2009 SBC Annual Meeting News

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Twenty-eight students made professions of faith and many more participated in an emotional prayer time with their adult companions after hearing the testimony of evangelist Ken Freeman on June 21. The ONE Student Rally at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville also featured the Dove Award-winning contemporary Christian band Building 429, Chagy the […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--More than 700 people attended the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists Sunday worship service June 21 in Louisville, Ky., featuring Johnny Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Southern Baptist churches must be known as passionate for God's glory, loving toward others and winsome in their discipleship if they are to make the impact on society that God desires, pastors were told during the opening session of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference, June 21 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The Good News raced across Louisville like a thoroughbred at Churchill Downs June 20 when 3,000 Southern Baptist volunteers braved 95-degree temperatures for Crossover '09, an evangelistic effort prior to each year's Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.       Two festivals and 28 block parties topped a list of 95 events, including door-to-door community visits by 1,800 volunteers from 109 local SBC churches along with 1,200 volunteers from out of town.       Charles Barnes, coordinator for Crossover Louisville, said more Louisville-area Baptists were involved in the effort than for any other event with the exception of a Billy Graham crusade eight years earlier. Crossover was jointly sponsored SBC's North American Mission Board, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Long Run Baptist Association, Kentucky Woman's Missionary Union and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.       "I think the people in the local association and the surrounding area have really been energized for the Lord and the work of the Kingdom," Barnes said.       "Lostness is huge in Louisville," Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Director Bill Mackey said, noting that only about 8.5 percent of the population is churched on any Sunday. "We wanted to do our best to take advantage of Crossover and to make Louisville one of the most prayed-over cities in America."       Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt and North American Mission Board President Geoff Hammond joined Feed The Children's president and founder, Larry Jones, to kick off the first of three "food drops" in the greater Louisville area.       Cars lined up outside distribution sites at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Shively Baptist Church and the Baptist Fellowship Center where volunteers loaded food and personal items into vehicles for 1,200 pre-qualified needy families -– and shared the Gospel with those who wanted to hear.       "Today, because of this food drop, people are going to come to Jesus -- people whose names we do not know," Hammond said. "On behalf of the North American Mission Board we are delighted to be in a partnership with Feed The Children, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the Long Run Association and Bethlehem Baptist to meet these folks' human and spiritual needs."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee recommended in a unanimous vote Monday afternoon that the denomination cease its relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, a Fort Worth, Texas, congregation that has been the source of controversy over its stance on homosexuality.