On Monday evening Colonial Oaks Baptist Church in Sarasota hosted the Southwest Region Evangelism Conference.
“It was an excellent meeting,” said Wayne Briant, southwest regional catalyst of the Florida Baptist Convention.
During the evening’s first session there were 170 pastors, staff and church leaders in attendance and that number increased to 200 for the second part of the evening.
Tommy Green, executive director-treasurer of the FBC, and Michael Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church of Chipley, were the keynote speakers for the conference.
“Dr. Green’s and Dr. Orr’s messages were right on target, inspiring and challenging,” said Gary Roy, pastor of Colonial Oaks.
At the end of the evening the majority of those in attendance made renewed commitments to take the Gospel into their communities, said Briant.
“It’s my hope that they walked away with a deeper zeal for evangelism,” he added.
Orr hopes that pastors, staff and lay leaders “go back to their churches and implement what they learned in that conference.”
“God has a great work that He is going to do in Florida,” he finished.
Roy said that the church was honored to host the conference and work in partnership with the Florida Baptist Convention and the Southwest Florida Baptist Association.
“It was a two-way blessing.”
He also expects to see the result of the conference in the days to come.
Briant agreed and added that the southwest is beginning to see a “renewed zeal in sharing the Gospel.”
By Keila Diaz, Florida Baptist Convention, April 20, 2018