PHOENIX (BP)–John Piper, preaching pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, has been added to the list of speakers for the 2011 SBC Pastors’ Conference, slated June 12-13 in Phoenix prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
Piper has served as pastor of the Minneapolis congregation since 1980, following six years teaching biblical studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn. He is the author of more than 40 books, perhaps most notably the 1986 publication of “Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.”
The list of speakers posted at the Pastors’ Conference website, www.sbcpc.net, also includes Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.; Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta; Johnny Hunt of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.; Ken Whitten of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla.; Afshin Ziafat of Providence Church in Frisco, Texas; Bob Roberts of Northwood Church in Keller, Texas; Peter Ndhlovu of Bible Gospel Church in Africa in Lusaka, Zambia; Paul Gotthardt of Life Baptist Church in Las Vegas; Darrin Patrick of The Journey Church in St. Louis; Gregg Matte of First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas; and evangelist Bob Pitman of Muscle Shoals, Ala.
The conference, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Phoenix Convention Center’s north building.
The conference program will focus on a renewed passion for planting churches in North America and taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Pastors’ Conference President Vance Pitman, church planter and lead pastor of Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, Nev., said he is praying 1,000 churches will commit themselves during the conference to plant churches in “pioneer areas” of North America. He also announced that part of the annual offering taken during the gathering will be used to finish translating the “JESUS” film into the language of an unreached people group in the Arabian Peninsula.
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Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor and senior writer Mark Kelly.
