What do you get when 6 Seventh Day Baptists from 5 different states gather in Nashville, Tennessee? Despite the lame pastor jokes that come to my mind, the answer is flourishing. Individual and corporate flourishing as who God has created and called us to be.
Who gathered in Nashville?
I am glad you asked. Gaby Alonzo, Jason Gordon, Andres Jara, Tsafiq Samuels, Theo Wilson, and Carl Greene represented Seventh Day Baptists at the first ever Flourish Conference. We gathered with representatives from other churches, denominations, and Conferences of the National Association of Evangelicals (nae.org).[1]
What is Flourish? [2]
Flourish is a gathering sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals which offers church and Conference leaders a thoughtful time of learning, resourcing, connecting, and mentoring. The first ever Flourish event in Nashville offered engaging speakers and dynamic table conversations where we tackled complex issues and had hard conversations.
Why did we attend?
Along with the NAE, we believe the gospel should transform every aspect of our world. Together, we are seeking to foster thriving communities and navigate social complexity with biblical clarity. We are seeking winsome ways to have a posture of convicted civility in culturally relevant discussions – from sanctity of life to sexual identity to racial justice. We are seeking ways to bring the fullness of the gospel message to younger generations, and to be fully aware of questions that are shaping their lived experience. Simply put, we attended to be better equipped for gospel work and to broaden our capacity to serve as leaders.
A broader SDB experience.
Our ministry focus for 2022 – 2023 as the SDB General Conference of Churches is on leadership development. You will be seeing and hearing about initiatives that we continue to engage in with the purpose of actively advancing God’s Kingdom through intentional investment in our emerging SDB leaders. For more information about leadership development initiatives, please follow up with this link: SDB Leadership Development.
Finally, thank you to the SDB Memorial Fund for your support of this endeavor. The support from the Memorial Fund as well as gracious opportunities provided by the NAE made this initiative possible for our group of SDBs, and we look forward to Flourishing together with our SDB Kingdom Family.
[1] The mission of the NAE is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelical Christians. The vision of the NAE is a thriving evangelical community that is equipped to navigate complexity with biblical clarity.
[2] Think of flourish here as a verb, “grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment.” Thank you Oxford English Dictionary.
