By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
LAFAYETTE – Reaching the Next Generation and Every People Group are two aims of the 2016 Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference (ECON) – with a focus on moving Louisiana Baptists closer to achieving the goals of the President’s 2020 Commission Report.
Evangelism & Church Growth Team Director Wayne Jenkins believes this year’s lineup of featured speakers and worship leaders will be able to accomplish this task.
“ECON 2016 is a conference for the entire church,” Jenkins said. “Along with great music and powerful preaching, pastors and church members alike will be able to take home ideas from the breakout sessions about how to reach these two audiences in their community.”
First Bapitst Church Lafayette will host this year’s ECON from Jan. 25-26. Based on 1 Corinthians 9:22, this year’s ECON seeks to inspire, lift spirits and provide participants with a number of unique fellowship opportunities.
Preceding ECON two days earlier [Jan. 22-23], First Lafayette will also host the Hispanic Evangelism Conference.
Here is a brief profile on this year’s speakers:
STEVE GAINES
Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., is a firm believer in prayer and evangelism. In 2007, he led Bellevue to a service-evangelism model that helped the church become more involved in community missions.
“We try to find a need and meet it; find a hurt and heal it,” he said.
Bellevue has coupled social ministry with soul winning and has discovered it to be a powerful combination in evangelizing lost people.
Gaines, a native of Corinth, Miss., became pastor of the church on Aug. 1, 2005, following long-time pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention President Adrian Rogers. Before being called to Bellevue he pastored several churches and worked in a leadership role in the SBC, including president of the 2005 Pastors Conference.
While at First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Ala. from 1991 to 2005, the church baptized more than 3,100 people, ranking it first in the state in number of baptisms seven times and second in baptisms three times.
Worship attendance also rose from 1,600 to more than 3,300, forcing the creation of additional worship times, and Sunday school attendance jumped from 1,550 upon his arrival to 2,591 by the time he left to become pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church.
JOSH MCDOWELL
An agnostic as a young man, Josh McDowell believed Christianity was worthless. But when he attempted to dispel the truths of Christianity, he could not.
Moreover, as he studied the issues he became convinced of the Gospel’s truth and subsequently abandoned his plans for law school in order to follow God’s call to share the Gospel.
Since his conversion, McDowell has become known for speaking out on cultural trends, starting Josh McDowell Ministry, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ International.
For more than 50 years, McDowell has traveled to 125 countries and shared his message with more than 25 million people. He is the author or co-author of 140 books in more than 100 different languages, including New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, named by World Magazine as one of the top 40 books of the 20th Century.
During his international travels, McDowell saw first hand the enormity of the problems of homelessness and world hunger. So in 1991 he founded Operation Carelift to combat both by ministering through orphanages, hospitals, schools and prisons in countries of the former Soviet Union.
The organization has delivered humanitarian aid worth more than 46 million dollars, supplying 1 million children with school supplies, food items, toys and hygiene items.
ALVIN REID
Life is a mission trip and Alvin Reid desires to help others take it.
With a passion to equip leaders for the coming generation, Reid speaks extensively to churches and leaders on the subject of revival and missional ways to reach the West, as well as college students on living for Christ.
The professor of evangelism and student ministry at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, since 1995, Reid has written a great deal on evangelism, missional Christianity, spiritual awakening and student ministry.
He has spoken at conferences on four continents and in almost every state, including over 2000 churches, colleges, conferences and events.
Among his latest books are Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out and WITH: A Guide to Informal Mentoring.
MARK CROSTON
Keeping in step with the goal of reaching every people group, LBC leaders have invited Mark Croston to share his message at one of the sessions.
A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Mark Croston served for 26 years as pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va. Then, in November 2013, he responded to God’s call to serve as national director of black church partnerships at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn.
He has also serves as general editor and writer for the YOU Urban Bible study curriculum and as preaching pastor of Living Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn. Croston also authored a doctoral dissertation on Intentional Christian Education in a Rural-Urban African American Church and Community.
Croston has served as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Virginia Baptist State Convention. He also has served as president and treasurer of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, president of the African American Fellowship SBC of Virginia and chairman for African American Taskforces for NAMB, IMB and LifeWay.
DAVID BURTON
His experience, evangelistic zeal and his role as an equipper to pastors shows the passion David Burton has for sharing the gospel. Throughout his ministerial career, including his current role with David Burton Ministries, he has done just that.
“Too many books, authors and conferences tell us what doesn’t work today without ever showing and telling what does work,” said Burton. “I want to give a fresh, new insight to help pastors push back against the darkness and lostness.”
His high-energy approach makes him a popular speaker and it shows by the frequently travel to conferences and churches to share his message.
Before his current ministry, Burton was on staff at the Florida Baptist Convention, serving as lead strategist for the Evangelism Group.
He also has served on staff at churches for 17 years. These included churches in Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Among those were positions as minister of evangelism at three churches.
REGINALD CALVERT
Reginald Calvert, pastor of New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Bessemer, Ala., firmly believes in reaching the lost and training the saved to serve.
“We must never lose sight of our mission, and we must continue to embrace the teachings and example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Calvert said. “Here at NJMBC we share the gospel of Jesus Christ for the purpose of transformation, building a community of committed and unified believers to evangelize the world for Christ.”
Since 1999, Calvert has lectured and preached for conferences for both the SBC and the National Baptist Convention, a predominantly African-American denomination.
He also serves as assistant dean of the Mount Pilgrim District Congress of Christian Education and is a certified instructor in the Mount Pilgrim Congress of Christian Education and the Mount Pilgrim Certificate of Progress Program.
He is a graduate of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in nearby Birmingham, Ala. He was chosen as M.Div. Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 1999 by Beeson faculty and the dean.
ECON APP
Keep up to date with the Evangelism Conference by downloading the ECON App. Available for iphone and android phones, the app will feature the conference schedule, links to bible.com and whativaluemost.com, salvation verses, weather alerts and more.