Broadview | The call was “Come to Chicago!” and messengers from across Illinois answered. The Illinois Baptist State Association’s 2016 Annual Meeting held at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church focused on reaching across cultures with the gospel, both in the business sessions November 2-3, and in the Pastors’ Conference that preceded it. The meeting was attended by 529 people, 341 messengers and 188 visitors.
“God’s people need to be visibly present in the culture,” IBSA President Kevin Carrothers urged. “Now is not the time to retreat. Now is not the time to disengage….(We must) leave the comfort of our own culture, leave the comfort of our own places to share Jesus Christ.”
Carrothers, pastor of Rochester First Baptist, cited the vision call to Paul from the Macedonians in Acts 16:9 as he opened the meeting. “You can call it the Chicago call, Cairo call, the Quad Cities call, even put in the name of your own town. In Illinois more than 8 million people do not know Jesus Christ.”
The meeting focused on the cultural diversity of Illinois, and celebrated different languages and cultures that make up the body of Christ. Attenders at the Chicagoland gathering demonstrated the variety of peoples in the city, in our Baptist churches, and ultimately in God’s Kingdom.
“God will not be denied,” Jeff Iorg, president of Gateway Seminary of the SBC and guest speaker, told messengers. Iorg spoke of the challenges of cross cultural ministry from his experience on the West Coast. “He will have a church from every tribe, from every people….God will not be denied.” Iorg preached from the book of Acts, comparing the challenges met by first-century Christians with those believers face today.