NAAF town hall to offer timely insight on national, global struggles
By BP Staff
FAIRFAX STATION, Va. (BP) — Southern Baptist African American leaders will offer diverse perspectives to help churches thrive during current challenges in a virtual town hall Tuesday (Aug. 25) at 1 p.m. (ET).
The National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention (NAAF) will host the event featuring pastors and leaders from SBC entities and a state convention, NAAF president Marshal Ausberry has announced.
“They will share their perspectives and insights into what’s been happening in the world around us and in America and in our churches, and what the church should be doing at such a time as this,” said Ausberry, senior pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Va.
Ausberry will moderate the panel featuring Jason Lumpkin, campus pastor of Woodstock Church in Austell, Ga., a location of multisite First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.; Fred Luter Jr., pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans and the first African American president of the SBC, having served 2012-2014; Connia Nelson, senior vice president of human relations for LifeWay Christian Resources; Trillia Newbell, director of community outreach for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Kevin Smith, executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware; and Frank Williams, NAAF vice president and senior pastor of the Bronx Baptist Church and Wake Eden Community Baptist Church, both in Bronx, N.Y.
The town hall may be accessed at NAAFTogether.org.
SWBTS to livestream weekly music colloquium
By Alex Sibley
For the first time, weekly colloquium sessions of the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will be livestreamed, allowing anyone around the world to join in the discussion and benefit from these worship studies sessions, school leaders announced.
Guest speakers from the seminary faculty as well as leaders from across the globe will be featured during the weekly colloquium for the school’s master’s and doctoral students this semester, sharing knowledge and experience from their unique perspectives and fields of service.
Joseph R. Crider, dean of the School of Church Music and Worship, said he and his faculty “love to invest in our music and worship students, but we also want them to hear new and different perspectives from a wide variety of ministry practitioners, theologians and fellow students. This semester’s speaker list looks like it could serve as a headline banner for a major conference, and yet anyone can tune in each week and hear these phenomenal sessions for free.”
Speakers include SWBTS faculty David S. Dockery, Joseph R. Crider, R. Allen Lott and Travis S. Kerns, as well as guest speakers like SBC worship consultant David Manner, South African pastor David de Bruyn and poet Donald Owens.
Beginning Aug. 26, the colloquium will take place every Wednesday at 10 a.m. CT and will livestream through the school’s “Artistic Theologian” website as well as the school’s Facebook page.
