is widely regarded as the leading authority of spiritual awakening through prayer. This was the second consecutive year that Hunt led sessions over the two-day period to help people better understand prayer and learn ways to improve their prayer lives.
North American Mission Board president Bob Reccord taught his new book on witnessing in the workplace. The national director of mentoring churches for Purpose-Driven Ministry taught how to prepare a church for “40 Days of Purpose” which is wildly popular among churches. And on it went. In some places, events like this charge big bucks for participants to sit at the feet of such renowned authorities.
For Alabama Baptists, it was all free. All they had to do was show up. Unfortunately, not many did. For the third consecutive year, attendance dropped below expectations. The largest crowd was about 700 people. The closing Tuesday night session drew about 200 participants. Memories do not have to be long to recall closing night sessions drawing in thousands.
Evangelism leaders and program planners are rightly celebrating the caliber program presented at this year’s Evangelism Conference. At the same time, they must be scratching their heads about the attendance.
Gilbreath has been creative in his conference planning. To address the downward attendance trend, he scrapped the usual approach of a parade of preachers a few years ago and provided three tracks for participants – traditional worship, contemporary worship and a women’s track.
More recently, the discipleship track was added. Now that evangelism and discipleship are on the same ministry team of the State Board of Missions, one can expect the two emphases to work closely together.
As was often said during the recent conference, evangelism and discipleship go together. You cannot have one without the other.
Gilbreath also responded to suggestions to vary the site of the annual conference from the state’s four major metropolitan areas – Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile. Gilbreath took the Evangelism Conference to Dothan and Tuscaloosa but the new meeting sites did not result in greater attendance.
A few years ago some Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders charged leading theological conservatives were kept off state-sponsored programs making it necessary to have rival evangelism conferences. If such a charge was ever valid, it certainly has not been true in Alabama in recent years.
This year’s program included Alabama native Bobby Welch, current president of the SBC. Noted conservative leader James Merritt, a former SBC president, was also on the program as was North American Mission Board president Bob Reccord. In the past three years, former SBC presidents Paige Patterson and Jack Graham highlighted Evangelism Conference programs. Also among the speakers in years past were Ala-bama native Ted Traylor, former SBC Pastors Conference president, and others.
Gilbreath has been responsive to national leaders in their efforts to increase evangelism among Southern Baptists. At the same time, he has kept attention on the needs of Alabama and Alabama Baptists from churches large and small have graced Evangelism Conference platforms.
While the annual Evangelism Conference is free to participants, it is not cheap. The Cooperative Program provides multiple thousands of dollars for the event. It carries one of the highest price tags of any single event. If Alabama Baptists want to continue having conferences of the caliber of this year’s Evangelism Conference, then it is likely that attendance will have to pick up.
Hopefully, when Alabama Baptists meet at Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile in 2006 for the annual Evangelism Conference, the downward trend of attendance will be dramatically reversed. This was a good Evangelism Conference. It was inspirational and helpful. The annual Evangelism Conference deserves to be a higher priority on the calendars of Alabama Baptist pastors and leaders than recent attendance indicates.
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