I haven’t seen an announcement in Baptist Press, but today I stumbled across the website for the 2019 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Birmingham, AL. The conference will be held June 9-10 at Legacy Arena just prior to the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The conference president is Danny Wood, pastor of Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham for more than 20 years. The theme for the conference is Kingdom Character.
Here’s an excerpt from the conference website:
The theme for the 2019 Pastors’ Conference is “Kingdom Character” and will focus on the Beatitudes. Today’s news cycle and current events require us to consider what it means to live faithfully as Christians and as pastors. The Beatitudes will be a needed reminder to all of us about the character of Christ-followers. Our conduct grows out of our character and in order to be the people of God advancing the Kingdom of God, we need to have Kingdom character.
With the large number of character issues that we have faced these last couple of years both in the SBC and ministry in general, it is appropriate to remind pastors of Jesus’ vision for the Christian life. It is a compelling and challenging vision reminding us of our own need for Jesus. We hope you will join us in Birmingham! We hope you will be challenged and encouraged in your walk with Christ as we look to Jesus together during these two days.
The entire lineup of speakers has not been announced yet, but there are some names you will recognize among those currently listed on the website. There are some newcomers as well.
- Dhati Lewis – Lead Pastor of Blueprint Church in Atlanta, Georgia and the Vice President of Send Network with the North American Mission Board.
- Russell Moore – president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
- Ben Mandrell – Lead Pastor of Storyline Fellowship, a four-year old church plant in northwest Denver.
- Jimmy Scroggins – Lead Pastor of Family Church in Palm Beach, FL.
- Robert Smith, Jr. – Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School.
- Jay and Katherine Wolf – survivors and storytellers, advocates and evangelists.
- Martin Young – senior minister of Rising Brook Community Church; church planting in Staffordshire, north of Birmingham, UK.
While I am not familiar with all of these names, I’m sure we will be blessed to hear from each of them. The website says that there will be others announced as we get closer. This is fairly early for conference plans to be announced as we are still 8 months away.
