The Day After the Southern Baptist Convention

(This message was originally published on June 12, 2014) I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:3-5 ESV)

Reflecting upon this week's Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore, I want to say "Thank You" to the SBC of Virginia churches and pastors. I've known the SBCV as my extended ministry family since our founding when I was in college. I was blessed to serve in one of our founding churches as well as to be one of our early church planters. We are a blessed fellowship of churches in the SBCV. Having noted this, here are a few reflections and updates I ask you to share as words of encouragement with your team and church family.

(1) This past Saturday, one of the largest mobilization efforts of SBC of Virginia missionary staff and churches took place in the outreach effort to Baltimore that preceded the SBC, called Crossover. Much of the resources and ministry equipment of SBC of Virginia was mobilized to minister to our Northern neighbors. Block party trailers, disaster relief feeding units, etc., were used to help launch churches and to serve needy communities. The Baltimore area leadership expressed their thanks and said this past week's outreach would not have had the impact it did without the resources of SBC of Virginia churches - united in ministry. Please let your churches know that because of your prayers, partnership, and participation through our Cooperative Program and Vision Virginia this is possible.

(2) SBC of Virginia Fellowship at the SBC in Baltimore. We were blessed to gather together a full room of folks from SBCV churches after the Tuesday evening revival service. We are one of the few state Baptist conventions that is doing this type of fellowship. We have something special amongst our fellowship in the SBC of Virginia. We are blessed with clarity of mission and a unity of message that is sometimes rare these days.

(3) Prayer and Spiritual Awakening. This past year we have seen SBC of Virginia focus on prayer, evangelism, and seeking God's power. My hope is that we are seeking this in our national SBC fellowship as well. We are blessed with our SBC partners and many of them shared with me this week in Baltimore about how they rejoice over what God is doing in and through the SBC of Virginia churches and our unified efforts of missions and ministry.