Tri-County Baptist Association Evangelism Conference

The 2009 Tri-County Baptist Association Evangelism Conference is now in the history books. I've had a day to think about the positives and negatives of the event and thought that I would record them here (since Google will keep better track of my notes than I will).

First off I have to say thanks to all of my evangelist friends that came and participated. They did a great job and brought their best in the way of music and messages. Also, thanks to Pastor Josh Hall at Selmore Baptist Church for allowing us to use their facility and for hosting the conference. I am very grateful to all of the churches that hosted evangelists on Sunday and hope that they will spread the word so that we can have more participation in the future. To our Director of Missions (DOM) Jim Wells...THANK YOU! Your support in this endeavor was immeasurable.

So now for the +'s and -'s along with a few thoughts on how to improve for future conferences.

+ 23 salvation professions of faith! improvement: have "event" days at churches (friend day, high attendance day, pack a pew, etc).

+ great speakers! improvement: more speakers (need more participating churches)

+ great music! improvement: need more participation from local churches, can invite other music evangelists

+ good weather improvements are in God's hands!

- poor participation for host churches. improvement: start planning and promoting earlier, encourage churches to include the conference in their budget, share testimonies from churches that hosted evangelists this year.

- poor daytime attendance. improvements: change to a Fri-Sun format with all day Saturday sessions. (too many bi-vocational pastors to have full weekday morning sessions)

- poor nighttime attendance. improvements: try to get more music participation from local churches, try for more centralized location, change to Fri-Sun format.

- meal cost. improvements: Fri-Sun format eliminates a day of meals, we could have the churches provide daytime meals in carry-in fashion, Association could have meal catered at host location. Youth group (or other group) could provide lunch for evangelists and at a reasonable cost as a fundraiser to others.

Another + for the Fri-Sun format--it would allow churches to continue in a Sun-Wed revival with part of the expenses covered by the conference.

We could also include a Friday or Saturday night youth event at a different location for all the association youth groups.

I welcome comments and suggestions to improve the conference for next year. You can post them here or e-mail them to me.

John<><

These are the evangelists that participated. I hope that you will prayerfully consider using them in your churches.

Winston Barnett, Lifebuilders Ministries Inc. 417 873-9572 lifebuildersmin@sbcglobal.net

Clyde Chiles, Turning Point Evangelistic Association 573 474-2207 uncleclyde@mchsi.com

James Harriss 417 839-5265 james.harriss@yahoo.com

John A. Hill, The Message in Magic 417 496-8891 gospelmagic@gmail.com

Ron and Haven Howard 417 336-1367 rhoward789@centurytel.net, havenhoward@centurytel.com

Harold Mathena 405 627-7189 hmathena@mathena-inc.com

Jim McNiel, Evangelistic Association 314 832-8190 jmcniel7@aol.com

Ron Mills, Ron Mills Ministry Inc. 816 228-5139 ronmills@ruhb.com

Joseph Ransom, Joseph’s Closet 417 581-8439 josephscloset@earthink.net

Don Walton 816 690-8214 donfw18@aol.com

Bob White, White Evangelistic Ministries 417 546-4603 bmwhite@tri-lakes.net