2017 SBC Annual Meeting

PHOENIX (BP) -- In what may be the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference's first public financial report, 2017 conference president Dave Miller noted expenditures of just over $400,000 for the Phoenix gathering plus an additional $100,000 provided by the Cooperative Program to help pay for meeting space. "As pastors of average and smaller churches, the costs of the conference boggled our minds," Miller, pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, wrote in a Jan. 2 report. "But we found that with the support of the entities of the SBC ...

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- Members of the Southern Baptist Convention's evangelism task force met Dec. 5 to each share recommendations that will be considered for a final report to the SBC's 2018 annual meeting in Dallas. The task force gathered on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for the second of three scheduled meetings. SBC President Steve Gaines appointed the task force during the SBC annual meeting in June to focus on how Southern Baptists might be more effective in personal soul winning and evangelistic preaching.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- How to increase Southern Baptists' passion for personal evangelism and encourage preachers to include evangelistic invitations in every sermon were among the topics discussed Aug. 14-15 at the first meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention's task force on soul winning and evangelistic preaching. "I cannot remember a meeting that encouraged my heart as much as this one," task force chairman Paige Patterson said in a statement released to Baptist Press. "We had a large portion of the task force who were able to attend and they seriously and humbly pursued the convention-assigned task.

PHOENIX (BP) -- Data compiled following the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix indicates more messengers than 2011, the last time the convention was held in Phoenix, and a net annual meeting cost reduction of some $800,000 since that time. Nominees elected to boards and committees were notable for their ethnic diversity, Cooperative Program support and representation of churches with 250 members or fewer.

PHOENIX (BP) -- My heart was racing as my wife and I stood and waited. Memories from the past several years shot through my mind. Time after time I had heard the cry, "They are perishing without the Gospel! Who will go?" And time after time I had responded. But God's quiet reply to my soul was simply, "Wait on the Lord...."

PHOENIX (BP) -- Disciple-making in Southern Baptist churches was assessed by SBC entity leaders Kevin Ezell, David Platt and Eric Geiger during a forum at the 2017 SBC annual meeting in Phoenix. Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., president/founder of Replicate Ministries and chairman of a task force created last year to encourage disciple-making by Southern Baptists, led the discussion at the Replicate Ministries booth in the SBC exhibit hall June 13.

Curtis Cook, at each Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting he attends, gains renewed appreciation for a family of churches that can "lock arms together for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Many Southern Baptists may know the Gettys for "In Christ Alone," a beautiful hymn Keith Getty and Stuart Townend penned in 2000 and the church has been singing ever since. Keith and Kristyn Getty, along with others, have written many more, some of which tie directly to the missionary activity of the church. During the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Phoenix in June, the International Mission Board's Rodney Calfee sat down with Keith to discuss worship and missions.

Doug Carver recounts Southern Baptists' longstanding wartime ministry to members of the armed forces. And now, he points to another critical hour to remain "faithful stewards of the freedom we've been granted by the men and women who have, through their brave and sacrificial service, kept America the land of the free and the brave."

Four Southern Baptist national entity leaders shared their insights on adoption and foster care during a panel discussion June 13 at the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program booth in Phoenix.