For Arizona pastors: Evangelism conference calls

By Kay Harms

Tuesday, April 16, about 80 Arizona Southern Baptist pastors took advantage of the exclusive opportunity to engage in the first of a series of evangelism conference calls with Eddy Pearson, church life team facilitator, and a noteworthy guest. This first call featured Johnny Hunt, longtime senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., and currently the vice president of evangelism and leadership at the North American Mission Board (NAMB).

Pearson intentionally scheduled the quarterly 45-minute brown bag lunches at noon so bivocational Arizona pastors have the opportunity to participate. Pastors were prompted to dial a provided number and enter an access code 10 minutes before the scheduled call or to log onto the call through an online meeting link. Either way, participation in the live conference call is free of charge.

“We got the idea for these conference calls at the Engage 24 national evangelism conference in Phoenix,” Pearson said. “Besides providing pastors the opportunity for valuable insight from national leaders in evangelism, we hope these conversations will raise the evangelism temperature in our Arizona churches. That’s why these calls are specifically for our Arizona pastors. We want them to have the opportunity to ask the questions that may be unique to our state.”

J. D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, N.C., will engage with Arizona pastors in the second conference call on Monday, Aug. 5. He’ll be sharing his “Who’s Your One?” evangelism strategy and fielding questions from participants.

All Arizona Southern Baptist pastors should receive an email invitation to join the quarterly conference calls. Pastors who don’t receive their invitation for any reason or who have questions may contact Pearson at eddy@azsbc.org.