Oklahoma Southern Baptists to host gathering featuring preachers from Texas, New Orleans
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Oklahoma Southern Baptists will hold their largest gathering of the year at a prominent predominantly Black church in northeast Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma Baptists' 2024 Advance Conference is set for Monday and Tuesday, March 4-5, at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, 5700 N Kelley. The event will include as guest preachers the Rev. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Dallas megachurch Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, who will preach Monday evening; and the Rev. Fred Luter, a New Orleans pastor who served as the Southern Baptist Convention's first Black president, who will deliver a message on Tuesday evening.
Alan Quigley, Oklahoma Baptists' associate executive director, said the conference was formerly known as the Oklahoma State Evangelism Conference, and it is typically the largest gathering held each year by Oklahoma Baptists, the state's largest faith group. He said the free event is held to bring together members of Oklahoma Baptists' 1,750 churches across the state, along with members of other Christian faith traditions for worship, preaching and ministry breakout sessions.
Oklahoma Baptists have held the annual conference at various Southern Baptist churches across the state, including First Baptist Church of Moore and First Southern Baptist Church of Del City. Quigley said the faith group hired the Rev. Walter Wilson, senior pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Lawton, about eight years ago to help Oklahoma Baptists strengthen and grow relationships with predominantly Black churches in the state.
"We had about eight at that time, and today, we have over 100, so we're kind of celebrating the fact that Oklahoma Baptists have seen a good growth in our African American community of churches," Quigley said.
He said he and Wilson worked to put together a conference program with the theme "Sent."
'Melting pot experience'
Rev. Dr. Major Jemison, St. John's senior pastor, said he expected the conference to draw a diverse crowd as a "statement of our need to partner with other Christian believers championing the cause of Jesus Christ."
"It will be a mixture of the races, and when I say that, you will have individuals from across the Caucasian community, the Hispanic community, the Native American community and the African American community, all converging on St. John Missionary Baptist Church for two days — and that kind of a melting pot experience can only generate goodwill and forge opportunities in the future for us to collaborate on the issues and our good."
St. John, he said, is dually aligned with the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention USA, two of the nation's Black Baptist denominations. The minister said St. John's is also part of the Oklahoma Baptists' African American Fellowship of churches.
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Conference highlights will include guest speaker the Rev. Doug Melton, senior pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church, who will be among three preachers to share messages in the morning session, and the Rev. Stephen Rummage, senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church, who will be one of three ministers set to speak at the afternoon session.
Monday evening's session will include faith messages of faith from Jemison and Evans. In addition to leading his Dallas church, Evans is also known for his "The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans," a daily radio show broadcast in more than 130 countries. The Monday evening session will also include a special performance and worship lead by the combined voices of Jemison, the St. John Missionary Choir, and the Ambassadors Concert Choir, under the director of Sandra D. Thompson.
Breakout sessions will be held Tuesday, with discussions on children's ministry, Hispanic ministry, women's ministry, discipleship, music ministry, missions, youth ministry, evangelism and African American Fellowship.
Shane Pruitt, National Next Gen Evangelism director for the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, will speak at the youth ministry breakout session, and he will also be one of three ministers who will be featured Tuesday evening. Quigley said Pruitt is a popular speaker at youth summer camp sessions at Oklahoma Baptists' Falls Creek Camp and Conference Center near Davis.
Other preachers set to speak on Tuesday evening include the Rev. Anthony Jordan, retired Oklahoma Baptists executive director-treasurer; and Luter, senior pastor of New Orleans' Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, a multi-site megachurch. Luter served two one-year terms as Southern Baptist Convention president, after being elected to lead the nation's largest Protestant denomination first in 2012 and then in 2013.
2024 Advance Conference
When: Monday: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 4 p.m.
Where: St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 5700 N Kelley.
Cost: Free, no registration required. Deadline to register for childcare for infants through children 5 years old is March 1.
Information: https://www.oklahomabaptists.org/.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Southern Baptists' evangelism event to be held in OKC
