Korean Baptist Church convention will be held in our church

I would like to let you know that our church will be hosting the General Convention of Korean Baptist Churches belonging to Southern Baptist Convention.

Southern Baptist Convention is the largest protestant denomination in the world. It was founded in 1845. According to 2011 survey, there are approximately 45,000 churches within the convention and there are about 6 million of Sunday worship attendants. Southern Baptist is passionate about mission work and IMB (International Missionary Board), its missionary org sent out about 10,000 missionaries to 160 countries. Domestic mission is lead by NAMB (North American Mission Board) to help with church planting. Southern Baptist Convention also operates 6 large Christian Seminaries including Golden Gate, Southern, and Southwestern. They also operate Lifeway publishing house, which is a well known source for Christian literature. Approximately 700 Korean Baptist churches have membership within this organization, and they also run an independent organization called “Korean Baptist General Convention.”

Southern Baptist Convention meets on annual basis where all the church leaders come together to decide on important church matters. Whenever this meeting happens, Korean convention also meet in the same location. Korean pastors will meet separately during the time except that they participate in the main meeting of General Convention. This year Southern Baptists will meet in Houston in June. As a result we will be hosting the Korean Baptist Convention. There will be about 700 pastors and families that will attend from every corner of the country from June 10th to 13th. There will be meetings and seminars being held throughout the day here, and they will have worship service during evenings. There will be programs for teenagers and children at the same time. As the pastor of the hosting church, I was asked to speak twice among the seminars offered and I plan on discussing House Church ministry and unique ministry spirit of our church.

Most of them will be lodged at the Sheraton Hotel and will be bused to our church morning and back to the hotel for this event. Even though we are providing the facility, Southern Texas Association will be officially hosting, so we can look at this event as being co-hosted by all the churches in Houston and surrounding areas. With this, our church will need to provide only one meal and other churches will take turns providing the meals, so I do not anticipate taking up a lot of our member’s time and service.

However, since the meeting is being held in our church, there are some things we will have to provide. We will need the services of our church’s audiovisual team, and there may be other areas that will require our help. As soon as we determine where they will need help, we will have a signup sheet and I ask for your willingness to help if possible. During this time, most of the church facilities will be used for this event so it may not be possible to have other meetings. Please keep this in mind as you plan on your activities.