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Video highlights Southern Baptists in Columbus


COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) — “Were you able to join us at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention in Columbus, Ohio?” SBC President Ronnie Floyd asked on his blog July 20.

“If so, you will remember some of these moments,” Floyd wrote in introducing an “SBC 2015 Video Recap”.

“If not, these are some things you missed” during the June 16-17 gathering in Columbus, Floyd wrote.

To those who were in Columbus and those who weren’t, he added, “We can all look forward to gathering together again in St. Louis in 2016. Begin making plans now to be there!”

Floyd had noted in a July 13 column in Baptist Press that “our great and mighty God met with us powerfully” in Columbus and that “we continue to call daily and continually for the next Great Awakening in America” in moving toward next year’s June 14-15 annual meeting.

The SBC 2015 Video Recap, which can be shared through social media as well as church and small group settings, is just under 11 minutes in length, relaying highlights from the convention’s Tuesday-Wednesday sessions in the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Among them:

— “The National Call to Prayer for the next Great Awakening and to Reach the World for Christ” on Tuesday evening.

“Words cannot do the evening justice,” Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, had reflected in a June 22 Baptist Press column. “Those in attendance can speak for themselves and they are doing so, but as for me, the night was one I will never forget.”

Floyd was joined on stage by an array of Baptist leaders, from former SBC and state convention presidents to various ethnic leaders, in more than two hours of prayer for spiritual awakening and racial reconciliation that can undergird Southern Baptist missions to the world’s unreached billions.

— “Church and Mission Sending Celebration” on Wednesday morning.

“Many messengers had never been part of a service that communicated the vision of reaching the world by highlighting our missionaries and church planters,” Floyd noted, adding that “the uniqueness of both mission boards coming together for this experience demonstrated and communicated a unified vision.”

— “The Presidential Panel on The Supreme Court and Same-Sex Marriage: How to Prepare our Churches for the Future” on Wednesday afternoon.

The video highlights comments by Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Rosaria Butterfield, an author who has chronicled her journey from lesbianism to Christ. Also on the panel were R. Albert Mohler Jr. of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Matt Carter, lead pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas; and Ryan Blackwell, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in San Francisco.

— A tribute to Vietnam veterans led by retired Gen. Doug Carver, former Army chief of chaplains who now serves as the North American Mission Board’s chaplaincy leader.

“When we asked for our Vietnam veterans to come forward to help us in giving the Pledge of Allegiance, it was powerful,” Floyd wrote in his June 22 column. “Tears were flowing, emotions were high, and when all veterans and active duty service members joined them, it was an amazing moment.”

The SBC 2015 Video Recap also includes highlights from reports to the 5,400 registered messengers in Columbus by the SBC Executive Committee; presidents of the SBC’s six seminaries; the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board; WMU (Woman’s Missionary Union); LifeWay Christian Resources; GuideStone Financial Resources; and Global Hunger Relief.

A three-member communications team at Cross Church spent more than 30 hours “to provide our SBC family an experience in a short video that gives them the heart of our 2015 SBC,” Floyd noted in a July 20 email. “[W]hen I watched their final work, it moved me to an overwhelming gratitude for being a Southern Baptist.

“Prayerfully, [the video] will somehow go to thousands of people and venues across the country and world. When people see this, it will help us forward our vision of reaching the world for Christ,” Floyd wrote.

The direct online link to the SBC 2015 Video Recap is https://vimeo.com/133792917.

For Floyd’s Baptist Press column titled “Reflections on our 2015 Southern Baptist Convention,” click here.

For his BP column titled “See you in St. Louis – June 14-15SBC16,” click here.

Watch the 2015 SBC recap video:
[VIMEO=133792917]