By Gary D. Myers, NOBTS Communications
NEW ORLEANS — The Caskey Center for Church Excellence at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary will serve as a strategic partner for the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference in Phoenix. The partnership will include financial and logistical support. NOBTS President Chuck Kelley announced the partnership to the school’s faculty Sept. 7.
“The Caskey Center for Church Excellence at NOBTS is delighted to partner with the 2017 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Phoenix to highlight the role of the smaller membership church in Southern Baptist life,” Kelley said. “We are passionately committed to encouraging all pastors to make excellent biblical exposition in the church and consistent Gospel conversations with those outside the church the building blocks of their ministries.”
The news follows the election of Dave Miller, pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, and editor of the SBC Voices blog, as the president of the 2017 Pastors’ Conference.
Typically a position reserved for larger church pastors, Miller ran on a platform emphasizing expositional preaching and celebrating the contributions of smaller churches in the SBC. Miller’s church, which averages around 200 in worship, is in good company. Eighty-nine percent of the convention’s 47,000 churches average 250 or less in worship.
“The Caskey Center was asked to partner with the SBC Pastors’ Conference because we are one of the only entities in the SBC completely devoted to smaller-membership and bi-vocational ministry,” said Mark Tolbert, director of the Caskey Center. “The Caskey Center serves as a champion for our smaller churches throughout the convention. We look forward to sharing research, highlighting best practices and celebrating the significant work of our smaller churches.”
Tolbert considers the partnership a “win-win” arrangement. The Pastors’ Conference team receives financial and logistical help needed to put on a large-scale event. The Caskey Center gains the opportunity to promote intentional gospel-centered conversations to a larger gathering of Southern Baptists.
“We are eager to emphasize and stimulate gospel-centered conversations among all of our pastors and churches,” Tolbert said.
“With a 16-year decline in baptisms, the SBC is in crisis and we hope to encourage and advance intentionality and accountability and to help ‘move the needle’ in reaching our neighborhoods and the nations with the Gospel.”
While the significance of smaller churches will be on display, Tolbert stressed that the 2017 SBC Pastors’ Conference is not meant to be a gathering of small church pastors only. Tolbert and Miller both are seeking widespread participation from those who pastor the smallest to the largest churches.
