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One-day annual meeting to focus on missions
Lots of reports and "talking heads" will be a thing of the past when Arizona Southern Baptists gather for their annual meeting this fall.
Instead, the one-day meeting will include a one-hour afternoon business session and an evening worship rally, with time for a mission fair interspersed.
The Convention Council of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention voted unanimously May 6 to change the meeting time, place, format and schedule. This year’s annual meeting will be held Friday, Nov. 14, at First Southern, Avondale, rather than Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov. 11-12, at North Phoenix Baptist Church, as previously scheduled. North Phoenix was unable to accommodate the date change.
The event will begin with a mission fair at 1:30 p.m. in First Southern's gym. A business session will be held from 4-5 p.m. in the auditorium, followed by a re-opening of the mission fair and a stand-up buffet dinner provided by the Arizona Disaster Relief Team. A mission rally, with Dan Yeary, pastor of North Phoenix, as the keynote preacher, will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. That will be followed by a dessert buffet and a continuation of the mission fair until 10 p.m.
The format change was sparked in part by a LifeWay Research study showing that the percentage of Southern Baptist Convention messengers under age 40 is "declining precipitously." The feeling was that the same is true in Arizona.
The new schedule -- compressing the business into one hour and focusing on missions -- is "an attempt to appeal to a new generation of Arizona Southern Baptists," said State Missionary Steve Bass.
Under the ASBC constitution, the actual business required at an annual meeting is limited, Bass said. The one-hour business session will include the election of officers; adoption of the annual budget; consideration of any previously scheduled business; referral of any new items of business to the appropriate committee or to the Convention Council, as is presently the practice; receiving the Book of Reports; and presentation of the state missionary report.
"Opportunities for the Harvest" will be the theme of the meeting.
The mission fair will include booths featuring the mission fields in Arizona and around the world and will help Arizona Southern Baptists understand how they can be involved. During the mission fair, breakout sessions, such as "How to Become Foster Parents," "How to Get Involved in Disaster Relief" or "How to Lead My Church on an International Mission Trip," will provide more details.
One goal of the new schedule is to make it easier for bivocational ministers and their spouses to attend. "Those of our ministers who work at other employment, not to mention their spouses, stand a better chance of attending if they can take off one Friday rather than two days at the beginning of the work week," Bass said.
In addition, the event aims to be family-friendly. "By all means, bring your children," Bass wrote in his blog at blog.azsobaptist.org. "There will be things for them to do."
The Arizona Woman's Missionary Union is planning come-and-go activities of interest to children during the mission fair.
Care will be provided for preschoolers during the business session and mission rally, and special activities are also being planned for children through 6th grade during this time.
During the business session and mission rally, simultaneous translation will be available for Spanish speakers.