The 2016 State Evangelism Conference (SEC), hosted by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO), takes place Mon.-Tues., Jan. 25-26, 2016, at Del City, First Southern. Main session speakers include author Lee Strobel and apologetics expert Sean McDowell.
In addition to the main session, breakout sessions will be offered Tuesday morning. BGCO Personal Evangelism Specialist Mike Napier said, “We have recruited some of the foremost experts on strategic areas of focus for evangelism to equip our pastors and churches to reach the entire state with the Gospel.”
The following breakoaut session speakers and topics will be offered:
/// Kolby King—“Children and evangelism: Reaching kids for Christ.”
Discover effective ways to reach children. How to find them? How to connect with them? How to share on their level? How to follow-up and keep connecting afterwards?
/// Alvin Reid—“Sharing Jesus without ‘freaking out.’”
Witnessing can be described as a conversation between two people, both of whom are nervous! What if we learned to have normal, everyday conversations with normal, everyday people, and in those conversations simply showed how Jesus mattered in normal people’s lives? This breakout will help participants move from sharing gospel presentations to having gospel conversations.
/// Anthony Jordan and Alan Quigley—“Why should you do revivals and how to do them.”
Learn how the time-honored method of evangelism—revival events—can be effective today.
/// Bob Mayfield—“ReConnect Sunday School, a strategy for personal evangelism.”
You don’t need to create from scratch a new program or entity in the church to reach people with the Gospel. Find out how you, by activating the organization almost every church has—Sunday School or small groups—can see amazing growth in evangelism.
/// OCOSBE—“Preaching & worship.”
Led by your Oklahoma Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (OCOSBE), this breakout session will feature good preaching and worship.
/// James Walker—“Using the Book of Mormon to share the Gospel with a Mormon.”
James Walker, a former fourth-generation Mormon, encourages, trains and equips Christians to witness effectively to their Mormon friends and neighbors by “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). Walker gives practical advice on how to build relationships and start gospel conversations. He presents powerful truths that his Christian friends shared with him during his journey from Mormonism to Christianity, including some of the false prophecies and contradictions in the Book of Mormon. This workshop includes a free witnessing manual. This workshop is a must for anyone who knows a Mormon or just wants to be ready next time the Mormon missionaries knock at their door.
/// Kevin and Jessica Cartwright—“Deaf reaching the deaf with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
This is a two-part breakout session examining both the content of the gospel message and a culturally designed method of sharing that message with deaf people. The breakout will be taught in American Sign Language (ASL).
/// Greg Frizzell—“Prayer that brings spiritual breakthrough: Transforming churches, loved ones and neighbors.”
In this breakout session, participants will discover principles for evangelistic warfare praying. In a day when baptisms are low and many believers have lost or backslidden loved ones, average praying is clearly not enough. In this session, believers will learn to (go to war) for spiritual breakthrough in their churches, loved ones and neighbors.
/// Sean McDowell—“Atheist encounter.”
How well can you defend your faith? What would you say if an atheist challenged your deepest convictions about God and the Bible? In this session McDowell will role play an atheist, raise tough questions against the faith, and see how well the audience can defend their faith. Then he will step out of character and help students directly learn from the experience. This is a hands-on experience where you will walk away motivated and equipped to more lovingly and intelligently make a case for Christianity.
There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Register online at www.bgco.org/sec, and for a full schedule for the SEC.
