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Molino Pastor Attends Southern Baptist Convention; Escambia Pastor Nominates New President
June 15, 2008
A local pastor was among the 7,000 gathered at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, where the man nominated by another Escambia County preacher was named president of the 16 million member group.
Brian Calhoun, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Molino traveled to Indianapolis this past week for both the actual Southern Baptist Convention and the preceding Southern Baptist 2008 Pastor’s Conference.
“The convention itself was great,” Calhoun said. “I enjoyed the spirit of the convention…the spirit of brotherly love and concern.”
Calhoun said he was pleased in the election of Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, as president of the convention on the first ballot. Hunt was nominated at the convention by Ted Traylor pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
“Pray for him. He has a big task before him. Our Convention needs renewal. Johnny is just the man to point us in the right direction,” Traylor wrote Friday on his blog.
“I pray that these next two years will be exciting times as we turn the tide and begin once again to grow and to reach our neighbors and our nations for His glory and for the expansion of His glorious Kingdom,” Hunt told messengers the day after his election.
He said, “We’ve been declining as a denomination. You can’t turn something around until you stop the tide in the direction it’s going.”
Statistics show that in 2007 Southern Baptists baptized the fewest number of people in two decades.
At the convention, the North American Mission Board unveiled an ambitious National Evangelism Initiative — named God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) — with the goal of having “every believer sharing” the Gospel and “every person hearing” by 2020.
“I believe it is a good program,” Calhoun said. “Everything that comes out of the Convention is good, but it is not always something that every church benefits from. What works in Southern California might not work in Molino, and vice versa. But this sounds like a good program.”
“As I have been around the country and around the world, the laypeople I have talked with are ready to get out and do something for Christ,” former SBC President Frank Page said. “And I think given the proper motivation and direction, they’ll do it.”
Growth in the Southern Baptist Convention will come from cooperation among Southern Baptist churches, Traylor said.
“Southern Baptists are not easily understood by those outside our Convention. We are often called a denomination and I understand that. However, in the true sense of the matter we are a Convention of churches coming together to cooperate in Gospel ministry. Only when we trust one another and cooperate does the Convention work,” he said. “When the people of a local church decide to cooperate with people from other churches we are then able to join forces and do more together than we can ever do apart.”
“I am proud to be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is now time to go to work. We have a world to touch in Jesus’ name,” Traylor said.
Pictured top: Brian Calhoun, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Molino. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge. Second picture: New Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt (left) and Pastor Ted Traylor of Olvie Baptist Church in Molino. TedTraylor.com photo, click to enlarge.
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