INDIANAPOLIS (BP)–The Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists will honor its founding generation and reach out to a new generation of lost souls as it convenes for a 50th anniversary celebration June 6-9 in Indianapolis, immediately prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The group will honor the first group of inductees of the COSBE Hall of Faith -– recognizing vocational evangelists who have dedicated years of service to the task of soul-winning. Their meeting will conclude with a high-energy youth evangelism event called “ONE: One night … one purpose.”
The annual evangelists’ gathering, with “Running the Race” as their theme, will open June 6 with an evening banquet in the Crowne Plaza Hotel’s Illinois Street Ballroom, honoring the first class of Hall of Faith inductees, said Brian Fossett, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., and a COSBE pastor adviser, will be the featured speaker. Thirty evangelists will be recognized, ranging from legendary figures like Vance Havner, Hyman Appelman and Billy Graham to active evangelists like Junior Hill, Freddie Gage and Jay Strack.
“I think the Hall of Faith is important because it enshrines the men and women of the past -– and some still present -– who have given their lives to the ministry of the Gospel in evangelism,” said Joel Southerland, senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., who also serves as a pastor adviser to the group. “Most evangelists make great sacrifices in their personal, financial and family lives, with very little recognition or appreciation.
“The Hall of Faith is a way of recognizing those who have made those sacrifices and giving our young men and women role models they can look up to in ministry,” Southerland said. “The Hall of Faith is a great way to say thank you.”
“Hebrews chapter 11 is a hallmark when it comes to honoring servants of God. I thank God for faithful evangelists,” Johnny Hunt said. “What a privilege today to remember in a very special way those who have served Him so well in days of uncertainty. I believe we should give credit where credit is due.”
Junior Hill, an Alabama evangelist with 40 years of service to Southern Baptists, said he personally views the Hall of Faith as “a simple acknowledgement that some of us have had long tenures in this work and a way to magnify the grace of God that has made all of that possible.”
“I view it as a sincere effort to exalt His sustaining love, rather than to single out and commend the work that any of us may have done,” Hill said. “If in some way the faithfulness of those who are being inducted can bring honor and glory to the One who has called us, then I am deeply honored to be a part of it.”
A complete list of the honorees is available at the COSBE website, sbcevangelist.org.
The evangelists’ annual retreat, Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, will feature evangelists Tony Nolan, Jamey Ragle and Junior Hill preaching and Cliff Barrows of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association leading music and a breakout session. Saturday’s activities will conclude with group members participating in Crossover, the citywide evangelistic outreach conducted each year prior to the SBC meeting.
The evangelists’ annual Sunday morning worship service will begin at 9 a.m. June 8, in the Indiana Convention Center’s Ballrooms 4/5. In addition to music led by Barrows and sermons from Nolan, Ragle and Hill, the program will feature special music by Newsong and a testimony by Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
That evening, the evangelists will host “ONE,” a youth evangelism event geared toward reaching lost young people in Indiana. “Newsong will be in concert and Jamey Ragle will do some comedy and Tony Nolan will bring an evangelistic message,” Fossett said. “We are hoping to see 300 to 500 young people saved during that time.” The youth event also will be held in the convention center’s Sagamore Ballrooms 4/5.
The evangelists’ retreat will be extended to include a 9 p.m. Sunday reception in the Sagamore Ballroom 6 following the closing session of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference.
“In honor of COSBE’s 50th anniversary, we are going to have a reception for everybody attending the SBC,” Fossett said. “It will be a great opportunity for pastors and evangelists to meet and get acquainted. We hope it will help facilitate relationships that will encourage pastors to invite vocational evangelists to lead harvest evangelism events in their churches.”
The Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists has developed a resource manual to help pastors plan evangelistic events for their congregations, engaging spiritually gifted vocational evangelists to conduct the services.
In an endorsement for that material, Roy Fish, distinguished professor of evangelism emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said: “Two things which are in a sad state of neglect today are the number of revival meetings held in Southern Baptist churches and the use of vocational evangelists for these meetings. Without a doubt, this is one reason why the number of people baptized in our churches has been declining.”
The annual COSBE business meeting will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday in the Crowne Plaza Hotel’s Illinois Street Ballroom.
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Mark Kelly is an assistant editor at Baptist Press.
