The Kentucky Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, coming up Nov. 15, is only two months away. I hope you are making plans to attend.
The annual “KBC family reunion” is a time of celebration, when the people known as Kentucky Baptists will offer praise and thanksgiving for the ways God has chosen to use us this year. And we have plenty to celebrate!
This year we will celebrate new records for KBC churches in missions giving through the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions and the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions. We will celebrate two consecutive years of growth in Cooperative Program giving and two consecutive years of growth in baptisms and overall church membership. And, for the first time in a decade, we will be able to celebrate the fact that our churches’ sacrificial giving exceeded the Cooperative Program budget. We will celebrate the true and undefiled religion of Kentucky Baptists, being lived out as we care for a record number of hurting children through Sunrise Children’s Services, now surpassing 1,000 kids. We will celebrate Kentucky Baptists’ commitment to discipling the next generation, as evidenced through our ongoing investment in Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, where enrollment is growing; a record number of students enrolled at the University of the Cumberlands; and rapidly growing enrollment at Oneida Baptist Institute.
And that is just the beginning of all we have to celebrate!
The Apostle Peter called God’s people a “chosen” people. Peter wrote:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10).
In these days, when some will speak against us because of our commitment to the truths of Scripture, my prayer for Kentucky Baptists as we gather for our annual meeting is that our time together will not only be a time of celebration, I also pray that we will renew our commitment to live and serve in such a way that we will display God’s glory and Christ’s love so others might be drawn to Him as the Spirit uses our good deeds and verbal witness of the gospel. I pray that what should happen will happen, that through us the light of Christ will shine brighter as the world becomes darker.
Mark your calendar for the KBC Annual Meeting celebration on Nov. 15 at Florence Baptist Church. I hope to see you there!
